Looking for high gloss finish-metallic silver paint

[Roger54]

As in the title I have a metallic silver paint on my Mustang and it's nice. I have tried Nu Finish and it does a pretty nice job, better that turtle wax for sure. But I really want to try to get as high a gloss mirror finish as I can, within certain financial constraints of course. I don't mind a prep coat of this or that, to be followed with something else if it will give me a good mirror type look. I know metallic paints are difficult in this regard. I just bought some of Maguiars Gold paste 'wax' but haven't had a chance to try it. But I would really like to find something that can make it 'pop'. Maybe I'm asking for too much but thought I would ask around anyway. Thanks

[joaks]

Re: Looking for high gloss finish-metallic silver paint

I used M07 followed by ultimate wax paste on my silver clearcoat. this looks pretty good.

[Mark58]

Re: Looking for high gloss finish-metallic silver paint

Check this!

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=43209

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Looking for high gloss finish-metallic silver paint

Welcome to MOL, Roger!

Silver is never going to show the kind of depth or wetness that can be achieved with black, red and other dark colors. And it's not just because it's metallic either, it has more to do with it just being such a light color. But that certainly doesn't mean that an extremely high gloss, bright finish can not be attained - or that you shouldn't shoot for the best finish possible. Unfortunately, the very best finish isn't going to come from your wax, it will happen with prep. Gloss comes from smoothness and flatness, and wax alone won't give you that, at least not to the highest degree.

Odds are you'll need to clay the car, even if it's very new. Claying will remove the above surface bonded contaminants that make the paint feel rough to the touch. It's a simple process, too.

After that, you need to visually inspect the paint in very good light to look for below surface defects like swirls, towel marks, etc. This can be extremely difficult to see on a silver car unless the level of defects is really bad. Pull the car out into direct sunlight and evaluate it there - in the shade nothing will stand out. These below surface defects are removed with a liquid paint cleaner such as Ultimate Compound, and removal of same will leave the paint very level and highly reflective. But doing this by hand is a lot of work - we won't sugar coat it!!

Now, if you can't detect any below surface defects in the paint, you can still do something to increase the gloss and add clarity to the finish - Ultimate Polish. UP is derived from M205 in our Mirror Glaze Pro line and it uses very fine, highly specialized abrasives. While maximum clarity with this product will come from applying it with a buffer (either a DA or rotary but the rotary requires a good degree of skill and experience!) but you can still apply it by hand.

After that, we would recommend a quality synthetic product like NXT Tech Wax 2.0 or Ultimate Wax. While final wax selection can be a very personal choice (and debates have raged for years over which is best!) there does seem to be a general consensus that carnauba waxes can yield a deeper, richer look to dark colors while synthetics tend to be brighter and crisper (detractors will say synthetics make a car look like it's wrapped in plastic). Since silver just can't look as deep and wet as black or red can, a good synthetic seems to be a great choice to really give it a bright and crisp shine. Unless you still prefer carnauba. Hey, we said it was personal thing!!!!

[joaks]

Re: Looking for high gloss finish-metallic silver paint

Michael reminds me: I used the clay first on my mine also. (I used the white clay that comes in the kit).