Black Fading

[esp22]

HI, parked next to my dads beemer yday and realised that my black paint on the mps 6 has faded...anyway to brighten it up and get that deep glossy look of the new beemers and mercs etc...

what product should i use?
well hte menzernas that i have work or is their a better product?i do have a random orbital!

Thanks

[rogwick]

Your solution... ZAS - www.zas.com.au

[blackbetty]

arent the beamers and mercs a flat black too ... does that make a difference in how glossy they look ?

[tricache]

I would have thought the same...they are either normal gloss or flat...not metallic

[Cton]

Flat black??? i never seen a flat black merc or bmw. They all have the same shine. If you ment not metallic, thats a 'solid' colour. Flat black is Matte black, all these cars are cleared anyway. solid or metallic. This has no affect to the shine.
They come in both as well, depending on the model and year. The top end Mercs are Ceramic cleared, very, very hard to mark and stone chip in comparison.
i would recommend getting a professional to buff your car. for what its worth. It could very easily look worse than when you started if you dont know what your doing. there is definately an art to buffing a black car.....
Im sure we have all seen a black car come back from a panel shop with swirls all over it.

[blackbetty]

Sorry by flat I mean flat black colour not metallic black . I agree get it professionally done to me its part and parcel of having a black car splurging once a year for a professional detail

[Cton]

yeah i love the black, but i was too scared. haha. yes im a pussy...

[ZAS]

Most people will argue that nothing beats a solid black paint job. Being an owner of a metallic type black I tend to agree.

If you already have a suitable random orbital then my suggestion would to first have a go yourself. Random Orbitals are pretty much fool proof. I would quite happily let anyone have a go at my vehicle even with my Flex XC3401 VRG which is a dual action with forced rotation.

The reason why you see cars come out of panel shops with buffer trials is because they don't know what they are doing. Or they do know what they are doing but are limited by time. You will find that panel shops will use a circular (rotary) polisher and a wool pad. This combination is simply not suitable for just about any finish. Particularly dark paint. You need to refine the finish after this type of combination.

If you already have Menzerna polishes and a machine, then I would also imagine you already have the foam buffing pads to go with it?

You will most likely find that the heavier Menzerna products are not suitable for use with your RO. Your machine won't be able to break down the abrasives. Meguiar's M105 Ultra Cut Compound is a product that has proven to be a good option for your type of machine. This type of product on a foam cutting pad like Lake Country orange foam will be a good starting point for swirl removal.

That's step 1. You may need to experiment with different combinations until you find what works best. Step 2 is then to get out the finishing polish and gloss it up. Blackfire's Finishing Polish on a Lake Country black pad is a personal favourite of mine. This polish is made by Menzerna. The closest equivalent is 106FF.

What machine do you have? There is nothing to be scared about with machine polishing, even on black paint with this type of machine. You will most likely find that you don't have enough power to remove all the swirls let alone do any damage and you'll have to settle for an 80-90% correction.

[esp22]

its a bosch gex150 ac or something from memory and i have the different applicator pads...will this be fine to use?thanks

[Cton]

You will find that panel shops will use a circular (rotary) polisher and a wool pad. This combination is simply not suitable for just about any finish. Particularly dark paint. You need to refine the finish after this type of combination.

The reason we need to use these style of machine is because we are sanding the dust out of the paintwork as well when repainted. it would take all day to for us to bring a bonnet that has been rubbed down back to a shine any other way.
We then go over the paintwork again with a different pad and grade of compound. This is the step that many shops short cut resulting in bad results.