good polish & wax for silver paint?
Discussion
I'd never normally buy a silver car, mainly because it's so depressingly common, but also because it's so hard to get a decent shine with silver compared to a nice dark metallic. But I've bought a 1992 'brilliant silver' Mercedes 190e (because the overall condition meant that I couldn't resist it) and I'm wondering if anyone can recommend a good polish that will make the best of it.
Thanks
(BTW the polish and wax will be done by hand, not machine)
Thanks
(BTW the polish and wax will be done by hand, not machine)
Silver definitely doesn't reward in the way darker colours do after a wash and wax session. On the flip side I do think it's one of the better colours for showing off dirt speed streaks after a brisk hoon in the wet 
There's been several combos I've been quite impressed by, each having their own place in my LSP armoury for less than perfect paint and none being expensive. Everyone has different opinions on waxes and their own favourites, these are just ones that I happen to like:
Bilt Hamber cleanser polish + finis wax: for looks and longevity it's a personal favourite, and pretty much my default choice these days. The wax will easily last 6 months plus, and can be periodically topped off with BH's auto QD for even more gloss and longevity. It has a very slick feel and for a wax the beading is something else.
Bilt Hamber cleanser polish + auto balm: very very good if your paintwork has quite a lot of micro marring. It's amazing what auto balm will fill. Lacks the longevity of finis wax; sheets water rather than beads; the best corrosion protection I've tested. It has a very distinctive almost plastic like look, quite hard to describe. I like it a lot, although some can't get on with its application.
R222 concours-look carnauba wax + filler polish of your choice: gives the paint a very glossy wet look. Very bling but lacking in longevity so will need regular top ups of wax every few weeks to maintain, but great for giving your car maximum eye impact for special occasions, and hence why I don't have it as a combo since it usually ends up over the top of an existing wax.
Autobrite Cherry Glaze + Autobrite Platinum wax: a colour charged wax that does fool the eye into seeing a little extra depth in the paint. Despite being a little cynical re coloured waxes I was quite impressed. The wax itself lasts well, but the colour hints will fade out over a few weeks.
As an alternative to wax, sealants can work well on silver. I don't tend to use them so much unless I've machine polished, but Werkstat Acrylic Jett plays nicely with non carnauba filler polishes and brings out the metallic flake well. As it's designed to be layered it's quite gentle on previous coatings - I use it on top of auto balm on the XJS over winter.
As with any wax, to get the most from it the paint needs to be as clean as possible, so claying is a must and use a polish that also cleanses to remove the tough film of hydrocarbons that no amount of washing and claying will get rid of (or failing that, use a paint cleanser first such as BH cleanser-fluid). You'll be amazed at what BH cleanser polish pulls out of 20 year old paint. I'd also suggest the use of a solvent for tar spots and an iron reagent such as Bilt Hamber Korrosol or Iron-X for maximum decontamination.
The fillers in filler polishes will start to fall out after a while, revealing the imperfections. There's nothing you can do about that without removing them with first with a proper abrasive polish. That's just about do-able by hand with a non diminishing abrasive such as GTechniq P1 but plan to do it section by section over several days. On the other hand it means that wax longevity isn't so important as any wax will outlast the fillers and you'll likely be repolishing and waxing more often.
There's been several combos I've been quite impressed by, each having their own place in my LSP armoury for less than perfect paint and none being expensive. Everyone has different opinions on waxes and their own favourites, these are just ones that I happen to like:
Bilt Hamber cleanser polish + finis wax: for looks and longevity it's a personal favourite, and pretty much my default choice these days. The wax will easily last 6 months plus, and can be periodically topped off with BH's auto QD for even more gloss and longevity. It has a very slick feel and for a wax the beading is something else.
Bilt Hamber cleanser polish + auto balm: very very good if your paintwork has quite a lot of micro marring. It's amazing what auto balm will fill. Lacks the longevity of finis wax; sheets water rather than beads; the best corrosion protection I've tested. It has a very distinctive almost plastic like look, quite hard to describe. I like it a lot, although some can't get on with its application.
R222 concours-look carnauba wax + filler polish of your choice: gives the paint a very glossy wet look. Very bling but lacking in longevity so will need regular top ups of wax every few weeks to maintain, but great for giving your car maximum eye impact for special occasions, and hence why I don't have it as a combo since it usually ends up over the top of an existing wax.
Autobrite Cherry Glaze + Autobrite Platinum wax: a colour charged wax that does fool the eye into seeing a little extra depth in the paint. Despite being a little cynical re coloured waxes I was quite impressed. The wax itself lasts well, but the colour hints will fade out over a few weeks.
As an alternative to wax, sealants can work well on silver. I don't tend to use them so much unless I've machine polished, but Werkstat Acrylic Jett plays nicely with non carnauba filler polishes and brings out the metallic flake well. As it's designed to be layered it's quite gentle on previous coatings - I use it on top of auto balm on the XJS over winter.
As with any wax, to get the most from it the paint needs to be as clean as possible, so claying is a must and use a polish that also cleanses to remove the tough film of hydrocarbons that no amount of washing and claying will get rid of (or failing that, use a paint cleanser first such as BH cleanser-fluid). You'll be amazed at what BH cleanser polish pulls out of 20 year old paint. I'd also suggest the use of a solvent for tar spots and an iron reagent such as Bilt Hamber Korrosol or Iron-X for maximum decontamination.
The fillers in filler polishes will start to fall out after a while, revealing the imperfections. There's nothing you can do about that without removing them with first with a proper abrasive polish. That's just about do-able by hand with a non diminishing abrasive such as GTechniq P1 but plan to do it section by section over several days. On the other hand it means that wax longevity isn't so important as any wax will outlast the fillers and you'll likely be repolishing and waxing more often.
Edited by jagnet on Sunday 12th May 06:41
Thanks for taking the time to post all that jagnet.
My cars do very few miles so they don't get dirty too quickly but even so I do clay them about twice a year, and I've been using the R222 wax on my cars for a few years now, with various polishes. I'll investigate some Bilt Hamber products as they seem to get recommended a lot but I'll also have a look at that AutoBrite platinum - I haven't heard of that before.
Cheers
My cars do very few miles so they don't get dirty too quickly but even so I do clay them about twice a year, and I've been using the R222 wax on my cars for a few years now, with various polishes. I'll investigate some Bilt Hamber products as they seem to get recommended a lot but I'll also have a look at that AutoBrite platinum - I haven't heard of that before.
Cheers
If you're already using R222 then I doubt you're going to achieve much more by playing with coatings; any differences are going to be really quite subtle as it's already such an oily glossy wax. Likewise with the Autobrite Platinum.
Silver colours just reflect too much light to get the deep reflections that can be achieved with darker paints. They can still be very glossy, and I find show up the details of the car's shape more effectively, but it's a different kind of gloss that plays with light on the surface shapes and is easy to ignore if you're trying to look through that for deep reflections. The effect can best be seen on curving shapes rather than flat panels. Granted it's possible to photograph clear reflections on silver with a shallow enough angle, but then that's more to do with the light bouncing off the clearcoat surface than the silver base.
Personally I'd stick to what I was already using, or change just for the fun of trying something new. I'd focus more on the paint prep aspect to achieve any noticeable difference and think seriously about giving machine polishing a whirl to make the most of the finish, and enjoy the silver for what it does than wishing it could do something else.
Silver colours just reflect too much light to get the deep reflections that can be achieved with darker paints. They can still be very glossy, and I find show up the details of the car's shape more effectively, but it's a different kind of gloss that plays with light on the surface shapes and is easy to ignore if you're trying to look through that for deep reflections. The effect can best be seen on curving shapes rather than flat panels. Granted it's possible to photograph clear reflections on silver with a shallow enough angle, but then that's more to do with the light bouncing off the clearcoat surface than the silver base.
Personally I'd stick to what I was already using, or change just for the fun of trying something new. I'd focus more on the paint prep aspect to achieve any noticeable difference and think seriously about giving machine polishing a whirl to make the most of the finish, and enjoy the silver for what it does than wishing it could do something else.
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