Hey guys,

I have a black 96' Z28 and whatever I do, I cannot
get this thing clean enough so you can't see streak
marks etc. I have tried many different things to accomplish this, but no luck.

Anyone out there with a Black Z that can give me a couple
pointers and tricks to what you do?

Thanks
Kevin

 

By streaks, what specifically do you mean? Anyways, here is a quicky walkthough for how I keep my black IROC clean:

Washing
First and foremost, do it either early or late in the day, and always in the shade. I find it best to work in one section at a time (hood, drivers side fender, hatch, etc). Wash, rinse each area before going on to the next. Depending on how good you are with the hose, you can dry each panel individually as well, but I usually wait and dry the whole car at once. Speaking of drying, use a good drying product. I use a combination of a California water blade and an absorber. Microfiber towels work great too, as do leaf blowers.

Surface Prep and Polishing
Once again, work in the shade. Espically if you are using carnuba wax based products. Pretty much any product used in surface prep will bake on to your car almost instantly if applied in direct sunlight. The only one I've found that wont leave streaks is Zaino. There may be others, but I haven't found them yet.

Maintenence
Now that your car is all cleaned and polished up, how do you keep it that way. My favorite 2 weapons for this task are Zaino Z6 and a California duster. I usually apply the Z6 to the towel instead of the paint, so that it doesn't evaporate on the surface of the paint as fast.

This is the first black car I've ever owned, and before I bought it I heard tons of horror stories about how hard it is to keep clean, etc. . . . To be honest, it really hasn't been that bad. Although, I am really super **** about keeping my car clean, so maybe washing it twice a week (which I enjoy doing) and spot cleaning usually once a day is a big deal for some, but not really so much so for me.

 

You need to make sure your paint is free from contamination by way of a claybar. Then you need to polish out any swirls, oxidation, etc. with a good abrasive and/or cleaner polish (ie. Klasse AIO, Menzerna, 3M, Poorboy's).

After you have prepped your paint, then you can wax/seal it for protection.

You might be interested in checking out www.autopia.org

 

thanks a lot guys, I will give those a shot.


Kevin

 

Yeah, I think you need a good clay job. I have a black '98 and am starting to see these "streaks" that you are. I'm going to try clay soon too and see what happens...

 

Since black is most likely THE hardest color to keep clean, you will first have to remember a few things, dirt is everyere, so even after a good wash, soon after it will have some dirt on it again.

I would say that you need to wash it with a good high quality soap and wash mit. I would use two, one for the lower parts and one for the upper parts. Then make sure you towel dry it with a terry cloth. After that if its still dirty and the gunk just wont come off... Machine Polish it with a high quality buffer and pad.

 

I was just going to ask this question. I am going to clean my car tommorow and hopefully some of these tips will help make it look better.

 

I have swirl marks how do I get them out? I have used 3M oxidation remover and swirl remover and its not taking them out!

someone said I need a buffer.

EDIT: I use the following products and wash according to this. wash with dawn or dishwashing soap to remove old wax. I add 1tea spoon olive oil to it.. and then I wash it with Pantene Pro-V 2 in 1 with olive oil. then I wax with Meguaris NXT tech wax. and I use a clean Meguaris applicator pad to wax with then I use a Microtex cloth to buff it off.. but I still have swirls and I can't figure out how I get them!?!?


any ideas its a 96 Black 3.8!!

 

You need to stop using olive oil and Pantene, as far as I'm concerned.

Supplies and techniques are the most important factors in preventing swirls.

Buy a quality car wash soap (Zaino Z7, Meguiar's NXT soap, Eagle One Wet, etc.), a quality wash mitt (Eurow Sheepskin mitt), and quality towels for drying and removing wax/polish (www.pakshak.com).

Wash/dry/wax in front to back and top to bottom motions with light pressure.

To remove swirls, you need a good paint polish ( a Porter Cable polisher would really help too). If you want to buy locally, try to find some 3M Machin Glaze.

This site may help with more step-by-step directions on many different processes: www.autopia-carcare.com/how-to.html

My detailing process is similar to this:

Wash
Clay
Wash/dry
Polish with abrasive and/or cleaner
Wax/Sealant

 

well when I use the Pantene it really makes my paint gloss! and shine!

but I need you to give me some hints to help with using a Buffer/polisher because I am sure im gonna have to have one to help get these swirls out! and I need to know what kinda stuff I need to use to get them out! and I plan to buy a clay bar here sometime soon!

 

screamin96 be real carful buffing the car if you never did it before. I would suggest that you dont do it until you either learn on something else or have someone help you, you can really swirl the **** out of the paint pretty bad on a black car. But if you have swirls buffing it is probably the only thing that will get them out.

 

If you are using a random orbital polisher like the Porter Cable 7424, there is nothing to worry about...they are completely safe.

Rotary buffers are a different story.

 

allright zaneo you might be right i never used a orbital buffer but i know what your talking about i always use the rotarty buffers at work....