Best (consumer line) prescription for light colors?

[electricgreen]

Ok, we picked up an 03 Subaru Baja in december. Now that it's finally getting warm out, it's detail time. I know what works for my Stang (cleaner, polish, nxt topped with gc) but it's a darker, metallic color. Now, how do I make my yellow Baja "pop" like the stang? I've used polish & nxt once, and it looked good, but it just didnt pop. I know it'a partly a short coming on light colored vehicles, but...

This is the DD, so it needs to be durable & look good doing it. Our driveway is covered with maples, so it gets tree sap on it daily.

The stang:


The Baja:

[Mike Phillips]

From looking at the picture, I'm not sure you can make that color of yellow Pop!, at least like you can a metallic paint. (That's usually the term used to describe metallic paints that are polished to a high level and ultra clear and glossy).

Mellow paints like the yellow on your car, like white paint, are best if you get them as glossy as possible. Gloss comes from smoothness and a couple of coats of a good wax.

Try claying, then a paint cleaner like either Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner, or ScratchX, then a pure polish and then two coats of wax. If you do all of the above, whatever the end-result is, this will be the paint's maximum potential.

[Murr1525]

Well, in sticking with the consumer line, the only variation you could try is going with a gold class wax, or #26 wax, etc. I mention #26 as I have seen it at some Autozone type places, so you may get it just as easily. Trying the different options of wax can change the look of the car.

[Don]

Did someone say yellow? This is yellow on NXT. I think the prep was done with #83 Swirl Free Polish or #82 DACP, but I bet Color-X would work just as well on your Scooby

[electricgreen]

Originally posted by Mike Phillips
From looking at the picture, I'm not sure you can make that color of yellow Pop!, at least like you can a metallic paint. (That's usually the term used to describe metallic paints that are polished to a high level and ultra clear and glossy).

That's what I was afraid of...I pretty much knew that would be the answer, but I was really hoping someone had a secret method of making "flat" (non metallic lighter colors) "POP".

It's funny, but one of the main reasons I want to repaint my Ranger a different color is that it will never "pop" (it's a light blue/silver color).

Hopefully soon I'll get a chance to clay, polish & wax-I was going to just wash & Wax with GC this weekend, but found the paint in need of a claying/paint cleaner, so I just washed and figured I'd wait on the wax until I could properly prep the surface. I guess I spent too much time on the Stang-I ran out of daylight before I could get to the Baja!