This thread is specifically targeted toward folks who own black cars and realize how much of a challenge they are to keep looking good.

There will be plenty of tips, etc. in here to help with that task.

I had always wanted a black car... I'd heard they were a real b**** to keep clean, but I always figured it was exaggeration and it was never as bad a people said. Well, I've been proven wrong! Within a few hours of washing and waxing I can see the dust settling on the car once again!...but daaaaamn, nothing looks as sexy as a black car!

I always carry a high quality chamois in the trunk and a bunch of microfiber cloths. The first thing I learned was to make sure I rinse the car really well after washing it, and to NEVER let it air dry!

ahhh Yes! "BLACK CAR THREAD" The answer to my dream. The black car is the best looking car in my opinion and it is a Beotch to clean. I just recently compounded/polished/waxed my entire car with the 3m treatment and the car has never looked better. I’m in love all over again. I came very close to paying a local shop $300 for the exact same job. It took me 6 hours over two weekends, but it was well worth it. I used a 6inch Ryobi buffer/polisher that made the job easier. I'll post some quality pics later.

As long as I own a black car I'll live a die by the following products:

3M Professional Grade Products1200 Grit Extra Cut Compound (part num-06060)Swirl Mark Remover/Polish (part num -06064)Perfect-It 300 UltraFina SE Final Step (part num -06068)

I have a few questions:California Duster – Yes or No on a black car?Black Colored Turtle Wax – Yes or No ?


Modified by CakeDaddy at 11:39 AM 8/4/2008

CakeDaddy wrote:ahhh Yes! "BLACK CAR THREAD" The answer to my dream. The black car is the best looking car in my opinion and it is a Beotch to clean. I just recently compounded/polished/waxed my entire car with the 3m treatment and the car has never looked better. I’m in love all over again. I came very close to paying a local shop $300 for the exact same job. It took me 6 hours over two weekends, but it was well worth it. I used a 6inch Ryobi buffer/polisher that made the job easier. I'll post some quality pics later.

As long as I own a black car I'll live a die by the following products:

3M Professional Grade Products1200 Grit Extra Cut Compound (part num-06060)Swirl Mark Remover/Polish (part num -06064)Perfect-It 300 UltraFina SE Final Step (part num -06068)

I have a few questions:California Duster – Yes or No on a black car?Black Colored Turtle Wax – Yes or No ?Modified by CakeDaddy at 11:39 AM 8/4/2008

I had no problems using the Ca duster on my black car. Just use it very lightly on dust only, not on dirt or grime.Black Turtle wax=I tried this once & thought it was dog poo. Try Meguiars NXT wax. It will make your paint look like a pool of oil. Very wet looking.

Yes I use the Meguiars NXT. Works well.

I've always had great results with a high quality chamois to wash and NO soap. Hand dry it with the same chamois while still damp and squeezing out the excess water and when dry use Meguiars NXT to finish.....and yes to the california duster, but with care.

California Duster FTMFW!!!!!! I just picked one up and it makes all the difference in the world!It really helps in a dry climate area where everything gathers dust in a matter of minutes...like Calgary...

I'm using Meguiars Hi-Tech Yellow wax right now and lovin' it...

ESP wrote:I'm using Meguiars Hi-Tech Yellow wax right now and lovin' it...

I just used Meguiars Hi-Tech yellow #26 on my trunk/engine hood, front/ rear bumper and stuff is gooood! smells like banana creme

I've got a Black Q45 and in this dusty little town it is quite an itch to keep it good lookin.

I usually spray it off once a week and keep a California duster handy for the dash etc.

One thing I've heard of is grounding out your car using a spring attached to the frame and it is supposed to ground out the static on your car and thus keep the dust off. . . I haven't tried it but it makes sense doesn't it?

That makes perfect sense! They're called static reducers. Here's a link to one I found on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors...Parts

Really... a JP style static... whatever for $40. I could probably construct the same thing for $5 with materials in my garage, but nice find.

Definitely. But what material would be best for grounding? copper...? I don't think the sheet metal from home depot would get the job done either.

I can see it now. Sparks flying everywhere. hehe

It's a good idea and I hadn't thought of it...but I always see those things on all the cars coming out of the old folks' homes! I wonder if it would still work if you mounted it further underneath the body........

So I have a problem. I just recently got my car washed from having is sitting under a tree in front my place and realized afterward the tree dropped a bunch of berry buds on my car and I am guessing it eat through the clear coat and put small translucent blue spots on my car. Anyone have an guesses to remedy this?

I take it you have a black car, correct? I can almost promise you that a good polish job will pull that out. I t may appear to be under the clear coat, but it probably isnt. Make sure you have a good variable speed buffer on hand for the job. Look into the Menzerna SIP polish or the 3M Perfect-It 3000 Swirl Mark Remover Polish (pt num 06064). These items cant be found in your local peep boys or autozone.

good source for the products I listed:http://www.autogeek.net/

click on the drop down arrow for the shop by brand.

skyline666-123 wrote:I've always had great results with a high quality chamois to wash and NO soap.

Washing with a chamois will keep the dirt/rock particals against your paint causing swirl marks. A sheeps wool mit or microfiber version pulls the dirt away from the paint so it won't continue to rub on it.

No soap? Do you do your laundry with no soap either? How else do you get oil based crap off your car? I guess you just smear it around till you can't see it.

Quote »Hand dry it with the same chamois while still damp[/quote]What? You dry it with the same dirty chamios you washed it with? Would you dry yourself off with the same wash rag you use in the shower?

Quote » when dry use Meguiars NXT to finish.....and yes to the california duster, but with care. [/quote]Lol, you use the Cali duster with care, yet fail at everything else you do with the car?

If you really want to wash a car right, here's what you need.-2 buckets with grit guards. One is for soapy water, the other is to rinse after you made a couple wipes on a car-After wiping about half a body panel, sometimes less, rinse the mit out in the rinse bucket, squeez out all the rinse water and dunk it back in the soapy water.-Repeat until the car is cleaned. Sometimes you need 2 mits, one for the top 3/4 of the car and another for the bottom 1/4 of the car with the most dirt/oil/rubber is. You don't want to wash the bottom part and run the mit up the door dragging dirt with it. It could cause micro-marring/cob-webbing.

To dry your car...-Dry with an electric leaf blower...that is only used for drying your car, that way you don't blow dirt all over it.-If you don't have an electric leaf blower, use a chamios or microfiber towel and lay it flat on the car.-Don't rub the towel against the car-Rub hands over the towel to add pressure to it so it soaks up the water.-Lift towel and place over another area.By not rubbing the towel against the car, you reduce the amount of micro-marring/swirls/cob webs you could put in the paint.

From there, you can wax and do the windows.

I also forgot to mention the wheels, but not many people like to jack up a car and pull their wheels off so they can detail the entire wheel, wheel well, suspension, and brakes.

My favorite product to use on black cars.....Zaino....http://www.zainostore.com/

P21S Carnauba Wax no better wax on a black car will beat the pants off of anyother wax on a black car.

You guys also have your hands full because the all Nissan makes have hard clear coats, not Vette or Mercedes hard, but not soft making polishing out swirls much harder. Like some of the posters mentioned previously, the Menzerna line-up of polishes work well, they were invented specifically for German hard clear coats for Mercedes. The 3M line is very good too, especially Ultrafina for jeweling the paintwork. Meguiars new M105/M205 combo is something to look in to also, it' my go to polishes and they are very good. Some rules to follow:*Always use two bucket method with grit guards*Try to get a Gilmour Foam gun to get the loose contaminants off before you even touch the paintwork with any wash media.*Get dedicated MF towels. Make sure you use Plush waffle weaves, not a chamois, they tend to trap dirt and you'll be sanding your car with the chamois.*Use a high quality shampoo. If you want to only use OTC products, go with Duragloss or Meguiars.*Remember that wax makes up about 2-5% of the cars overall appearance. It's all about the prep before you get to the LSP stage that gives your car its look. After you wash correctly, you need to see if you want to clay bar the car(you don't want to seal in all the contaminants even more by waxing a contaminated car.) Don't assume after claybarring you can go straight to wax, the product manufacturers would love for you to think a wax can correct paint, but it is merely a protective layer between the paint and the elements. *After wash and claying look at the paintwork under halogen lights and you'll probably be stunned at how many swirls are in your black car. I use a 3M sun gun, but I don't think many enthusiast on here will pay $400 for some light. There is a Brinkman you can buy for around $30 at Pep Boys and it will suffice.Don't forget polish and wax are two different things for different purposes*For novices or weekend detailers, I would recommend polishing with a Flex 3401 or a Porter Cable 7424(cheaper but effecient) with an assortment of Lake Country pads. With the right pressure(20lbs) you would be suprised at the level of paint correction you can achieve.*Look up Tasko Auto Color . They have many locations and if there's one in your area your in luck, just about everything 3M and Meguiars makes, they sell.*Yes, dry off with a leaf blower, once you do get your car slick and detailed, you'll notice that you can almost dry the whole car with it, and you definitely need it for getting water out of cracks, mirrors, and emblems.*When you do the final rinse of the car, take off the sprayer and just let the water run over the car, from top to bottom of course. This will sheet off the water and your towels won't fill up with water so quick.*Between washes never touch the car with a dry towel. At the very least use a QD or you may want to look into ONR(Just Google it, you'll see what it's all about).*P21S is a great carnauba wax, but if you ask 100 of the best detailers in the U.S, you'll get 100 different answers. They're are many to look into. Actually, P21S is the same as S100, which is sold in Harley Stores. Collinite is great. Pinnacle Souveran, Meguiars #26, #21, #20, Dodo Juice, Swissvax, Zymo(Estate Glazes, not the stuff at Target)l, Poorboys, Wolfgang Fuzion, Zaino, Duragloss(Car Quest), Clearkote, etc , etc.

Remember, you can put a wax on a sealant, but not vice versa.

I know I've missed plenty, but this is all I have off the top of my head. I at the very least use this wash method on every car I recondition. If you want to know all the fact, myths, where to buy, what to buy, visit sites like http://www.autopia.net or http://www.autogeek.net These sites have how to videos, arcticles and anything you could possibly dream of for detailing a car. I know I have more to offer here but my brain's starting to hurt from thinking off the fly like this, hope this all helps a bit. Feel free to ask anymore questions.

I have had plenty of black cars in the pastand I try to keep them looking new by regular waxing,But over the years the Paint would show the effects of rubbing and when I removed the wax, what I saw was almost a oxide black.The showroom shine did not exist beneath the wax it was gone.In addition I saw swirl marks and imperfections throught the paint.The same thing happened to my other cars that were not black but it was not as noticable as quickly.Last year I bought my latest black car.I decided to go the preservation route this time and avoid polish and wax.I began to use VaporWax Acrylic Paint Conditioner on it and I have never looked back.http://www.ibc34.com/VaporWax.html

I am wondering what kind of product I need to do polishing and sealant by hand manually? I dont have buffering machine. I also wondering what kind of clay bar is recommend because I use Meguiar gray clay is not aggressive. My car is black Altima thanks.

An acrylic paint conditioner is about as good as it gets for automotive acrylic paint, especially black paint. We all know black is the hardest of all colors to maintain.

This Nissan Altima has their new "Scratch Shield" paint in black.

The dealer does not recommend buffing this paint. In fact they do not recommend the use of any wax on this paint. They say normal washing will suffice.To a certain extent that may bear some truth but paint needs to have something on it to protect it and preserve the color and shine.Without some sort of protection against the elements, Birds, tree sap, rain, snow, salt, and sunlight, your paint will loose its shine and begin to dull.



You won't see a buff mark, streak, swirl mark or debris of any kind on your paint with a APC.The best part is that it applies in seconds and it NEVER DULLS.

post some pics with the sun directly hitting the car

All images are taken in bright Sunlight, A highly reflective Image tends to wash out somewhat if you try to directly photograph the suns reflection. The reflection of conditioned new paint is mirror like and will just bounce light back into your eyes and the camera.This picture on the web site is an example of direct sunlight on Diamond Graphite conditioned with VaporWax.

UpStar wrote:post some pics with the sun directly hitting the car

If you are unable to examine an undistorted view of the paint you cannot tell just what condition the paint is actually in. Swirl marks and other defects disappear in overly bright images.There are also some extreme close ups, where the surface of the paint can be closely examined.

http://ibc34.com/images/before...x.jpg