Black Paint Care
 

So I recently brought my Black Z/28 with stock chrome rims down to California to be with me. No matter how often I go to the car wash I feel like I do a subpar job of cleaning my car which I would like to fix. What are some general care tips/tricks from some people who actually know a thing or two about taking care of these vehicles? It' a gorgeous car, and I care about it, but I want to feel like I deserve the car and I'm not just another guy driving around who doesn't appreciate what he has. Also, if anyone could recommend a good car cover for the SoCal area, specifically Oceanside and the surrounding area, please point me in the right direction, preferably one that wont scratch my paint! Thanks in advance!

I have both, a Black '97 Ram-Air and a Black '02 Firehawk. Both killer looking cars in their black color, but also a PITA to keep clean. I'd be at the car wash twice a week during my lunch breaks.

The past few years I'm driving around in a Red Firehawk. Much easier to keep looking clean!

The price to pay of a good looking black car is the difficult in keeping it looking clean.

Come on over to Autogeek or Autopia. You will get a lot of good info there.

I'm a detail freak with vehicles and I have had probably 10-15 cars/trucks with Black paint. It's the best color ever. That being said, it's a bitch to clean. Many times I have cleaned/waxed/buffed and felt like I needed to start over at the end of it because it's already dirty. Most of it is in my head, but you will know every flaw in your paint once you spend enough time with a black car.

My advice, once you have it shined up nice, back up about 10ft from the car and you will see that the car is awesome and most the flaws will fade away. You can do some searching for threads about clay baring a vehicle and buffing and all of that jazz. It's another hobby in itself.

A good clay job is always a great place to start. Then look to see if you have any scratches that could be compounded or polished out. A simple DA polisher is more than sufficient for most hobbyists, and very safe.

Poor washing techniques is definitely the bane of black paint.

This is true. It makes me cringe when I see someone only using one bucket.

My neighbors see me using two buckets and they still don't get it lol

lol. I've had to explain simple paint care stuff to a lot of people. Nobody washes/details their own cars anymore :(

Certainly sad. With car companies out churning out appliances left and right, the hobby is certainly losing ground.

Whatever cover you use put down Flannel bed sheet or polar fleese on surface before you pull the cover on. I've done that since I did a 12 hour detail 4 years ago and have not put swirls back in. I have lightly repolished bottom of 1/4s
because blankets don't kling to side panels like hood,roof,trunk. Never use duster and I use Ultima wasterless wash plus concentrate. Its the best stuff I have found.