rccman100

so I washed, clayed, polished and waxed my silver 997.1. and it looks great. But I can still see some light spider webbing at certain angles in the sunlight and it doesn't quite have that "wet" look. Should a silver car even have that look? maybe doing a crappy job on the polish step or have a crappy polish. I don't have a good benchmark.

Anyone care to share pics of what she should look like when done RIGHT? (ideally in silver but anything you want to share would be appreciated). Thanks!

rccman

Skibum

It is very hard to get a wet look with silver.
What works for other colors will not work well for Silver.

This page may help:

http://www.autopia.org/forum/autopia...ine-gloss.html

rccman100

wow. brilliant article. thanks!

aaks38

Ive had the same problem with my arctic silver 997.1. I use Zaino and went through the entire process of paint prep to remove swirl marks and clay bar'd the car before 3 coats of wax but the swirls and webs show up under light. Its pretty hard to eliminate on silver. I have a feeling that maybe wet sanding maybe the only way but i wont venture into it.

Silver is a hard color to get the wet lookwit , usually its the dark colors. However, the carnauba waxes work well with reaching a wet look whereas the synthetics give you more of a optical shine and reflection. Try pinnacle souverign or menzerna..

IslandS52

Silver is a really difficult color to take to the "next level". While its a good color for a daily driver, it tends to hide dirt, swirls, and stone chips, its hard to achieve depth. I used to win local level clean car contests pretty consistently and as others have said, the most dramatic results are with darker colors (also most recognize how difficult it is to maintain). I have had silver cars in the past, most recently a silver M5 and I was never truly happy or impressed with its finish, even though I knew it was nearly flawless. With silver and white, you just need to be happy that clean look and the practicality.

It will never have the depth of a good black.

hakaida702

Did you hand polish or use a machine?

rccman100

all by hand. I don't have access to a power point where my car is anyway...... one thing I just realized I may have done wrong was applying the polish in a circular motion, instead of along a single direction. Though I've been detailing my cars for 25 years and grew up around my grandfather's body shop, I had never heard of this one. I always thought circular was best. But just found an article explaining why linear motion is actually better. and I guess it makes sense when you think about it.

rccman100

@ Island: wow!! what a finish! Now I regret not getting black

Eric - Plug Guy

Linear is key.

If the paint is in good shape, I've had good results with the Rejex we offer. And I have Arctic on my 09 Turbo Cab, and I can achieve a wet look.

However, some of what you are looking for is less of a 'which wax to use' question, and more of a 'what color' question. My prior Guards Red Porsches took on a deeper 'looking' shine than would any silver, or even white color. Black is obvious - stunning deep shine and nice wet look (for maybe an hour) before it gets dirty.

If you can get a pro to have a look at your paint (sounds like you have some connections) it may be that the first step is where you need to use something more aggressive (polish/compound) on some areas.

Then move forward with your products of choice and work on it. You will eventually achieve a better shine.

Good luck.

hakaida702

You need a machine polisher. I had minor swirls and scratches and could not get them out with hours of hand polishing. I got a flex and they were gone in minutes. Get a flex 3401 and menzerna polishes and they will come out easy. It took me a few passes to get it done right as I was new to polishing, but you have to let the machine and polish work.

RudyP

If you don't have access to a power plug where you keep the car, I'm not sure you should regret not having black!

I unfortunately have my cars backwards - my two 911s are polar silver and steel gray and they live a pretty pampered life mostly inside a nice garage where I have all kinds of cleaning equipment. My M3 is jet black and is the daily driver that is always outside. So predictably the M3 always looks dirty while the 911s look nice but not amazing. I wish I had gotten my M3 in silver or steel gray.

Marine Blue

Carnauba's tend to give a deeper appearance and wet look. What products are you currently using?

Here is a shot of my Spyder, I use Pinnacle Souveran Carnauba. First shot is under fluorescents and the second under the sun.

Quadcammer

Everybody ooohs and aaahs pictures like this, but really any clean black car will present such an image, wax or no wax, polish or no polish (obviously not oxidized).

The key is what it looks like in direct sunlight, and really only good detailers like to post those pics.