Paint chip repair on black Boxster: LANGKA or Dr. Colorchip or other?

[986_inquiry]

Originally Posted by healthservices

couple more after a buff

That last photo looks pretty decent, is that the finished result? I think I could live with that.

I'm already starting to figure out that photos of black cars can be horribly deceptive since photos of my car look pretty good but with in person you can see the "halo" rings of fine scratches in the paint, especially if you're looking at the reflection of a lightbulb in the paint.

I'm... pretty knowledgeable about wax. I started using Zaino in the late 90s on a maroon Beretta and became a big fan, but seeing how a full kit was $100+ I tried other brands over the years. I have two orbital buffers, a 8" and a 10", and a large assortment of different grades of cleaner wax, polish, carnauba wax, etc, you name it I have it.

Here's a photo of one of my shelves of wax (zaino is on a different shelf)


So the polishing and buffing I'm good on, it's the filling the paint chips I'm a bit about, especially with a black car where *everything* shows up.

[healthservices]

Originally Posted by 986_inquiry

I'm already starting to figure out that photos of black cars can be horribly deceptive since photos of my car look pretty good but with in person you can see the "halo" rings of fine scratches in the paint, especially if you're looking at the reflection of a lightbulb in the paint.


So the polishing and buffing I'm good on, it's the filling the paint chips I'm a bit about, especially with a black car where *everything* shows up.

You got that right! Black has always been a love hate affair with me.

I am still learning

I finally found out that it almost totally impossible to get a decent finish with a traditional store bought slow speed buffer unless you willing to spend a whole lot of time with it. Even then you may never get to the finish you want. They work good enough on light colored and metallic finishes but horrible on black if you want that mirror finish.

High speed buffer so far has been the only thing that works for me on black finishes. But it is also easy to burn the paint if not done properly

[Ghostrider 310]

IMO, a proper fix is going to include shooting the entire hood, unless it's basalt metallic, being black might be your friend, it's got to be easier to blend in than other exotic colors.

[986_inquiry]

Originally Posted by Ghostrider 310

IMO, a proper fix is going to include shooting the entire hood, unless it's basalt metallic, being black might be your friend, it's got to be easier to blend in than other exotic colors.

right, but I'd hate to have the hood shot for every new paint chip, it would be in the shop every few months if I did that.

[healthservices]

I don't have the finesse or patience for slow speed buffer probably because I still don't know how to use it.

And as far as painting whole panels, chips are so small when it is a slightly different color it can still be hard to see, where if you do a whole panel and if it is just slightly off you notice it right away

[Mrmaddbrad]

In my opinion, I just wash my car with a dish soap (to remove all of the old wax), clay bar it, use a light cut polish (that i apply by hand), and then use turtle wax black box on it. It feels so extremely glossly, you can't see any more swirl marks, and the black box fills in all the chips on the car.

Looks great. I always put a clear wax over the black box too. Setting 3 layers of wax. Looks beautiful. Have fun, and for EVERYTHING it should cost you about $50-$90 depending on the quality of the top layer of wax and polish. $25 for a clay bar kit, $20 for a black box.

Try it!! LOVE IT!! lol

[healthservices]

For whatever reason (not clean enough I suppose) I can never clay bar a black car correctly, and always get a stray long scratch that I later will have to spend a crap load of time on.

As for black box, we are lucky the boxer is so small, I would never be able to Black box a larger car.

That stuff is hard to buff off

[986_inquiry]

Originally Posted by healthservices

You got that right! Black has always been a love hate affair with me.

I am still learning

I finally found out that it almost totally impossible to get a decent finish with a traditional store bought slow speed buffer unless you willing to spend a whole lot of time with it. Even then you may never get to the finish you want. They work good enough on light colored and metallic finishes but horrible on black if you want that mirror finish.

High speed buffer so far has been the only thing that works for me on black finishes. But it is also easy to burn the paint if not done properly

No, you can definitely get a good finish from a "slow" speed buffer, it doesn't take thousands of RPMs to buff out minor scratches if you're using the right cleaner wax or polish, just have to find that perfect grit

the two black bottles in the photo are 3M machine polish. I've been spot testing all over the car my various cleaners/polishes and that did an amazing job by hand. Need to do more testing before going over the whole car but it looks promising so far. Tried some Meguiars medium cut cleaner (far left in photo) and that was way too harsh but the 3M buffed out the swirls.

I told wifey I promised not to buy anymore waxes until I used up some of the bottles I already have. If I find something that works as well as I remember Zanio working I'll post it here.