Ok.. after listening to the prophet Dr Bonz and the oracle Brad4rdHay.. I'm documenting my next stage of the car worship.. polymers

I chose Blackfire based on its supposedly better look on dark colored cars vs Zaino. I've heard on dark colors, Zaino doesn't get as 'wet' look. My Z is super black, and deep wet is what I want.

Background: I live near DC and my car is a daily driver. It sees rain, mud, whatever (everything but snow and ice ). It is garage kept though.

Prior to this, the car was maintained using 3M Swirl Remover for Dark Colors as a polish, One Grand Blitz Wax, Meguiar's Gold Class Shampo, and Meguiar's Final Inspection QD Spray. The car was waxed in Nov and again about a month ago. Both times, full polish and wax, but no claying. I apply my polish with a PC orbital and remove with microfiber towels. I apply wax with a foam pad, and remove with microfiber towels.

I have some photos after my first wax session, which I'm going to use loosly as a baseline. Unfortunatly those photos were taken in the morning, and the Blackfire photos are taken in the late afternoon. I turned the car to try to get the same side for the photos, but realized afterwards, the big shadow from my neighbors tree really darkened the photos.. but thats later!

What's the problem with my wax? Dust from removal. My biggest issue was having to go over the car several times after polishing before waxing to not trap anything, and then cleaning up after waxing. Also, white stain in the rubber trim is always an issue with carbunua waxes. The Z is an incredibly easy car to wax, but I was looking for a bit more. Durability is of course important, but I didn't have as much an issue with that, as my Blitz applications seemed to hold up well.

So my process!! (and comments!)

Since I have a wax on the car.. I started with a Dawn washing. My car was still beeding pretty well prior, so the last wax was still holding on. After the wash, you could definatly tell a difference in the beeding, but the water still beeded decently on most of the car.. some parts were obviously more stripped then others.

I then immediatly went to my Pinnacle Clay Bar, using their Clay Lubercant. I'm not a huge believer in Clay yet (used it on one of my older cars once before this), but I wanted to go all out on the Z this time. I clayed the entire car, and while the surface definatly does get smoother, I still do not see great results from it in terms of removing visable stuff. For instance, on my side sills, there was definatly a sandpaper feel as I started with clay, and it got smooth as I worked it. However, on my front bumper, there were bug guts the clay simply wouldn't touch.. most of them, it didn't do poop for (pun intended).

I rinsed the car as I finished major sections to get the clay lubercant off, and when it was all done, dried the entire car with my Big Blue Towel and pulled it into the garage and stowed it under my cover for the night. Now I know some people will bash saying I should have fully washed the car after the claying, but the car looked pretty good after the rinsing, and I really didn't have time to wash it that night. (I was doing this after-work during the week).

Next day, after work, I pop off the cover and inspect the car. I'm still peeved about the bug guts and the front bumper in general, so I break out my 3m polish, and hand polish the problem areas. Of course it cuts right through the foreign stuff. I wipe those areas clean and move on. Since it was just the bumper and a few spots, I wasn't too worried about the polishes fouling each other, and just moved on without stripping that area again.

I then move to the Blackfire paint polish, and apply using a white pad from properautocare.com and my PC oribital set at 3. I work the car in sections, working it to a fine film, then wipe the residue off with a MF towel.

This was the one step that kinda seemed questionable from all the stuff I read.. to let the entire car dry, or wipe it off in sections. Since polishes don't really protect themselves, I interpreted the instructions to remove the residual as you went.

The polish was easy to apply, didn't stain anything and went on fine. However, when you are trying to everything so thin (like you do with Zaino as well) its really a pain to know where you've been or not Doing this on a silver car would be alot more painful.

After polishing and wiping down the entire car.. first thing to notice.. the car is noticably cleaner then after polishing with 3M, meaning, less residue and dusting. Just had to make sure there wasn't any spots that had any residue.. think of what it looks like with a hand-print on the car.. thats what it would look like if you didn't get it off.. like skin-oil (blackfire is an oil-emmersion).

Moving onto the paint protection step, I switched to a MF applicator pad, as I didn't have a finishing pad for my PC. The stuff is very easy to apply, but again, the thin factor keeps you on your toes to know where you've been or not, etc. I used a cheat photo from Dr Bonz's last experiment as a guide of what 'thin film' really was. This stuff is the more dry it is.. the easier it is to remove.. so again.. taking from the Dr, I left the stuff on the car overnight in the garage (no cover of course). I finished the polishing, wipedown, and application of the protectant, in under 2 hours.

Next day, I was not going to be home that night, so I was worried that 2 days would be too long to leave the protectant on without removing it. So I got up a few minutes early before work and went to remove it from the Z. Talk about EASY! This stuff comes right off.. its like dusting your car.. no effort at all to buff off/out. I used a clean MF towel, and was done in less then 20 minutes. I put the cover on the car, waiting till the next day to take it outside, and get a good look at it.

Next day (today), I pull it out to check it out. First off, I saw what appeared to be alot more swirls in the paint then before. Also, the car seemed to still have a bit of an oily film on it in certain areas. Checking it out, buffing a bit more with a MF towel seemed to clear it right up.. and most of the swirls. So I wiped down the entire car again, and it definatly looked much much better.

So what's the judgement? The car is definatly slick.. not sure how much more then after my traditional polish/wax.. but its SUPER slick.. getting the car cover on is a challenge cuz it slides right off the car!

As for a polish, it did a good job cleaning up some minor scratches I had accumulated since the last polishing, but more significant ones were not hidden. It made them less visable definatly, but I had one on my door, a big arc, that while you needed a reflection to see, the Blackfire still could not hide fully. The one scratch I had that actually had parts that you could see white, the Blackfire again did a pretty good job of making it harder to see. Swirl wise... outside of reflection sunlight.. the car looks FLAWLESS.. in reflections, its good, but not prefect. Trying to compare to my full 3M treatment, its hard to tell if my car had just accumulated more since then when I looked at it with the 3M job. At first I was very pleased with Blackfire, after pulling it into the Sun, I was disappointed majorly, but after the second wipedown, I think I'm back to its on par, or even slightly better then my 3M finish. However, there is NOTHING under the finish, in terms of missed spots, residue, etc.. so in that sense, it spanks using the 3M and traditional wax.

Summary is next...

 

So in summary..

I'm still not a huge fan of clay... I've tried it now on a 8 year old car (non-garage kept) and my Z. Both saw improvements, but I wouldn't put it above a good cleaner polish with an orbital.

Blackfire is definatly MUCH easier and quicker to apply then traditional waxes. Anyone who is scared because this and Zaino are two step processes, do not be worried. You should be polishing with your waxes anyways, so you should be used to two steps, but they are MUCH easier then traditional wax and polish.

Its definatly MUCH cleaner to apply. You don't use as much, so your towels do not get clogged as much, and there is no dust from dried haze.

The finish is SUPER slick.. probably more so then my previous waxing.

The finish visually is great.. the car looks flawless in all but the most stressful situations.. and I have a black car.. which is the worst for that.

The reflectivity of the finish is simply stunning.. photos will show that.

Durability.. well thats just going to have to wait to see.. I do plan on layering as well later.. but I think the history has proven these types of products do well in this catagory.

How long did it all take? I did it over 3 days total because I hurt my back recently so I can't work on the car like this for an all-day session.. and I was doing it during the work week.

Day 1: Clean. Washed paint, wheels. Clayed, rinsed, dried. 2.5 hrs

Day 2: Polish and set. Applied polish, removed polish, applied protectant. Less then 2hrs

Day 3: Removed Protectant. 20 min

Day 4: Wiped down car. Vacuum and Cleaned interior, cleaned glass, 303'd interior and tires, polished exhaust tips and waxed rims. 3 hrs

So total.. about 8hrs.. but now the car is FULLY detailed.. paint, glass, interior, and wheels.

Now to the jury!! Photos!

 

Ok, here is a 'baseline' from the Blitz Wax. Very reflective.. very wet without a 'silvery' shine to it.

 

Ok, 'similar' photo for the Blackfire. Yes, the sun is brighter for this photo, and its not the same exact shot. These images are about 7 months apart!

 

Ok, this is again the original Wax photo.. I think this one shows the nice deep look the wax gives.

 

Ok, here is a similar shot with blacfire. Unfortunatly the angle wasn't as good, and the background is more cluttered in this shot.

 

Of course.. you gotta have the sky shot! Here is the original wax shot

 

Ok, here is the 'similar' shot with Blackfire. The sun was VERY bright today, so that plays a big factor in this shot.. but the clarity in the house reflection is pretty good.

I should also note.. the hood has been repainted since the original wax photo, and when I got it back from the bodyshop had noticable orange peel where the original hood paint job didn't.

 

Of course.. you have to do the split shot! Here is the original wax photo.

 

Ok, same concept.. different shot. Again, much brighter sun today then in the original wax photos... but for this photo.. I'm actually in the shade of a tree.

 

Of course.. what car worship session would be complete without the photo of self shot.

So what do you guys think?

Locals.. I'll be at Evolution on Sunday I want to compare side by side with VaGent's Zaino'd Brickyard.


No I'm not that fat.. I'm tall

 

Very Nice! Lookin really good bus.

I have never used the Blackfire. What exactly is it made up of?

As far as carnuaba products are concerned, read my latest editorial: My Supper With Sal

 

Its a similar style product to Zaino.

Sales spin - http://www.properautocare.com/blacwhatdif.html

Like Zaino.. there is a polish.. and protectant. They can be layered as well.

I've heard of Zaino looking too silverish, on black cars, rather then deep wet, so thats why I thought I'd try blackfire before moving right to Zaino.

Call me stubborn.. but I want to see all the outcomes for myself. I'm still thrilled with the output of both products (blitz and blackfire) but it seems to be the process and effort so far thats the biggest difference.

 

I found that Blackfire looks better after the first wash and also after applying a second coat (this observation was on a Daytona Blue car). Definitely concur with your ease of use comments. That was one of the deciding factors for me.

 

I think your main problem with claybar is that you don't understand it. It is not intended or advertised to take off things like bugs or bird poop. It's not really even supposed to be thought of as an abrasive. It doesn't scrub off substances that are sitting on the surface of the paint. Rather, it pulls out particles that are imbedded in the surface of the paint.

You should have scrubbed off the bug guts & bird poop before you brought out the claybar.

 

Interesting.. the clay bar vendors seem to disaggree with you:

From zaino's website:
Also.. from properautocare.com
I've found them to be ineffective for these applications.. and as for the 'industrial fallout' arguement.. I can see that for the rare needed cleaning.. but for smoothing out the surface.. I'll stick to polish.

 

I've done some research on Blackfire. Did you know that there is another product that is basically Blackfire in different packaging. Made by the same company and sold as "Platinum". I am always leary of products that do that.

There is only one Zaino.

 

Didn't know that. How does Platinum compare in price and availability to Blackfire?. When you say "basically" the same, is there a minor difference in the composition?

 

Platinum and Blackfire are not the same. They just happen to use the same bottling company. I email both companies and they said they have no relations whatsoever.

 

flynnibus,

Great shots. I have Blackfire for my wifes Rover. I have been putting a small amout of BF in a bottle of Final Inspection to use as my QD. Just 5-6 drops in a spray bottle, shake well and spray. Gives a little added shine and sealant.

As for Platinum (Ultimate Paint Protection, UPP) and Blackfire, I ordered the trial kit of UPP and found that they are not even simular. I tried them both on seprate side of the Rovers hood and while they both gave acceptable shine, slickness and ease of application; I was not as happy with the UPP as with Blackfire. The UPP was harded to remove.