Review: Blackfire Pro-Ceramic Coating Wash

Mike Phillips · 02-28-2019, 03:43 PM

Review: Blackfire Pro-Ceramic Coating Wash

Blackfire Pro-Ceramic Coating Wash

Yeah.... that's not what it really looks like unless you put a SCANGRIP Sunmatch light behind it!

BUT - it is a very cool incandescent bubble gum color as it comes out of the bottle.

Finally, a product that solves two common problems I've had for years now....

1: A car wash I can use that doesn't ADD anything to the surface being washed, specifically a car wash that doesn't add any type of wax protection, (natural or synthetic), no glossing agents or shine ingredients - just pure cleaning.

2: A car wash I can recommend to my customers and anyone that asks for a recommendation for a car wash specifically for coated cars.

What is it?
This is a pH balanced pure car wash soap. By the word pure, I mean there are no other ingredients included to add protection, shine or gloss or anything. It's solely for the purpose of safely washing a ceramic coated finish to remove any road film or dirt without leaving anything behind and this is what you want for a coated car. Pure and simple. Novel idea.

What's it for?
To wash a coated car. You can use it on anything though.

What is the dilution?
2 ounces to 3-5 gallons. If you want less cleaning use 2 ounces with 5 gallons. If you want more cleaning then use 2 ounces with 3 gallons.

Can it be used in a Foam Gun?
Yes. Me? I would use the Mike Phillips Method for washing a Coated Car and this is washing without a foam gun.

Can it be used in a Foam Cannon?
Yes. Me? I would use the Mike Phillips Method for washing a Coated Car and this is washing without a foam cannon.

Does it have a scent?
Yes - smells like bubble gum.

Initial observations after mixing using 3 ounces with about 4 gallons of water
When I dunked my microfiber towels into the car wash solution the water felt silky smooth. I like this in a car wash when I'm washing a car that has paint that is in new to excellent condition. After mixing the car wash up with the water using my mixing stick and then blasting it with a strong blast of water it created ample suds. With this type of wash I'm not focused on suds, I'm focused on cleaning and lubrication when washing.

Test car
My test car is a 2014 Maserati Ghibli S Q4 that we used in my September 3-day Detailing Bootcamp Class. My class did a waterless wash, decontaminated with detailing clay, machine polished, chemically stripped the paint and then applied BLACKFIRE Pro Ceramic Coating. Counting back from yesterday, Wednesday, February 27th to the day it was coated on Saturday, September 29th, that would be 151 days or 5 months. I don't know how often this Maserati has been washed since returning it to the owner but my guess is not very often and maybe not at all.

The car is garage-kept but driven and while not grossly dirty, the paint was dirty and the wheels show they have probably not been washed, or properly washed since the car left Autogeek.

2014 Maserati Ghibli S Q4

So this is the perfect candidate to test out this new Ceramic Coating Wash.

Mike Phillips · 03-01-2019, 03:51 PM

Continued....

Step-by-step how to use BLACKFIRE Ceramic Coating Wash

Step 1: Add desired volume of water to a 5-gallon bucket.

Me? I like to use 4 gallons in a bucket. 2-3 gallons isn't enough for good swishing of the mitt to remove any dirt against the Grit Guard Insert in-between washing panels. 5 gallons is overkill because it's going to fill right to the top and spill out when you insert a mitt plus it's just too much for a single car so you're either going to waste product or mix to weak of a dilution. So 4 gallons is perfect.

Step 2: Add 2-3 ounces of Pro Ceramic Coating Wash

Step 3: Mix well and then spray with a strong blast of water to create suds.

Step 4: Wet car and spray off any loose dirt.

Note: Even though the car has a film layer of dirt on it, the BLACKFIRE Pro Ceramic Coating is still beading water strong 5 months after application.

Step 4: Dunk wash mitt into car wash solution to gather soapy water.

Step 5: Starting at the top, wash one side of the roof, front windshield and hood.

Technique Tip: Don't scrub paint. When washing a horizontal panel, place your mitt in the middle of the panel and then make a few overlapping passes as you move the mitt from the center to the outside of the panel. When washing a coated car, or even a freshly waxed car, you shouldn't have to scrub the panel to loosen the film or any bonded dirt before rinsing.

Step 6: Rinse suds and loosened dirt and road film off car before soap can dry. Start at the top and work your way down.

After washing one section, repeat to the rest of the car.

Step 7: Dry excess water off car using a clean, soft microfiber chamois.
Optional method would be to blow water off the car and out of any cracks and crevices.

Review
This is the perfect car wash for washing and cleaning an ceramic coated car. It offers high lubricity, plenty of cleaning strength to remove oily road film and dirt and it will do all of this without leaving any unwanted substances behind on the surface. I like the feel of this soap as you move your wash mitt over a panel as it feels silky smooth, which to me means excellent lubrication. The soap is free-rinsing, meaning it rinses off completely without leaving any film behind on the surface. Films left behind are either a sign of overuse of the soap or the soap includes some form of protection or shine and glossing ingredients. I didn't see any film left on the paint or glass after rinsing. Drying with a Guzzler Waffle Weave Microfiber Drying Towel was a breeze too as it should be with a coated car.

If you have a car with any brand of ceramic coating, this is great choice for your maintenance wash. Be sure to always use clean wash mitts and drying chamois to avoid having these things create any swirls and scratches into the paint and watch your technique when washing your car, be sure you're not scrubbing the paint.

This is now my go-to car wash soap for my coated cars.

On Autogeek.com

BLACKFIRE Pro Ceramic Coating Wash - 32 oz

BLACKFIRE Pro Ceramic Coating Wash - 1 gallon

When black paint is clean and swirl free it's a beautiful color for any car....

**RaptorGT** · 03-05-2019, 04:30 PM

Thanks Mike for this article! Am going to be using Blackfire Ceramic coating on my Uncles Challenger in a few weeks and I can show him this article to help him maintain the ceramic coating.

Andre

**acuRAS82** · 03-05-2019, 04:52 PM

Is this similar to PBL Coating Wash? I don’t recall if I ever found out whether that one rinses clean (like this or Reset) or whether it has a small amount of SiO2 (like Mckees).

**Desertnate** · 03-06-2019, 09:30 AM

Interesting product. I might have to take a look once my current inventory runs out.

That glowing beaker of soap looks a lot like the pink slime from Ghostbusters 2!

**Cruzscarwash** · 03-06-2019, 09:51 AM

any so it removed those spots easily? I guess we don't know how long they have been on the paint either. how would you compare this to something like Carpro reset?

**fly07sti** · 03-06-2019, 11:19 AM

Just as Cruz asked. How does this compare to Reset?

**Bruno Soares** · 03-06-2019, 11:47 AM

Seems to cost a couple bucks more than CarPro Reset. I don't feel like that product lacks anything to wash my coated car so I will keep using that unless many here on the forum find this new BF wash much better. I still have enough supply of Reset for many, many washes. I think Reset is also ok with 1oz, maybe 1.5oz for the same amount of water so it ends up being even cheaper.

Mike Phillips · 03-06-2019, 12:43 PM

Just to add....

You don't have to just use it on coated cars. Here's an example from yesterday.

Yesterday I tested how long a single 5 Amp batter will last on the soon-to-be-available CORDLESS FLEX XC 3401 - as a part of torturing the batteries I needed a car in bad condtion to do real-world testing as I don't do mock-up very well. So I detailed a 1971 Charger R/T for this project and before I could start buffing I needed to clean the car really well as it had a lot of bonded contamination on the paint.

I already had a bucket of the new BLACKFIRE Pro Ceramic Coating Wash mixed up and ready to do so that's what I used.

And here's my take - it worked just find and I prefer a car wash soap that doesn't add anything to a car that I'm PREPPING for machine polishing as,

A: The addition of any extra ingredients is simply not needed - I just want to get the car clean, I don't want to make it shiny or protect it.

B: Often times I need painter's tape to STICK to parts of the car and some car washes, because they leave glossing agents or protection behind hinder tape from sticking.

FWIW

Mike Phillips · 03-06-2019, 12:43 PM

Also....

Here's an old body shop technique I used while washing this old 2-door Dodge that I thought I would share...

Part of the reason I had to wash the car was the vinyl top was filthy with years of built-up dirt embedded into the grain of the vinyl. Also the tires had a real junky tire dressing on them that was just a gooey mess. Besides that, the paint felt rough when I did the Baggie Test so I needed to clay the paint before machine buffing.

Normally I don't wash classic car or muscle cars as a professional courtesy to the owner. In this case, the owner says he drives this car in the rain. It rains a lot in Florida, and I guess this would be his "Rain Car" as compared to the rest of his muscle car collection, which he doesn't drive in the rain. So I figure if he drives this car in the rain then I'm not going to cause any harm by washing it. So I washed it to tackle 4 things at one time.

1: Clean the wheels and tires.

2: Clean the vinyl top.

3: Clean the car.

4: Chemically and mechanically decontaminate the paint.

That brings me to this old school body shop technique. Normally I use a foam gun when I want to use a clay mitt or clay towel to mechanically decontaminate paint. This time though, because I already had a bucket mixed up with the new coating wash I wasn't using a foam gun.

So AFTER washing and rinsing off the car I dipped my wash mitt into the sudsy soap and then squeezed it onto body panels and then used the soap water run-off as my lubricant for the clay mitt.

Like this,

At a body shop, technicians do something similar when sanding guide coats or even wetsanding orange peel after the car is painted. They usually stick a rag into a bucket of soapy water and squeeze it over a vertical panel as they sand and the water running down the panel acts to lubricate the surface and flush away paint that has been sanded off.

Just thought I would share this....