john981

Those of you who own a black car know what I am talking about: It is very difficult to keep these cars clean and scratch free in the same time. I have a black car and it is nearly impossible to wash the car without adding new swirl marks to it. How do you wash your black cars and how do you avoid the swirl marks/ scratches? I just got my car back from detailer, in shadow it looked great but as I brought it back home under the garage light you could see again all the swirl marks. I paid this guy 200 bucks and he was supposed to get those scratches out but he did a pretty ****ty job. Any ideas how to remove the scratches and keeping the car clean and scratch free would be appreciated.

gatorfast

The best way would be to pay a professional detail to do a full paint correction and then apply a ceramic coating on top. This could be pricey though depending on the condition of your paint.

MidEngineRules

#1 never take the car to an automated car wash that uses brushes (or any for that matter). I've had black cars in which I've owned from new and managed to keep swirl and scratch free. An orbital polisher is essential. Don't skimp on the items you use that come in direct contact with the surface. Change them when starting to age. Polish and protect the paint a couple times a year.

Spyerx

ceramic coat won't do anything for it to protect from swirls and scratches
buy car. don't have dealer prep it. bring car to your paint correction guy. FULL wrap. Coat or wax wrap.

Better yet, don't buy black cars :-)

.2PDK

Reiver

Good luck...I like black on cars but gave up on that years ago....it is impossible to keep scratches/swirls from not being seen....

Steve48

Best bet is paint correction followed by full PPF treatment.

InTgr8r

I do feel for you .
I had a black car many years ago and it was a love/hate relationship.
It was my first & last black car.

JMO re the detail job ; he may not have been completely forthcoming about what he was doing but he probably did the job that he was paid to do.
200 is a quick clean and buff , a proper paint correction detailing will cost MUCH more than 200.

Redlinerobert

Black cars are beautiful when clean, but I'll never buy a black car again. They are simply an agony to keep clean and impossible to keep scratch free.

thecajunboy

• learn to touch it as little as possible.
• threaten anyone that gets near it with their life for touching it.
• keep it garaged and never stretch a cover over it.
• learn how to wash and detail like the OCD guys in YouTube videos, and use more shampoo than you need, then add more.
• use the softest water you can, even if you have to pay for it, for rinsing, then blow dry
• paint correct and PPF as much of the car as you can afford.

michael818

Ceramic coating is nice to keep the shine but it will not protect the car from scratches and swirls. A full wrap will protect the car but will be very expensive, even more so with proper paint correction being done first. You have to decide whether it is worth putting several thousand dollars into having it done properly. If you’re keeping the car forever, maybe there’s some value to doing that but, otherwise, there’s no real gain in doing so.

I know this isn’t what you want to hear and many will disagree but just don’t worry about it. Use the car, have fun with it and consider it part of the cost of ownership. You can obsess over the condition but ultimately, unless you’re doing a concours, it really doesn’t matter.

hacker-pschorr

I haven't been without a black vehicle for 24 years, currently have 3.

#1 thing to pay attention to is the quality of your towels, or as I prefer microfiber's, and they must be seamless (or edgeless) without a label. Those small details are crucial, those sewn in seems are actually abrasive, so are the labels.

No brand preference to recommend, simply google seamless detailing towel.

I also have a California car duster, some claim they've experienced scratches from them, I've never had an issue.

My spray detailer of choice is Mequiars Last Touch, ordered by the gallon mixed 50/50 with distilled water. I go through a lot of it, heavily saturate the paint when using it, it's the lube after-all....and many towels. Dirt / debris buildup on the towel is another source of scratches.

Washing, two buckets (soap in one, rinse in the other) with a grid guard in the bottom of the rinse bucket. Microfiber wash mitt

I also have a soap foamer on my pressure washer, start with that to heavily saturate the car in bubbles.

As for soap, have yet to pick a favorite.

I also clay bar the black cars way more often then the non black cars.

phefner

https://www.chemicalguys.com/home

Your going to need to learn how to properly wash your car. Chemical Guys have a number of great videos on Youtube, plus of course they have a lot of products.

AKSteve

BudgetPlan1

Ah, black paint. Deep, rich, velvety, inky, glossy black paint. Living with black paint when you have an OCD-ish need to keep it clean can be quite the challenge:

Since 2004 I’ve had 8 or 9 black cars; it’s an addiction that’s hard to kick ‘cuz for my money, nothing looks so good as a well-kept black car. Unfortunately, like they say, “Black isn’t a color, it’s a career” and while a black car generally looks good for the first 5-10 minutes after you wash it, it’s all downhill from there.

That said, I’ve found a few things to make the task a bit less onerous and it depends largely on how much you’re willing to invest (time and $$) to keep the car at whatever your level of ‘acceptable appearance’ may be.

Quartz/Glass/Ceramic Coatings
While these are often marketed as ‘scratch resistant’, with spiffy phrases like “Diamond-Infused 10h Hardness” it’s largely an irrelevant if not outright false claim. While the coating you put on your paint may indeed be technically ‘harder’ than your clear coat the reality is that it’s such an infinitesimal difference as to be practically meaningless. The hardest coating in all the kingdom will still be measurably softer than your fingernail.

Some more info from professionals regarding coatings and scratch resistance:
- Are ceramic coatings scratch-proof?:
What coatings do offer is great resistance to environmental contamination and excellent self-cleaning characteristics. While they are no silver bullet, “Never gonna wash my car again” solution, the best of them can indeed keep your car cleaner with less effort. And less effort means less touching of the paint which means less chance for marking up that paint. Additionally, they can provide some protection from ‘environmental incidents’ (aka ‘Bird Bombs’) which could otherwise permanently etch the surface.

Additionally, while coatings are not scratch proof, there are a few coatings that offer some ‘limited self-healing’ characteristics. Kamikaze Zipang is one that I have on 2 of our cars. Again, it’s very important to read carefully and understand the limitations of such technology. I’ve tried 20-25 coatings over the past 3 years, looking for one that offered the best protection and self-cleaning characteristics I could find, mostly with black paint in mind. Kamikaze was the best suited to my needs/desires in that area. From the US Vendors Website:

Note the words “REDUCE” as opposed to “ELIMINATE” as it’s an important distinction to consider when setting expectations. Although totally amateurish and done with a cell phone camera, a flashlight held in my mouth and a heat gun, a few paragraphs down in the notes I kept about my Zipang experience are some pics that illustrate this on a very minor level: https://budgetplan1.wordpress.com/gl...atings/#ZIPANG

Here’s a video where a professional explains it better than I ever could:
What does self-healing mean?:
A few other vids from a pro explaining various other considerations of coatings:
1. 5 Common MYTHS About Ceramic Coating!: 2. Will I Be Disappointed with a Ceramic Coating?:

Paint Protection Film/PPF
In my mind, the next step up the ladder is Paint Protection Film, aka Clear Bra and a few other names that elude me right now.

PPF *will* provide a level of protection from road debris, chips and other defects and most current films have self-healing capabilities that can help minimize defects…again with limitations. My guess is due to the film thickness (8mil, I believe) vs coating layer thickness (probably measured in microns?) deeper defects can be reduced/healed better with PPF as opposed to coatings. We recently bough a new, black Corvette for my wife which we had STEK Dynoshield applied to all painted surfaces. I’m only 6 months in with it so no long term opinions but I’ve kept some notes on the first 6 months here: https://budgetplan1.wordpress.com/li...ek-dynoshield/

The film also has some hydrophobic, coating-like properties built into it so self-cleaning effects will be present. Most films can be topped with a coating as well, perhaps further enhancing the coating-like benefits. Not cheap to have a whole car wrapped but if you’re gonna go big, may as well go REALLY big.

What folks smarter than I have to say about PPF:
- Should I get PPF or Ceramic Coatings on my car?:
So, now that the car is protected in some fashion it’s up to you to keep it looking it’s best. I’ve found that, for black paint, the best way to do that is to touch it as little as possible. While coatings/PPF and other protective strategies can make the car immeasurably easier to clean and require less cleaning, you’re still gonna have to wash it when it drops below your level of acceptable cleanliness…whatever that may mean to you individually.

For me, I do that as follows:
1. Foam car using pressure washer/foam cannon
2. 2 or 3-bucket wash with the softest sponge I know of
3. Blow dry with a dedicated air-dryer

How to Wash Your Car - 3 Bucket Wash Method:
For a foam cannon, I use the MTM PF22 and a 1.76 gpm pressure washer (2030psi). GPM is more important than all-out psi when getting good foam and if you’re running a lower GPM pressure washer, changing the orifice in the foam cannon will help. My 1.76gpm works best with the 1.1mm orifice, as do most pressure washers with similar specs.

For a soft sponge, I use the Esoteric Sponge: https://www.esotericcarcare.com/esot...r-wash-sponge/

To dry, I use a BigBoi BlowR PRO unit, makes drying the car incredibly easy, safe and effective. I’ve tried a few other methods to blow air and dry but after all is said and done, the BigBoi is, dollar for dollar, the best detailing ‘thing’ I’ve spent money on…and I’ve spent a lot of money on detailing ‘things’. Why I chose the BigBoi over other methods/brands can be found here in my notes: https://budgetplan1.wordpress.com/other-stuff/

Your best means of knowledge and info is your PROFESSIONAL Detailer. Social media, forums, YouTube and all is great…can get a lot of ‘possibly pertinent’ info there but a trusted, knowledgeable professional has seen and done far more than any hobbyist (like myself) ever will so it’s best to take advantage of what they can offer, especially with something like Black Paint.

I’m fortunate in that Esoteric is relatively local to me and they pick up the phone when I call, often keeping me from doing dumb things that seem like a good idea to me at the time. (they are a forum sponsor here, Esoteric_Detail ). While I may sometimes think I know things, at the end of the day all I really know is that there is way more I DON’T know with regards to this stuff than that which I DO know…and sometimes that’s half the fun. The other half is looking at your black car and being pleased with how it looks; while black will never be as easy to keep clean as other colors there are things you can do to make it tolerable.

My best solution to the riddle of black has been to buy an Agate Gray Metallic Cayman, coat it to the gills and then just enjoy it. Drove that thing through 200 miles of thunderstorms one weekend and it was still clean enough that I didn’t feel the need to wash it for a week or so after…it still looked great. Detail and coating application notes here: https://budgetplan1.wordpress.com/so...#CAYMAN_DETAIL

While black can be frustrating it’s also very rewarding and I’ve looked for the best ways to learn to live with it and enjoy it. Sometimes I ask myself whether I own the car or if it owns me and yet I still have a hard time staying away from black.

Good luck!