2015 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack - Black- *Soft Paint*

[jrm523]

Let me start by saying this was my first big polishing job (with a DA). I recently found this forum, joined and made a huge purchase as it has been way past due for my Challenger to get a good polish job done on her. I have always done this by hand in the past. I started by doing tons of research on everything from what products to use to technique (I even purchased Mike Phillips book and read it twice!). I was certain that i would not have a perfect outcome due to my inexperience and the millions of product combinations out there but in the end i couldn't be happier!

The car:
2015 Dodge Challenger Scat Pack - pitch black - soft clear coat

Products used:
Harbor Freight DA multi-speed polisher
Lake Country 5" backing plate
Lake Country Hydro-tech pads (Blue, Tangerine, Crimson)
McKee's 37 Universal Detailing Clay
Menzerna Super Finish 3500
Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant 3.0

I started with claying my car. I did not like the McKee's clay at all. It is very tough and not pliable. This made it near impossible to use being that it was a little cold outside. I ended up using some clay i purchased at a car show a while back (cant remember the name offhand). I then performed my test spots and started with the tangerine pad but ended up moving to the blue pad. My paint had only had sealant applied when i purchased it in 2015. The paint had swirl marks and random scratches (IE: cat or another animal tried to climb the side of my car ###). I was able to take out most of them with the blue pad by going slow and doing 6-7 passes with medium to hard pressure. I was able to remove 98% of my scratches and only have a few oddball deeper ones here and there.

My procedure was the following: 6-7 passes with blue pad, wipe, 4-5 passes with orange pad, wipe, final pass with crimson pad and Wolfgang sealant. The car turned out amazing. I have never seen the paint look that good.

Overall the process was extremely time consuming (i'm a bit of a perfectionist) and I was surprised at the endurance it takes to see this through. I'm in shape but have a bad back and was sore all over after finishing today. It took approximately 2 days for me to complete. I apologize for not having more "before" pics.


Before pics (including scratches from cat like animal and normal swirl):



After pics:

[hoyt66]

Nice car. Did you use the blue first? then the orange? Or is that a typo

[Sizzle Chest]

That came out very nice!

[jrm523]

Nice car. Did you use the blue first? then the orange? Or is that a typo

Thanks fellas!

I used the blue (cutting) pads first and then the orange (polishing) pads after. Then I used the crimson pads for the sealant.

I'm still blown away with how good the car looks.. We took her to run errands tonight and I kept looking back. I was worried about swirls being that the clear is so soft but I stripped the polish on my test spot and there was none.



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[TMQ]

That is awesome! Hope my detail will look that good!!!

Tom

[SWETM]

Nice work and a beutieful car!

[hoyt66]

Thanks fellas!

I used the blue (cutting) pads first and then the orange (polishing) pads after. Then I used the crimson pads for the sealant.

I'm still blown away with how good the car looks.. We took her to run errands tonight and I kept looking back. I was worried about swirls being that the clear is so soft but I stripped the polish on my test spot and there was none.



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Got it. Nice job. I always look back at my car. It's a prerequisite for autogeeker's :-)

[MattPersman]

Wait you used 3500 for the entire car all the steps ?

That’s a finishing polish you should have used some sort of compound to start it would have cut many passes off your process. Passes = time.

Looks great though


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[jrm523]

Wait you used 3500 for the entire car all the steps ?

That’s a finishing polish you should have used some sort of compound to start it would have cut many passes off your process. Passes = time.

Looks great though


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I used the 3500 for the first two steps (blue and tangerine pads) and the Wolfgang sealant for the third and final step. The challenger has extremely soft paint and the blue pad with the 3500 got every swirl and scratch out minus the deep ones.

I was trying to use the least aggressive products to get the job done considering my paint is so soft. Granted I'm a total beginner at this stuff and im sure there may have been a more optimal way.

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[osiapstndp]

Pitch Black (no metallic effect) has always been and continues to be softer than the old pearl Brilliant Black and the current pearl Phantom Black. Surprisingly I don't get a lot of Pitch Black Mopars, but quite a few Brilliant Black and Phantom Black Challengers, Chargers and 300s make their way to me.

Here's an example of hazing left behind by an aggressive compound on the large "C" pillar (or "B" pillar if you want to call it that) on a 2014 Pitch Black Challenger. Look to the left of the line of demarcation. A finishing polish and pad cleared it up very nicely.



Here are few shots from Brilliant Black and Phantom Black. A similar compound and pad were used, but less hazing is visible. There is still haze on the pearlescent paintwork, but on Pitch Black the effect is much stronger and more noticeable in normal lighting.

2015 Phantom Black Charger


2007 Brilliant Black Charger (the paintwork looks blue because of the camera's inaccurate white balance)


2008 Brilliant Black Challenger (the white balance is off on this one too)


Granite Crystal Metallic seems to be more resilient and less prone to micro-marring than the other darker colors from Dodge and Chrysler. I had a Granite Crystal Metallic Challenger for two years and all of the other Challengers I've worked on of the same color have required a more aggressive compound and pad than the blacks, dark reds and dark blues.