Photos: Gunmetal Blue just clay barred, polished and waxed in my driveway

[ntechnic]

OK. Before I took the photos with the model, I washed and then clay barred every inch of the hatchback. Easy to do, car is small, about 45 minutes to clay bar. Then I polished with my Porter random orbital with Blackfire Gloss Enhancing Polish. Wiped down with microfiber clothes. Then machine waxed (sealant really) with Blackfire Wet Diamond All Finish Paint Protection. Wiped down with microfiber again.

The car needs a second coat of sealant, it will improve even more. I love the high reflection of these products, but even more I love the deep, wet look the paint has.

I must say, excellent quality paint on these cars. Way above the level of quality I would expect in a car in this price range. Cadillac could learn some lessons from Mazda on paint.

OK, so first photo shows off the mirror like reflection of the hood inside my garage:


This second photo starts to give you an idea of the deep, wet, liquid-like finish. Oh, you can see the wife's old Caddy SRX behind ZZ and my Dodge "Maggie" is just visible too.


This photo shows more on the reflectivity and depth of the finish


These next two photos start to give you a sense of the WOW factor of these Blackfire products and why I like them so much. The paint just looks great. And of course, the car in the photos on the Model thread are of the car after all of this was done.

[glennk]

vvvvvery nice.....

[Tidus316]

what did you use? i suck at the whole waxing car process, i used to do it on my dads car with random product and yea lets just say after it drys the car looked ashy/ white in some parts.

i have graphite mica color mind giving me some tips on keeping it looking fresh off the line?

also what is a good product to keep the leather seats and the dashboard looking healthy?

[ntechnic]

You can read about the products I use, and briefly on the technique in a prior thread on this board:

Click here

The key is to choose a good product (I like the Blackfire stuff I talk about in the thread, and if you want to buy stuff at the auto parts store, McGuire's is the best mainstream product) and to use good quality microfiber towels. You'll wear your arm trying to get all the residue off with an ordinary towel.

The best interior product I've found for vinyl is sold by Griots Garage:

Interior Care

You can gently clean the interior vinyl with a cleaner or just a smidge of mild hand soap in a bucket of water and wet cloths. When dry, use the Griot's stuff. It's not an ordinary Armor All like product. You put a coat on a small area (like one door at a time) let it sit for a couple of minutes and wipe down. Then you do a second coat, but this time, wipe it off immediately. It puts a wonderful satin sheen on everything (not too shiny though, just right) and drys to a protective coat. Great stuff.

Don't get it on leather though! For your leather seats, use a true leather conditioner. The polymers they put in vinyl dressing are not good for leather. Lexol is good stuff, and you can get it at most auto parts stores. Griot's sells a good one too.

[bipbip2fast4u]

Really great result, great pic's. great info's as usual ;-)

[marsdog]

Looks great and I think I'm coming around to the Gunmetal color. Thanks for all the detailing info, I have all my Blackfire tools in place and hope to give "Hottie" a similar treatment this weekend, though with all my kids activities, it's going to be a challenge to carve out some time for just me and my car!

[ntechnic]

You don't have to do it all once, especially if you can leave your car in the garage. I usually wash the car Friday night (I only have shade in the driveway in the late afternoon) dry it and park it in the garage. Then I'll clay bay and polish the car on Saturday. If I can, I'll just park the car. Then I'll wax on Sunday.

If I have to drive the car, I just give it a quickie wash and dry and resume where I left off.

I can't wait to see that gorgeous red hatchback after the Blackfire treatment!!!!

[marsdog]

Originally Posted by ntechnic

You don't have to do it all once, especially if you can leave your car in the garage. I usually wash the car Friday night (I only have shade in the driveway in the late afternoon) dry it and park it in the garage. Then I'll clay bay and polish the car on Saturday. If I can, I'll just park the car. Then I'll wax on Sunday.

If I have to drive the car, I just give it a quickie wash and dry and resume where I left off.

I can't wait to see that gorgeous red hatchback after the Blackfire treatment!!!!

Good advice, that might help. I think I can give a quick wash sat evening and maybe a claybar in the garage, get up early and finish the rest on sunday. I know, you'll all thinking what a way to spend a saturday night.... but I'm looking forward to this!

[bipbip2fast4u]

ntech could you check your pm in user cp, thanks

[Tidus316]

i bought some Meguiar's leather cleaner/conditioner, some of their clay bars kit and dash cleaner is it any good?