A3 Phantom Black - Paintwork Care

[badgerb]

Hi

We yesterday ordered an A3 5 dr 2.0 TDi Sport in Phantom Black for my wife.

Question is - how is it best to clean and protect the paintwork.

* Does anyone have an Audi in Phantom Black and have any advice?

* The dealer would like to sell her a Supagard Plus package for £400 - I am a little skeptical about the value of this ?

thanks in advance BB

ps: or was Phantom Black a bad idea?

[tlionhart]

Hi

We yesterday ordered an A3 5 dr 2.0 TDi Sport in Phantom Black for my wife.

Question is - how is it best to clean and protect the paintwork.

* Does anyone have an Audi in Phantom Black and have any advice?

* The dealer would like to sell her a Supagard Plus package for £400 - I am a little skeptical about the value of this ?

thanks in advance BB

ps: or was Phantom Black a bad idea?

-sadly with a black car they are a PAIN IN THE A** to keep speckless. When washed, water marks show very easily. However a simple layer of wax will remove these. Also swirls are very noticeable on black cars. (caused by stones or very fine stones in the bucket when the car is washed using a sponge or mitt. Very hard to prevent.) Some pieces of advice for you;
*hose the car to remove stones, dust from the paint. BEFORE you wash with the sponge/wash mitt.
*use a wash mitt rather than a sponge. Wash mitts are better. The maquires one is the one i use.
*rinse the mitt often during the soaping stage. Helps remove stones which fall to the bottom of the bucket. Also recommend buying a 'grit guard' to prevent your wash mitt from picking the stones back up from the bottom. This is simplest method to prevent those swirls you see in sunlight. Using 2 buckets, so one for rinsing the mitt and the other for soaping can help offer a swirl free method on the paintwork...but not many of us wash the car like that.
*don't let the paint dry under the sun, naturally. Dry using a chamois leather or micro fibre drying towel. This will help prevent those water marks. Also avoid washing the car in direct sunlight.

These cars are stunning when sparkling clean and waxed. But it requires effort! Also google washing black cars (detailing forums are your best place) lots of advice, tweaks for a perfect finish from people who have the same colour and offer the best results of a clean car compared to people who have the same colour. For example my white A3 stands out from other white a3s because of the waxes, cleaning soaps I use.

-My dad has got the autoglym equivalent on his A3 (which was brought this year), I brought the same car last year and didn't add this. To be honest, depends how lazy you are. If you love waxing, cleaning the cars a lot then you don't really need to bother. If you wash them whenever you can be bothered (which for most people is once a month) then might be worth considering. It doesn't make the car any shinier, just simply protects the paintwork. Protects even better than wax and hard to remove the protective film thats applied to the car, before you take delivery of it. (done at the dealer) It would be interesting to know though, on a black car does it help prevent those water marks after washing?

[Mike Foster]

Black is always a problem to keep looking good.

£400 quid will make it easier to keep clean and looking good for a few months but then it's up to you!

If you're not into car cleaning or detailing then why not pay a specialist £50 ish every couple of months to make sure it's up to scratch ( pun intended !)

That will do at least 16 months for the £400 you were thinking about and will be much more effective in the long run.

During the winter, cleaning a black car to keep it looking good is a twice a week job minimum !

Cheers

[phil miller]

Black is always a problem to keep looking good.


During the winter, cleaning a black car to keep it looking good is a twice a week job minimum !

Cheers

twice a week in Devon i have to do it twice a week in the summer, im getting worried now about the winter down here

[Mike Foster]

Phil - I stand corrected - it's more than twice a week, but up here in the stormy wastes of Yorkshire you can't actually get out to clean it more than twice a week im winter!!!

[ford776]

Ive got an ebony black pearlescent A3 and I live in Cornwall. In the the summer it shows up the dust and in the winter it shows up the mud. I was was washing it once a week when I first got it now it's 2 tone black and brown.

Has anyone tried Show room shine? It's ment to protect the car and stop it getting dirty so quickly.

[tlionhart]

who's the showroom shine by?

Autoglym aqua wax is good, if your too lazy to wax the car. Offers a short-term wax layer, lasts a about a month and saves a lot of time. Simply wash the car, then when it comes to drying spray each panel with the wax and dry with the microfibre cloth included. Then go over it once more with the second one just to buff any bits you missed. Makes drying the car quicker too as the liquid absorbs water...well kinda. It beads the water making it quicker to dry.

Alternatively I've noticed what the previous poster mentioned, get one of them mobile car valets out. Neighbour does. Guy does a good job and cleans it properly. Avoid the supermarket/car park guys. Thats not how to wash a car properly. Also you'll never see them clean the cloths or mitts after each car.

[ford776]

Showroom shine is made by grease lighting and they sell it on Ideal World. It's a waterless spray, Spray it on and just wipe it off, theres no need to jet wash first.