How do People with Black Paint Jobs keep them looking so good?

Personally, I'm not a fan of full paint correction on a brand new car. There are a finite number of times you can correct a car, and with how thin today's paint/clearcoat are, plus the low VOC products they use, leave it alone as much as you can, even if there are factory blemishes (not damage). It's not worth removing blemishesif it means you're making a bare spot in the clearcoat. The guys who will color sand a brand new car to remove "orange peel" absolutely flabbergast me.

New car: just decontaminate it, light polish only areas with swirls or spots (finish pad, no cut) and apply your favorite wax. For the next application, it's decontaminate, then clay (if needed), then I mark which panels need swirl removal (if any) and only hit those with more aggressive polish.

I've always just used the Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions paste wax. You can spend more, but I personally don't see the point. Lasts about a year with monthly re-sprays of the same product (spray form) when drying. I generally only physically dry the car when I spray wax, otherwise it's just air dry via my DI setup:

Rockwood

Thread 'Rockwood's Spotless Wash System'

A year or 2 ago I bought this feller:

https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Deionized-Spot-Free-Rinse/dp/B07H8MQTMD/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1FSAK96SSACN7&keywords=deionized+water+filter&qid=1692295106&sprefix=deionized+water+filter%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

For spotless rinsing.  Works great, full flow, but I was eating resin like candy with our 350ppm swamp water, so I stopped using it.

A couple of months ago, I put an inline filter for it in the vain attempt of extending resin life.  It helped, a little, but not enough to...
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Ceramics are good for maaaaybe 2 years if you're super diligent about how you wash it, and if the water stops sheeting off it's time for a reapplication. I've watched a friend spend 6 hours ceramic coating his car. Looked the same when done, but his sheeted water for about 2 years and it took me maybe 30 minutes to apply the cheap ass Turtle Wax. Swirl protection seemed about the same.
 
Rockwood said:
Personally, I'm not a fan of full paint correction on a brand new car. There are a finite number of times you can correct a car, and with how thin today's paint/clearcoat are, plus the low VOC products they use, leave it alone as much as you can, even if there are factory blemishes (not damage). It's not worth removing imperfections if it means you're making a bare spot in the clearcoat. The guys who will color sand a brand new car to remove "orange peel" absolutely flabbergast me.

New car: just decontaminate it, light polish only areas with swirls or spots (finish pad, no cut) and apply your favorite wax. For the next application, it's decontaminate, then clay (if needed), then I mark which panels need swirl removal (if any) and only hit those with more aggressive polish.

I've always just used the Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions paste wax. Lasts about a year with monthly re-sprays of the same product (spray form) when drying. I generally only physically dry the car when I spray wax, otherwise it's just air dry via my DI setup:

Rockwood

Thread 'Rockwood's Spotless Wash System'

A year or 2 ago I bought this feller:

https://www.amazon.com/Aquatic-Life-Deionized-Spot-Free-Rinse/dp/B07H8MQTMD/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=1FSAK96SSACN7&keywords=deionized+water+filter&qid=1692295106&sprefix=deionized+water+filter%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1

For spotless rinsing.  Works great, full flow, but I was eating resin like candy with our 350ppm swamp water, so I stopped using it.

A couple of months ago, I put an inline filter for it in the vain attempt of extending resin life.  It helped, a little, but not enough to...
  • Like
  • Thanks

Ceramics are good for maaaaybe 2 years (I've never personally seen this, but some people swear it's true) if you're super diligent about how you wash it, and if the water stops sheeting off it's time for a reapplication.
Click to expand...
Orange peel is definitely there for a reason. For some reason, that concept is VERY hard for a lot of males to absorb.

Most Ceramic Coatings also need a "Maintenance" product that revitalizes it's properties. A lot of folks aren't aware of this and think CC's are the end all to any attention needing paid to the paint. This is why I push lower cost SIO2 products more because you have to come back and work on it some way, some how... anyway.

I'd rather make someone's vehicle look great twice a year with fresh applications of... anything... than seeing that same car once every two years or more. The multiple trips would be financed into smaller costs, due to less work done. A lot of people cannot absorb this concept, however.
 
Toy Collector said:
Orange peel is definitely there for a reason. For some reason, that concept is VERY hard for a lot of males to absorb.

Most Ceramic Coatings also need a "Maintenance" product that revitalizes it's properties. A lot of folks aren't aware of this and think CC's are the end all to any attention needing paid to the paint. This is why I push lower cost SIO2 products more because you have to come back and work on it some way, some how... anyway.

I'd rather make someone's vehicle look great twice a year with fresh applications of... anything... than seeing that same car once every two years or more. The multiple trips would be financed into smaller costs, due to less work done. A lot of people cannot absorb this concept, however.
Click to expand...
Yep. The "3 year" products are so ridiculous to apply, I just don't see the point. It's a microscopic layer of chemical anyway, there's no way it's protecting from much of anything other than the lightest of light swirls.

I do like how well SI02 products repel everything. Only bummer is large bird shit makes a huge mess as it'll slide down the car to a low spot (or off of it), leaving a trail... :ROFLMAO:
 
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