Body &
PaintBody &
PaintBlack Car Care
I'm late reading some list messages, and came upon the note about keeping
the black cars black. As a lifelong owner of black cars, I'll share a secret.
This is one that allowed me to give myself the "best looking black car
that drove from LA without being washed" award at Devek last summer. Drum
roll please.... Wash the car with soft water only. Sounds simple or sounds
stupid I know. The minerals in the water choose to drop out wherever the
tiniest bit of water settles, and that tends to be in those invisible little
surface scratches that suddenly become visible when they are filled with salt
crystals. The crystals themsalves are abrasive, so next time you wash the car,
they get dragged over the paint, making more scratches, and the cycle expands
at each wash.
Use a non-waxing car wash soap. For years I've been using Autofom car wash with
a little bit of the wax in it. While it looks OK, it's not great unless you go
back and buff the car with a soft towel to get the wax haze off. Hmmm. To make
the black stay black, use the smallest amount possible of some non-detergent
dishwashing soap. Ivory Liquid falls into this category. The detergents will
strip any real wax off in a hurry , while the stearate soaps will not do it
nearly as fast. Again, use just enough to break the water's surface tension,
just enough to help dissolve any road or exhaust film on the paint, but no
more. And ONLY in soft water-- the soap will leave a calcium stearate film on
the car in hard water (same as bathroom 'soap scum').
Stubborn hard water stains on the car sometimes can be removed with non-acid
bathroom cleaner. These might be severe water spots from your yard sprinklers,
or something similar. Look for a label that doesn't include the phosphate word.
Anything that says you need to wear gloves is not for anything delicate. Many
of the non-corrosive cleaners use isopropyl alcohol as the 'active' ingredient.
I've used rubbing alchohol to clean rubber and plastic trim items of hard water
stains and wax, and it works OK. Haven't tried any seriously on paint (no
guts...) and don't recommend it without trying in an inconspicuous spot first.
I use the bathroom cleaner on the boats, and it takes off Colorado River summer
water stains that are thick enough to get handholds on.
While targeted at black cars, red is another color that will benefit greatly
from these tips.
In addition to these basic tips, you'll learn to -keep- the car clean and well
waxed. I procrastinate a lot about the clean-and-wax procedure, but the results
are impressive when I get around to it. Takes the best part of a morning to do
the paint completely, from local area cleaning and polishing, through the hand
glaze step, then a few coats of your favorite wax. I won't even go near the
"which wax is best" discussion-- let's leave that to the pro's like
Larry Reynolds.
Anyway, stick with soft water and cut your wash-and-dry time by 75%.
dr bob
I also partake in the gothic shark, and have very good results with
MOTHER'S. Not only is their "Back to Black" great on the pre- S4 trim
but I gave a coat to my entire interior. Excellent!
I have recently switched to their tropical wax as well - amazed at the quality
of shine and resistance to stains. It picked up pollutants and oxidation like
no other I have seen. No residue and ease of application. They must all own
black cars...
the gothess---> 86.5 black/black 5 speed #1807
andreas