Black Paint Maintenance
 

My 2013 PTT is black on black, the dealer reshot the front clip and I had it clay bar'd and ceramic coated. Then went over the body with a Porsche OEM touch up paint and a fine detail pen... Looks fantastic now.

The issue as everyone who has ever had a black car knows, is that it only takes a few hours for dust to start showing on the finish.

I have a detail guy come once a week, but for in between, I'm leaning towards a 'waterless' detail spray, like Chemical Guys.

I don't see any recent threads on this sort of product, anyone have thoughts? good, bad, run away?

thanks in advance.

Not a fan of waterless sprays. I’m no expert, but You have to lift dirt or dust off before any rubbing, otherwise it scratches.

The only thing that worked for me in the past 10 black cars is PPF ass just doesn’t stick to it as much and you can just literally rinse it off with a powerful spray wax.

You should browse some of the auto detailing forums... plenty of good information there. If it is just light dust and dirt, a quick spray detailer works. I have two dark color cars and it has held up well. Use an appropriate amount sprayed on a microfiber and turn the towel frequently. Buff and dry completely to avoid streaks, especially if you are working in the sun.

If you have a good ceramic coating, get their brand specific detailing spray. If they don't have one Chemical Guys have some for ceramic, although I like to use their V7.

Waterspots shouldn't stick to a good ceramic. They should wipe off with a touch of detail spray for lubricant. I dust with a clean microfiber, then detail wipe with spray using a separate clean microfiber about every other day. Keeping black clean means keeping it clean...…..no way around it.

Wash your microfibers after one use, and do not dry them as it created static electricity that will transfer to the car and collect dust. Get some Meguiar’s Mirror Glaze to touch up scratch you find eventually while youre wiping it down. If you use an ultra light cut, and next to no pressure you can get swirls out of ceramic without removing it, just be gentle. You should also get your own bottle of whatever brand of ceramic you used, so you can touch it up if you have to do more aggressive paint correction ion a panel - you can just do that panel over.

I drive my car year around through snowy winters. I find washing the car cathartic. If you don't, you shouldn't own a black car!

Xymol Carbon. A pain to apply but the results are extraordinary...

Personally i wouldn't touch it unless you are washing it. All these dusting and quick detail solutions will add scratches.

If you want it to stay cleaner longer, I have 2 suggestions which I use on my Black Panamera:
1) Ceramic Coating
2) Seal your garage floor and keep your garage dust free. I have a Granite Garage Floor which is epoxy sealed and an air purifier to eliminate dust in the garage.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...453ca7ad4f.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/rennlis...746a4f3e3e.jpg
My Sherwood Williams epoxy floor. 3 car garage done for 900 bucks 2 yrs ago in Phoenix. Process: Cleaned/swept, hosed out, etched, 2 coats of blue epoxy, clear coat. 7 days to drive on.

Turtle wax black ceramic hybrid

I just put a Graphene coating on my Panamera and the car almost seems to repel dust and dirt. It's quite amazing. The application is very simple and you can easily do it yourself or have your "detailer" do it for you. The prep work is tedious, but not difficult. Of course, for best results you should have near perfect paint to start with but it sounds like that's what you have.
My wife sewed a couple of old cotton bed sheets together to make a non-fitted car cover wide enough to drape down to just below the door handles and long enough to drape just past the hood in front and just below the rear hatch in the back. In other words, it covers the top but never touches the sides down low where 85% of the road grime accumulates. It keeps dust off the majority of the car when it's sitting in the garage between washes and doesn't risk scratching the paint nearly as much as a conventional fitted cover.
I flip up both sides and then fold from the front and back to make a folded package sitting on the roof. Then I stow it either in the car or on a shelf. Putting it on is the reverse.......... cheap, easy, and effective if garage dust or blown pollen is a problem. It's easy to wash too.

Think about it, if you drive your car at all, you're gonna' get road grime on it, but most of that is down low on the car. You certainly don't want to grind that in with a fitted cover. Letting dust settle on the top surfaces and then trying to wipe it off without actually washing your car is a recipe for scratches. Better to keep the dust off if possible, and that's where a simple cover works well. If you want a clean car, you're better off doing a wash of some kind and for me that means one of two things.

For a quick wash I perform a rinse with a pressure washer, a foam cannon step, a rinse with the pressure washer, and a dry routine with a blower. This is a touchless routine and works well if you have a good ceramic coating. A more through routine involves a rinse, foam cannon step, another rinse, a two-bucket wash, and a drying step with a combination of air and plush micro fiber towels. My Panamera is white, so it hides dirt much better than a black car, but the philosophy is the same. I try to keep my car reasonably clean without getting too crazy about it. I don't want people to ever say, "Gee, that's a nice car but it's filthy. What's wrong with the owner".
On the other hand, I don't want to do a show car detail job every time I make a run to Walmart. So taking a few simple steps to reduce dust coupled with a good coating along with periodic quick-and-easy touchless wash routines plus less frequent "serious" washes keeps the car looking pretty good nearly all of the time.
Yes, I've got a couple of bottles of "quick detailer" and a big pile of micro-fiber towels, but I never use detail juice for general cleaning of my car, only for wiping up the occasional stain, greasy fingerprint, or big nasty bug splat. Rubbing, in my opinion, should be avoided when possible. And yes, I'm jealous of those guys who have a sealed and climate controlled garage. That would be nice ............... real nice actually, but it's not practical for me at the moment.

I would not use a waterless detail spray on a car unless it has already been washed just before applying. Personally i do not touch the car between washes because touching the paint will just scratch it.

I don't see why you would clean it in between weekly washes. But if you must, I would do a foam spray using a pressure washer with a foam gun. Then rinse it off with a deionized water rinse - e.g CR Spotless. Then let it air dry. That will leave it fairly clean without scratching the car in between full washes. The deionized rinse is also great for washes too - because not drying with a cloth saves the paint.

The very reason why my last black car was 17 years ago, as much as they look great when clean, walk away look back to admire it and its got dust on it.
The wife's black mini roof drives me nuts.

Only use waterless wash if you have foamed and jetted it off. Otherwise no mater what it says on the bottle the dust and dirt on your car will be pushed around on your mitt/cloth, and you will end up with lots of swirl marks.


www.detailingworld.co.uk is a great source for info, but be warned, you will likely end up buying lots of stuff they talk about ;)

Black isn't a color; it's a lifestyle choice. Buy a car with it and you have to wash it often and in a way that wont put you into a death spiral with the swirl marks which with black means not the easy way. I'm with the frequent wet washing crowd and following it up with an air drying. In my own experience the two combined will greatly help to put off the inevitable swirl mark tipping point which is where you're going to be doing a correction.

I have found the paint on the Panamera is "soft"... in that it shows scratches and swirls very easily and it does not want to buff out... I had a black MB CLK for 15 years and it was far superior to this. Someone reminded me of Xymol Carbon... good choice, I guess I'm gonna be busy...