They say that Black is a Bitch to deal with when it comes to polishing as it shows a lot of swirls and scratches which are basically impossible to hide. Well let me tell you something, black didn't ask anyone to scratch it or put it through car washes for one lifetime. Black is actually one of the best and easiest colours to work with. It clearly teaches you what works and what doesn't so why run from it when it can teach you what method works and what doesn't. Perfect black and you perfect every colour you'll ever work with again. This wasn't a colour I ran from many years ago but rather a colour I embraced to learn what I know today about paint correction. The vehicle in question here is a black XR6 Turbo which had apparently been through 5 car washes as the customer stated. What its been through really is another thing. Many vehicles that come to me are usually the result of some car wash somewhere with repeated use. Eventually , this takes its toll on paint. Many car washes also use very cheap products which actually have some form of acidic effect on clear coats which over time eventually breaks down polyurethane coatings. The owner of this car didn't want to muck around and just went straight for the gizzard in terms of wanting the best that he could get from what was left of his paint and let me just add, the results were pretty good. The smile from ear to ear is even better. Just look at some of the damage in these images below. Having posted these photos, I would need to explain that in most instances, photos do not really do before or after shots any real justice. The photos above are of course before shots and the damage in reality was actually far more severe. This is typical of car washes and most vehicles that come to me are primarily because of issues like this. Naturally after washing down I had to mask up all dangerous corners as this customer wanted the full hog as far as pads and compounds were concerned so maximum protection is required on edges. They say that whatever preparation you put in the beginning, you get at the end and that is true so to speak so I always take car in the beginning. The first stage of course was to rip the damage out of the surfaces with a wool pad. As stated earlier, this customer wanted the same job which I initially carried out on my own GT. I had to explain the benefits and dis-benefits to him but once he had a good understanding he was pretty fine with it so on I continued with this treatment. I commenced in using wool pads because quite frankly, nothing cuts nowhere near as fast as wool pads on a rotary. Although this is a major benefit, it also has its down sides as it adds to more work if your goal is to refine the end finish as much as possible. We need to remember that there can not be any swirls or buffer trail at the end of the process from any buffing equipment and wool pads ( although great for removing damage ) wool pads have a tendency of doing this so refining the finish with necessary combinations is critical. I had to take care of the entire vehicle with wool. There was no escaping any serious damage anywhere with lesser strength passes in order to save material. This car was quite bad pretty much all over and really the only treatment that would have got this customer what he wanted was the top end of treatments. I was so relieved to see the damage just coming off and exposing new paint from underneath. There was also the stench of coffee car wash products coming from the paint with heat build up from the buff. The initial pass with wool was to some degree quite a nightmare because of car wash product on the surfaces that was being ripped off. The photos below just show the result from having used wool alone. I would not recommend anybody reading this post take to their cars with wool pads. If you do, I can guarantee you will be calling me for assistance after your car is riddled with swirl marks, so " DON'T " use wool pads on your car. These are strictly for experienced hands. There are other passes which have to follow in order to perfect the finish which is what makes this exercise expensive so always keep away from wool pads. Swirl marks or buffing trail tends to stand out rather strong on black and you really can't hide it, especially all the fine hairline wisps it leaves behind from wool fibers so it really is imperative that to get the best possible finish, it must be followed with what I like to call a refined finish using a finishing pad. This is really just a measure for removing the thousands of wisps left behind by the buff. Buffing trail will still be evident which is removed with more passes. Again, the whole car must be completed exactly the same way. I've always said, the less passes you do may obviously save you labour but, the finish will not be as glossy or portray beautiful depth of colour as much as added passes within reason. Lets not get ridiculous here. That doesn't mean we carry out six or seven passes. Effective combinations that work well should not exceed anymore than five passes ( max ) including sealers using a combination of Rotary and orbital buffers. Different story if you are using orbital buffers alone. Orbital buffers can save a pass or two in time but where they lack is in speed of cutting. No orbital I've seen cuts as fast as a rotary with wool with minimal passes. This car was a total of four including paint protection. Anymore than 5 passes is obviously an error in paint correction where the combination just simply isn't working well enough. Talking about using buffers, My Makitta gave up the ghost after 15 years of buffing. Brushes were completely worn away and this being on a Sunday forced me to buy a makeshift buff from the local hardware purely to get me out of trouble without losing a days work on this XR6. As it takes a few days to have a buff repaired, I completed the entire car with the By the end of the third day, the shine was starting to come through with the ending of the final pass of swirl and buffer trail removal. This is where the fruits of your labour start to shine through after all the hard work of removing damage. Many car enthusiasts in the pursuit of shine when it comes to choosing car polishing products often always ask the question of what gets the best shine. It would probably shock a few people if I was to state that shine really is a by-product. In most cases when it comes to paint correction, the aim is to not achieve shine but to rather achieve effective damage removal. The shine follows automatically after that. Remove damage-you get shine. This is why I say that shine is a bi-product. Waxes add shine by sealing. Paint correction adds shine by removing damage. The final pass on this car which was with a finishing pad and an orbital is what added the best possible shine before any paint protection Enjoy some of the images, however sadly the light for the final images was really poor again so I couldn't really capture the true colour. Regardless of all the backbreaking work that goes into perfecting black, there is nothing more gratifying than seeing a smile from ear to ear on the owners face with the words " HOLY CRAP " being uttered from pure shock in a car's transformation. It was just a shame it was a poor day with bad lighting. Always seems to be the case
HAHAHA I have to tell you, if I walk into the workshop and the bird sees me, he goes absolutely off the bender if I don't take him with me. If I'm working, he wants in.
It was just a real shame the sun wasn't out. I could have caught some reflective shots but unfortunately it wasn't meant to be. If you want to hear something really crazy, as much as I warned this customer not use any car wash after the treatment as he would just damage it all over again, he thought it was a good idea to wash the car after two weeks with a home water tank which catches water off the roof. Go figure, he stuffed the whole paint job with one wash. It took me four days to restore this finish it was so bad. It didn't even occur to him
