jchappies

McGuire's for the win today..


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C6 Snowboarder

Power Buffer - DA Buffer Polisher has never seen this C6 of mine... it looks good. Dunno why you guys think a power DA and Polishers need to be used every day of use... it is just a friggen car. use your washing mitt linearly in the length of the panel - never a cross the panel -- always in the same linear direction, dry the same direction with just a clean towel. Wax the same direction - never in an orbital manner.. your black car will look great .. with no AC Power Tools. Never Wax On Wax Off as in Karate Kid . It is NOT Rocket Science guys. Word Du Jour is LINEAR!!!!

73DBG

Owning a black car is its own circle of hell! A quality paint correction and ceramic coating along with driving in only "vette weather" throw in garage kept and covered inside garage and you can keep it clean for a few hours lol......first world black vette problems.

Don-Vette

I hear you, when I use it I will go over the car after wiping it off, with my DA and micro fiber pad cover( I like it because it last's longer) the Griots wipes off very easily, that's what I used in the pic. I have been wanting to try the Pinnacle, I'll re-supply over the winter. Lol

Chris J

I Agree

flyeri

A high quality Ceramic coating after a thorough paint correction should last several years for most Corvette owners. After application of ceramic, wash with a good quality automotive soap such as Adams using a micro fibre mitt. Blow the water off and finish drying with a a chamois. I can wash the GS in about 25 min. start to finish. Wheels are coated also.

farmington

never was a fan of black cars due to these problems, and when I got my 2012 CE I was worried, but with the high metallic in the Carbon Flash paint it hasn't been that bad. Sort of like a normal color as far as keeping it up

GS982

Foam cannon
2 bucket wash system
Leaf blower to dry (I have a Master Blaster and really like it, but don't know if I can justify the $400 price tag)
Avoid spray detailers when possible
use quality, high density micro fiber towels (I like rag company, but others have said they have found better for cheaper)
Use a quality wax, sealant or ceramic coating to protect
I would also avoid rinseless washes, JMO

jrose7004

Here's an entire forum page dedicated to paint care.
https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...discussion-10/

kliph

OK, can someone explain, in detail, what is "paint correction and ceramic coated"? And cost?
Thanks, Kliph

GS982

Here is a pretty good article about ceramic coating: https://avalonking.com/the-truth-abo...amic-coatings/

Paint correction begins with paint decontamination. This should be done mechanically after a thorough wash with either a clay bar or clay bar rag or mitt. It may also be a good idea to perform chemical decontamination for metal deposits (Iron X, etc.) prior to using a clay bar. There are videos out there of new cars just off the lot having iron deposits on the paint. Once the paint is completely clean, you can begin paint correction. As for buffers, rotary will remove paint/flaws more quickly, but have a far greater chance of burning through the paint and leaving swirls. An orbital or dual action buffer polisher would probably be better for a novice/hobbyist. They come in many assortments, but general idea is the longer the throw and more power they have, the quicker they can correct paint. Moving on to pads and compounds, the idea here is starting with the least aggressive pad/compound combo to efficiently remove the swirls, minor pitting and slight scratches in your clear coat, but you need to use a compound that is aggressive enough to remove the deeper scratches/swirls. There are plenty of you tube videos on this, but general rule of thumb if your paint has moderate to severe scratches in the clear coat, you would start with a more aggressive rubbing compound, then move to a polishing compound and finally a finishing compound. If done correctly you should end up with a glass finish with no swirls or haze. Once this is the case, you can move on to ceramic coating. Most importantly, a ceramic coating will not hide scratches/swirls in your clear coat. It may even make them more noticeable. This is why proper paint correction must be performed prior to ceramic coating.

If you are looking to add shine and mask scratches/swirls in the paint, going with a glaze/wax combo will get you much better results, but will have to be repeated every few months and does not protect the paint like a ceramic coating will. Also, you are not fixing the original defects in the paint, only hiding them.

Disclaimer: I have very quickly addressed this question, and have left out a ton (choice of buffer, pads, polishing compounds and much much more). I don't feel like your question can be accurately addressed in a single or multiple responses on this thread. Google and You Tube are your friends here, as well as plenty of forum threads that are much more specific to a particular aspect of paint correction or ceramic coating. Good luck!

endus

Don't have a black car but have done a lot of detailing on my own cars over the years. Want to know the secret to maintaining a good finish? I'm going to share my mysterious detailing black magic secret with this, my new car forum...ready?

To maintain the finish...don't scratch it up in the first place! <lightning crash and evil organ music>

What I mean by this is that, a lot of people put tremendous effort into polishing and waxing and correcting the paint. Then, they proceed to undo all the work they've done when they wash it. You don't need to polish your car every year (or more!) to maintain a basically swirl free finish...especially on a garage queen...but you do have to put a little effort into washing the car. Swirls are almost exclusively introduced when you wash the car.

To wash a car properly you need a few things. First and foremost is a good wash pad or mitt. The goal here is to use something which will capture the dirt and pull it away from the surface rather than grind it into the paint and create swirls. Sponges are not what you want. What you want is a chenille or microfiber pad. I've used both and prefer microfiber.

Second thing you need is two buckets. One to rinse the pad and one for soap. There are all kinds of fancy things out there...after a couple decades of detailing my cars I finally bought one of the little two bucket dollies with the grit guards in the buckets. Nice to have, but not necessary. You need to use two buckets though. Maybe if the car is really dirty, you change the water in the rinse bucket during the wash.

Third thing you need is a way to dry the car. Even people on autopia (THE detailing forum) use water blades and synthetic chamoises, which I think is an enormous mistake. You're violating the key thing here, which is to take the dirt away from the paint and not grind it in. Yes, you've washed the car and its, "clean" but who knows what might fall on it. What you want is two waffle weave microfiber towels. If you have a compressor, air is great to get a lot of water off or out of cracks. Some people use leaf blowers to dry cars...not a bad idea but make sure the blower is not blowing dust on the surface!

When you're cleaning the car, try to think about what you're doing. Try to start at the top, or on cleaner areas, and work down. Pay attention to what you're wiping...don't wipe your rocker panel and then your door without rinsing the pad. If the car is really dirty, I tend to go over a surface very lightly with the pad just to get the major dirt off, then rinse the pad, then go back and really wash it. Basically, if the pad looks dirty after you run it over the surface, start doing a feather-light pass and rinsing the pad before continuing. Remember the pad has two sides too.

All of this sounds like a pain but give it a couple washes and it will become second nature. The benefits outweigh any extra work by an order of magnitude.

One thing I do not like is glaze. Glaze basically fills swirl marks and makes them invisible until you wash your car a couple times. To me, it's a recipe for more work detailing which means rubbing the car with more stuff which just means more swirls. Use an filler-free polish like Menzerna to polish out the swirls then wash the car carefully and the car will look better for longer with less work.

Any towels you use on your paint for any reason need to be microfiber. Cotton = Swirl Marks. It's as simple as that.

As was mentioned above, use your wash pad in the direction of airflow over the panel only. Why? Is there magic airflow micro particles that will scratch your car? No. The reason you go in the direction of airflow is so that you remember which direction to go every time you wash it. You want to use the pad in one direction, never circles. If you wash in a circle and get a little grit in there by accident, you're going to create a scratch or swirl that is visible from every angle, instead of just a few angles.

73DBG

73DBG

Hwyknight

GS982

I had a highly reviewed mobile detailer come out a couple months ago and wash my car with ONR along with a paint decontamination with a clay rag. He then did a 1 stage paint correction with optimum hyper polish and finally sealed the car with optimum hyper seal. I was taken aback as to how easy the ONR was to use, but as for the results, I was less than satisfied.

First off, the reason I had all this done was that my paint has a very slight haze to it and didn't really POP!!!! Since the previous owner had stated he had about 15 coats of wax on it, I decided it was time to start at ground zero. Once he was done with everything, including 1 stage paint correction. The car had a great shine and the haze was completely gone, but in sunlight I had swirls I had never seen before. I'm sure they were already there just covered under all that wax. The car only has 6,500 miles so I expected a one stage correction to take care of the swirl marks...it did not. I have only washed the car once since then, and I was very disappointed at how the water did not bead, sheet or run off the car at all. The Optimum Hyper Seal does not seem very hydrophobic.

My take on the optimum products used on my car:

ONR: A very quick way to wash your car, it takes at least half the steps out. I do not trust ONR's dirt encapsulating technology enough to be willing to put a soapy mitt on to a dry car and then wipe down with a microfiber. If I were ever to use ONR, I would use it solely as an alternative to detail spray.

Optimum Hyper Polish: Gave my paint great clarity, but did not remove the very slight swirls in my paint. The detailer did tell me C6s have exceptionally hard clear coat. Maybe that was the problem.

Optimum Hyper Seal: Very disappointed, first time I washed the car it was as though there was no sealant at all.

I hope others chime in as when talking with the detailer, he had me excited about Optimum products, but for the reasons above I will not be using them unless I get several more positive reviews from others.

C6 Snowboarder

Question for all you guys that do all the fine detailing and rubbing and polishing and waxing and correcting and cleaning buckets and inspecting wash mitts - do you have any time left to drive it or live life ?

endus

Man, it took forever to figure out my detailing routine, make all the mistakes, correct them, find the right products, etc. I was waaaaaay more dedicated back then.

The time all this crap takes is actually the key for me. I don't want to spend the time (and my back isn't good enough) to constantly polish and wax the car. The washing stuff I talked about sounds like a lot but it's actually super easy once you get the hang of it. Not really much or any more time than washing with one bucket, you just need to make sure you have the right stuff. The trade off is huge, though - not even having to polish the car once a year.

I tend to use wax on my summer car rather than some of the more longer-lived sealants and stuff. Finding a good wax also took me forever, but I finally found Pinnacle souveran and it's both a great wax and easy to use. Some waxes stain trim, are hard to remove, (I'm looking at you Zymol), etc. Pinnacle makes it so easy to throw a coat on. Kinda expensive...but worth it.

Machines make it easier too. People machine polish but then don't wax with a machine. Screw that! A random orbital is AWESOME for applying wax. Eliminates the elbow grease required and also makes it easy to get a super thin coat of wax which = less buffing.

I do still buff with microfiber towels, though.

73DBG

Irocz187

This guy right here. Some other people have some weird opinions but this guy is educated.