skwidd

This is kind of a lazy question.

Is the RX8 paint single stage or dual stage paint?

I have a Brilliant Black RX8 and it has some swirls, as to be expected on black paint. So I bought some McGuire's swirl/scratch remover, cheese cloth, and McGuire's high end wax (I forget the name...it's a paste carnuba wax).

I washed the car today, and decided I would just mess with the hood. I applies the sqirl remover, then applied the paste wax. The hood is now slicker than goose sh*t, but it's not as deep as I would like.

My last car had single stage paint and with McGuire's cleaner wax, polisher, and carnuba wax, the paint looked 3 feet deep. I assumed the RX8 paint was dual stage, so I elminated the cleaner wax and polisher. I'm not all that satisfied.

Any suggestions on polishing/waxing products?

Raptor2k

What do you mean by depth?

Not satisfied...meaning swirls are still there? Do you have a porter cable?

skwidd

Depth...with single stage paint, if I use the cleaner wax, then the polisher, then the carnuba, the paint "looks" 3 feet deep (or some other measurement, but I hope you get the idea). If you don't know what I am talking about, I'll have to show you. It really is a visual thing. The paint looks deep. Not thick, but deep.

I guess the best example I can give is what we used to call European clear, but I'm not sure if that was a local (as in, the people I associated with) description or an actual description of the clear coat. A good clear coat that gave the paint depth. Am I making sense?

Yes, swirls are still there. I applied swirl remover today, but it just didn't make it look like glass.

This is the only thing I hate about black paint. It has swirls. No other color has this. Red cars do not show this at all. Gray cars either. I've never messed with a white car, so I cannot comment. Oh, canary yellow doesn't get this either. Black shows everything. Swirls, water spots, whatever. Very hard to detail (I'm limited on experience with black cars)

I guess what I am really looking for is what polish/wax does everyone use that gives the best shine to a brilliant black car.

I'm using McGuire's carnuba wax right now, with the swirl remover applied first. I did not want to buy the polish as I think the paint is dual stage (let me define dual stage...pigmented paint first, then clear coat.). Polish only works on single stage paint.

I have an orbital buffer, but it's only good for applying/removing wax. I do not have the experience for a high speed buffer. I'll burn that paint. hehe.

juikster

I like the 2+3 stage method myself.....it is thicker and has more depth...hmm that sounded sexy......

Raptor2k

The paint is single stage (clear coat first). There is something about the rx8's paint...it's just very weak, it swirls and chips easily. My red still has some swirling after working on them for a while, but it's only barely noticeable in very bright, direct sunlight, so it's not much of a big deal anymore.

I tried Meguire's swirl remover. It's made to be used by hand, but it made 0% different in my swirls, it was actually the first product I tried. Removing swirls with an orbital, different wax and a cutting pad is your only option that I know of.

Still not sure what you mean by depth, lol...do you mean how reflective the paint is?

voodooray

Haven't you ever looked at a paint job and thought you could jump right into it? I think that it was he means by depth...

Raptor2k

Yeah, so a mirror effect?

RX8kicka$$

Ya, Raptor is the man when it comes to swirls. If you were going to ask someone on this forum about swirl removing it would be him. I would check out his thread that he posted in the RX-8 Shine and Show section. It has some very useful information and he uses a lot of different techniques that could be useful to anyone. You could find it by doing a simple search or it is still probably on the first page.

Raptor2k

Meh. I just had swirls and wanted to know the easiest way to get rid of them, and I ended up learning a lot of the basics for car detailing at autopia.org. I still don't know what are the best products for the rx8's paint (I used poorboy's swirl removers) but I'm not about to go shopping for polishes just to find out.

Another key to swirls is to limit them as much as possible and to not get them on the paint in the first place.

stickman

I am under the impression that the paint is two stage, pigmented base coat and then clear coat top. Dark colors are tough to keep nice, they tend to show every little scratch and speck of dirt; but when they are clean and nicely waxed nothing looks better. These days it seems just about all the cars have a micro-thin paint finish, I think it is a result of environmental issues and cost containment.

DOMINION

Bub. I dont even think that our paint is a one stage lol! I'm going with House Of Kolor as soon as I get my MS kit

Raptor2k

Ok I guess you're going in reverse....the clear coat is the OUTSIDE layer from what I know

skwidd

This man is correct.

Stickman, you are correct.

OK...well, here's what I am going to do. Cleaner, then polish, then carnuba. I will see if I can get representative pictures after I do the foregoing. I thought cleaner wax and polish were only good for single stage, but a friend of mine told me he used on a dark green dual stage car and it worked great.

Thanks guys.

Raptor2k

i guess i'm going in reverse*

daisuke

Almost all modern car paint comes clear coated (dual stage). I think when you talk about depth you're talking about the wet look. carnauba wax can give you that look if you layer it on with very thin multiple layers (very hard to do)

I like carnauba myself, but use only good brands like mother's or meguiar's. I use mother's cleaner wax for my saturn. All Eagle 1 products are crap.

the best caranuba wax is pinnacle souveran paste wax, it also costs around 60 bucks a can.

if you use carnauba then I recommend using a detailing spray afterwards as well, I used meguiar's on my car and the paint went DEEP and WET (two very good words) much more so than when just waxed, it's also relatively cheap for the bang it gives you.

PS: any product that says clear coat safe is going to be ok for you, and these days there isn't much that isn't, just stay away from most polishes and all compounds.

Raptor2k

^I like Eagle 1's soap spray, it gets the job done

skwidd

Check out Raptor's links. The cars in those links are beautiful

Raptor2k

Here are the links...the detailer knows his stuff


Black rx8 from Singapore w/ a bodykit:
http://autopia.org/forum/showthread....2&page=1&pp=12

Black Miata:
http://autopia.org/forum/showthread.php?t=68878&page=1