Thinking of getting a black car, that crazy?

[HAMBO]

Get a jet black and do a full vehicle PPF wrap on it. Self healing film will help keep it pretty much 100% swirl free, especially if you hand wash it. Best of both worlds.

Thanks for the suggestion. I know PPF prevents any damage to the clear coat, but does really avoid swirls (presumably in the PPF itself), and is it resistant at all to dust / pollen or easier to clean? Wouldn’t you just get the same swirls, dust, pollen in the PPF and it would still look the same as a regular black car but safe underneath?

Thanks

[Kaban]

Thanks for the suggestion. I know PPF prevents any damage to the clear coat, but does really avoid swirls (presumably in the PPF itself), and is it resistant at all to dust / pollen or easier to clean? Wouldn’t you just get the same swirls, dust, pollen in the PPF and it would still look the same as a regular black car but safe underneath?

Thanks

PPF absolutely does NOT swirl up anywhere near as much as paint. Suntek, 3M, Stek, and XPEL are all self healing. XPEL would be my last option as their current product is alot more dull looking than it used to be and their self-healing top layer is inferior to the other mentioned brands. We've done many full vehicle wraps simply because it's more cost effective than doing a correction/ceramic coating every few years on a jet black car, plus the film offers chip and scratch resistance and it's the only way to truly preserve paint (correcting a car every few years means you're removing paint every few years, with film you lock in that original paint layer and also eliminate the possibility of sun fade/clear coat failure down the line). If you do manage to get some swirls in the film, you can easily remove them with a heat gun or by simply leaving it out in the sun on a hot day. The material is far more resistant to scratching than even the hardest of paints (Ceramiclear ie.) Full wrap costs around $4,000-$10,000 depending where you live. If you're in Los Angeles, you're in the most expensive market for PPF so it might be worth to ship the car out to another shop that charges less. Everything in California costs double pretty much.

We used to be 75/25 detailing/PPF but now the market has shifted drastically to where we actually do more PPF work than correction/ceramic as we did in the past decade.

Edit: yes the film will still get dusty/pollen on top, etc. just like paint, but the difference is, I can grab a MF towel and just go at it on a wrapped car without any concern of causing swirls. Without film, I would not even think about "dusting" a corrected jet black car, just too much risk. You have to treat jet black like you're walking on egg shells. PPF is a complete game changer.

[Bill D]

I removed some garage dust from my black car with a MF the other day but I do so very gingerly. So far, no marring. I wouldn’t attempt to remove outdoor dust though.

[Kaban]

I removed some garage dust from my black car with a MF the other day but I do so very gingerly. So far, no marring. I wouldn’t attempt to remove outdoor dust though.

Yup, you just have to use common sense with black. For example if we correct and coat a jet black car at the shop and it ends up sitting for a few days (usually if a customer is out of town and can't pick up or the weather is bad), we end up blow dusting it with the 8hp Metrovac first and doing a very gentle wipedown with some ONR and a microfiber towel if absolutely necessary. Even then, you might cause a small swirl mark here and there, it's a losing battle. You can only minimize swirls, can't avoid them.

[Klasse Act]

Without going back and re-reading all the posts, has anyone brought up the point about coatings and the little amount of dust they seem to attract? This said, I'd have to have a good paint coating applied to the car the OP is talking about getting

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[Kaban]

Without going back and re-reading all the posts, has anyone brought up the point about coatings and the little amount of dust they seem to attract? This said, I'd have to have a good paint coating applied to the car the OP is talking about getting

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Coatings definitely help alot with a black car.

[Klasse Act]

In the 5 years of ownership of my old 2013 it was always coated, first with Duragloss coating and 2x's TAC systems power plus and although metallic I felt it always looked good outside where it would sit 9-12 hrs at a time at work. Yes it was garage kept but daily driven year round, so even coated you've just gotta make that commitment and with a coating, you can basically get thr best of both worlds.

I'd also like to add with a quality WW like N914 or Griot's Garage Brillant Shine RW/Ech2o/etc using the GD method, you could easily wash the car every other day if it made you feel "vetter"

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[Jayfro]

Black cars look amazing when they’re clean, this is three coats of Pinnacle Liquid Souveran Wax I applied over the last two days!

How long will it look like this? Probably until Wednesday or Thursday, check that, Monday night as it’s supposed to storm Monday afternoon/evening!


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[Bill D]

Yep, they’ll look good for a longer time only if they are garage kept and only driven briefly on sunny days. Not practical for daily driving.

[HAMBO]

Thanks for the feedback.

Based on all the above I think I’m gonna go with grey (one of my favorite colors). Not prepared to spend PPF $ on something I’m planning to lease, but was a good suggestion. Based on people’s feedback, and I took a stroll through a parking lot to look at the black cars even in this weather and they all showed so much dirt / swirls, just seems like having black for my situation would be too much of a hassle. Thanks for the tips!