What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

[HCAD]

What are your suggetions for cleaning and protection of flat black paint such as the one on this '69 Mustang I'm about to do?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

On the homepage you'll see this in the center column,


Have Questions? Looking for Answers?
So much good, practical and helpful information in the "Information Station" like these two forum groups and the List 'O Links thread.
Hot Topics
How To Articles


Click on the "How To Articles" forum and if you search around you'll find this article,

How To Maintain Vinyl Graphics/Stickers/Stripes/Decals


Read my posts in the above carefully as it explains all the details, (no pun intended), associated with the issues of trying to make surfaces that are matte and/or delicate look good.

This one is about matte black plastic but the same principals apply to your hood.

How to create a dark sheen on flat black plastic

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

Try to take some before and after pictures and show everyone how the hood turns out.

That's a very special car to get to work on, you're one lucky fellow...

[HCAD]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

I'll definitely do some before and after shots.

My hope was to find someone who had DONE a flat black "painted" surface. I'm leary of using the same technique that is used on flat black "plastic". Did I miss an example in the above linked threads?

[Superior Shine]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

treat it with #135

[spyghost]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

which is more difficult to maintain a flat/matte black paint finish or a super shiny mirror finish?

how about this, which is more "cost effective" to maintain between the two?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

My hope was to find someone who had DONE a flat black "painted" surface. I'm leary of using the same technique that is used on flat black "plastic". Did I miss an example in the above linked threads?

The problem now days is thre's not a lot of cars with flat black paint to work on and then take pictures and show on a forum in a thread, so the articles posted above used what I had to show how to take care of flat or matte surfaces.

Does the product referenced work on flat black paint? It's worked for me whenever I've had to work on it. Years ago I used a product called M42 Rubber Bumper Treatment on hoods just like the one you're working on and used the same technique shared in the above threads.

Gold Class Trim Detailer seem to work as good as M42

Again the problem you've run into is there isn't anything on the market called,

Flat Black Polish or Flat Black Wax

So you can do nothing and the flat black paint will look dull and usually splotchy over time and this ugliness on such a cool car is highlighted if you only buff out the paint.

So here's the deal, Gold Class Trim Detailer is NOT made for flat black paint, but again there's nothing I know of on the market for flat black paint. So what are you going to do?


Here's what I would do if I had the good fortune to buff-out that Mustang, I would "TEST" to a small area a little Gold Class Trim Detailer to a small section. Apply gently like you're putting lotion on your face. Wipe off gently using soft microfiber. Then inspect.

Here's what you're going to see, it's going to look better. It's going to have a rich dark, even sheen and all the paint surrounding it is going to look ugly compared to the test spot.

Then once you show yourself the product works you'll have the confidence to rub out the entire flat black section of the hood.

Usually I would rub it out first and then wipe off the excess and then buff out the paint on the car. Then come back and either give it a final wipe, or even apply it a again and give it a final wipe. The most important thing to do is to make sure it's not smeary with any excess residue and you can do this by giving a food final wipe using a folded microfiber using a slow wiping motion. There's an article about final wiping in the how-to article section and I just wrote a new one with video on AG.

If you run into any kind os streaking at all then use a quick detailer and wipe again.

I understand you're dilemma as I've been there and done that but have always had good luck with M42 when it was around and now GCTD


Joe aka SuperiorShine recommended M135 which is a quick detailer in the Professional Line but you could also use Ultimate Quik Detailer in the Consumer Line as it will be easier to find.

That might be a safer approach but I doubt the spray detailer will create as rich, dark sheen as a lotion applied gently and worked over and into the paint.

That said, Joe's one of the best around and has worked on plenty of cars like this so maybe test both options and maybe even a combination of both, apply the Trim Detailer and give the surface a final wipe with the spray detailer.

Test, test, test.

Have fun, that's an awesome car to asked to buff out.

[HCAD]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

Thanks Mike (and Joe), I didn't mean to sound skeptical of your first answer, I just want to go in with as much confidence as I can. I'll report back soon.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

I 'think' this was flat gray paint, I don't remember because the car didn't interest me at all, at least not like a classic Mustang would grab my attention. That said, the owner said he couldn't find anything to use on the flat matte section of his hood so we simply had him do what I've suggested you try.

This was from one of our Thursday Night classes,

Pictures from Thursday Night Open Garage - April 2nd, 2009



















Before it was dull and very flat gray and now it has a rich, dark sheen that compliments the rest of the paint and plastic trim.



The hood looks better but it's still kind of ugly... makes you wonder why car manufactures would make surfaces like this where there's no way to work on them?

[the_invisible]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

Is it just me, or does applying trim detailer to flat black surfaces makes the paint look like faded gloss black?

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

Is it just me, or does applying trim detailer to flat black surfaces makes the paint look like faded gloss black?

Can you show some before and after pictures of components you've worked to show us more clearly what you mean?


Most people think the below results were a great improvement, I know the owner did and as I stated numerous times there is nothing I know of on the market specifically dedicated to flat or matte surfaces so what's a person to do?

Everyone reading can decide if the left side looks better or not...

How to create a dark sheen on flat black plastic

Flat black looks cool when it's used to accent components rear window louvers on this Mustang. There are two problems with flat black surfaces

1) Over time the the flat black appearance becomes dull and loses it's dark sheen.

2) There's nothing really on the market targeted and the variety of different flat black components to restore and maintain their appearance.


Part of the problem is the material or the coating that makes up whatever the flat black component is varies greatly from from a thin vinyl tape used for graphics, to flat black paint used to paint components and flat black plastic which is where the pigment is throughout the entire plastic matrix of the component.

Meguiar's doesn't make a product specific to flat black surfaces just like no one else does, at least at the time stamp of the post. When left without options, a car crazy enthusiast has to take what they can get if it's shows to actually help, (solve the problem, and not harm, (cause a problem).

Meguiar's Gold Class Trim Detailer is for restoring and maintaining rubber, plastic and vinyl trim, so while it's not specifically for these louvers and the material they are made out of, it does work pretty good.

The way to use it is to gently massage this product onto the surface using a clean, soft foam applicator pad, somewhat like you would rub skin lotion onto our face. Allow to penetrate for a few minutes and then softly wipe all surfaces down with a clean microfiber to remove any excess residue off the surface.

The results are a deep, dark black sheen...

[HCAD]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

Thought I would add somewhat of an update to the mystery of flat black paint. The '69 Mustang I'm planning to do is still on the books but scheduling conflicts have left it undone so far. However, there seems to be plenty of other Mustangs with flat black on them. This is a '04 Supercharged Stang we recently did and I took the opportunity to compare Meguiar's Gold Class Trim Detailer against Meguiar's #135 Synthetic Spray Detailer.

As a side note Mike, I was a little unnerved by the statement on the back of the GCTD that said "Not for use on painted surfaces" ... But I trudged onward anyway.

The left of the spoiler is Gold Class Trim Detailer (as you see it in the pic), the right side is #135.





Hopefully you can see that the GCTD is noticably darker and wetter looking. The #135 seems to clean some of the marks off but didn't leave a change in color. Some people may like that idea better. I decided to finish with the GCTD.







I also tried both products on a club members RX-8 that he had painted flat black from the trunk lid, across the roof and over the hood. We just took an inconspiquous corner to try each chemical, he wasn't ready to let me practice on his newly painted car. But the same results showed, the GCTD left the area jet black and glossy. More buffing with a microfiber would lessen the glossy finish if that's the way you wanted it.

Still to discover: the longevity of the GCTD. I'm wondering what a rain storm on this newly applied product is going to look like?

'69 Mustang coming soon!

[Mike Phillips]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

Still to discover: the longevity of the GCTD. I'm wondering what a rain storm on this newly applied product is going to look like?

'69 Mustang coming soon!

Water will tend to remove any product still on the surface so maybe wipe the surface down really good with a microfiber as microfibers excel at removing trace residues off smooth surfaces.

There's really not any great options for working on flat surfaces as I think I pointed out in this thread and every thread I post to on this topic, that's why I often write,

Sometimes, something is better than nothing


When it comes to the classic 1969 Mustang, my guess is that it's not going to be washed often or driven in rainy or inclement weather often, thus how water-proof GCTD is won't be an issue, at least not as much of an issue as will be making the flat black hood look as good as the paint after you polish it to perfection and there in we circle back around to the original dilemma and it's important to keep projects like this in the proper perspective.

If you polish the paint to perfection, you need to do something to the flat black hood or it's flatness, lifelessness and even ugliness will take away from your hard work to the paint. So in cases like these you have to look outside the box for something to help you complete the job or put the frosting on the cake.

Thanks for the update! Can't wait to see the 'after' pictures after you buff out the 1969 Mustang.

[Tuck91]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

Came across a similar situation with this Mustang, and GC trim Detailer worked very well.

[ajb39oh]

Re: What Do You Do With A Flat Black Hood?

For daily drivers with flat black, would Turtle Wax Ice work for that since Meguiar's doesn't have a specific product for flat? Turtle Wax would have you believe that Ice works on everything.