The biggest reason black cars is different than waxing any other color of car is because black shows everything! I have a saying, it goes like this,
Black is not a color… it’s a full time job!
And that’s a true statement, at least if you’re someone who cares about how your car looks.
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But this isn’t because black paint is “sensitive” or soft. Other automotive paint colors like red, blue, green, orange, etc get defects, scratches and contamination just as much as black paint. Black paint just shows them more clearly because the dark color creates intense visual contrast with scratches and oxidation. It makes them “stick out”!
Because of this, black car owners take great care to wax their vehicle’s paint periodically to fill in scratches and swirls, protect against new scratches and enhance the shine to get a rich, black color.
With that in mind, how do you best wax black paint? What is the best wax for black paint? What wax hides scratches the most on black paint? That’s what I’ll answer in this article.
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Why is Black Paint So Hard to Take Care Of?
The reason black paint on cars is so hard to take care of is because of the contrast between light colored defects (scratches, swirls, oxidation, water spots) and the dark black paint.
- Shows Scratches More Easily: The contrast between light colored scratches and the black paint makes swirls glaring, especially in the sun.
- Shows Oxidation More Easily: Oxidation is when UV rays from the sun fade your paint’s color. When you have a dark color like black, any fading will be extremely obvious to the eye.
- Shows Water Spots, Bird Droppings & Dust More Easily: Any contaminant with a lighter color will be extremely obvious on a black car. That’s why bird droppings look even more horrific on darker color paints, and why black cars collect dust so easily.
- Hard to Polish to a Deep Shine: Experts in paint polishing consider black paint one of the most difficult to perfect, especially since any scratches or haze left behind stick out like a sore thumb.
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What is the Best Wax for Black Paint?
When looking for the best wax for black paint, you want something that will both enhance and maintain the appearance of the paint’s color.
Here are the qualities you should be looking for:
- Is It Easy to Apply & Wipe Off? If your wax is especially tacky and difficult to either apply or take off, your applicator or towel may inflict scratches in the paint. Make sure the wax you use advertises an easy application to avoid too much friction.
- Is It Slick to Reduce Scratches? A good wax for black paint leaves the paint feeling smooth, silky, and slippery. When the paint surface is smooth and slippery, it will resist future swirls and scratches because airborne dirt, dust and pollen will tend to glide off when you wash the car versus grind into the paint. It also reduces friction between your paint and the things you use to touch the paint — wash mitts, towels, etc.
- Does It Fill in Scratches & Imperfections? A quality car wax for black paint will also fill-in minor or shallow swirls and scratches creating a darker, more uniform show car finish. The wax does this by coating over and adding a layer of protection. Any product that is coating over and leaving behind a layer of protection by default is also filling in.
- Does It Use Quality Abrasives (If Using AIO Wax)? If you’re using a wax for black paint that also polishes to remove scratches, you want to be sure the wax is using high quality abrasives. The problem with inferior abrasive technology used in a car wax is while it may remove some defects, these inferior abrasives will leave their own scratches behind. These types of products will tend to create shine, but they will actually dull the black color to the point that it starts to look gray.
How to Wax Black Cars
For this demonstration, I’ll be using PlasmaCoat as my wax of choice. Full disclosure, this product is technically a ceramic coating, but it applies much like a wax and has a similar consistency.
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Step 1: Wash & Dry Black Car
For complete instructions, read my article on How to Wash a Black Car.
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Step 2: Inspect Black Paint with Baggie Test
Place your hand in a clean sandwich baggie and then lightly feel the paint for above surface bonded contamination that did not wash off the car. If you feel any bonded contamination, you’ll need to clay the paint in order to prep it for car wax.
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Normally you want to feel the horizontal panels like the roof, hood, and trunk lid as this is where airborne contaminants are the most likely to land and then bond to the paint. It doesn’t hurt to feel the vertical panels because the wind can blow sticky contaminants, like tree sap mist against the vertical panels. You simply don’t know which panels are contaminated until you do the Baggie Test.
If you’ve never used detailing clay to clay the paint on your car, no worries, I have you covered. Check out my video and my in-depth article here.
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Step 3: Perform Paint Correction (If Needed)
After washing and drying the car, inspect the paint visually using bright, overhead sunlight or a bright handheld light. Look for swirls, scratches, water spots and/or oxidation. If you discover any of these paint defects, then perform any necessary machine paint correction to remove the defects before applying the wax.
For this particular project, the entire car was filled with swirls and scratches, so I did a 2-step paint correction process using Dr. Beasley’s NSP 150 followed by NSP 45.
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Step 4: Gather Supplies for Waxing Black Paint
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Quality car wax, synthetic paint sealant or ceramic wax
- Clean, soft foam applicator pads
- Plenty of clean, soft pre-inspected microfiber towels
Step 5: Apply Wax to Black Paint
Dab a small amount of wax onto a foam applicator and then apply using overlapping circular motions to a small section of a panel. I recommend starting from the roof and working your way down.
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Technique Tip: Use Overlapping Circular Motions
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The reason you apply a wax using an overlapping circular motion is because it’s easier to spread a product out over a section of the paint using an overlapping circular motion than it is to try to spread a wax out over a section of paint using straight line motions.
Wipe away with a clean microfiber towel and buff.
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Technique Tip: Fold Microfiber Towel for Maximum Use
Believe it or not, there is a correct way and an incorrect way to fold and use a microfiber towel when removing a layer of car wax.
Start by laying your clean, uncontaminated microfiber towel out flat on a clean surface. The car you’re about to wax works great.
Fold the towel in half.
Then fold the towel in half again to create a towel with 8 dedicated sides for wiping off the wax.
Technique Tip: How to Hold Microfiber Towels to Avoid Scratches
Look at your hand as a clamp. Your thumb is one side of the clamp, and your 4 fingers are the other side of the clamp.
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Grab the towel between your thumb and 4 fingers by the EDGES of the folded towel.
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Next lay the towel down against the paint surface with your 4 fingers spread out as far as you can spread them out.
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Now scrunch your fingers together to capture some of the towel between your fingers. NOW you have a good GRIP on the towel, and this will help you to wipe and remove car wax. While this technique is less important for horizontal panels, it’s super important when wiping wax off vertical panels like the doors and fenders because by scrunching the towel between your fingers you have a strong grip on the towel, and this helps to prevent you from accidentally dropping the towel onto the ground where it will become contaminated.
When you go to wipe off some car wax, lightly lift the section of towel under your thumb upward and this way you won’t be rubbing the edges of the towel against the paint. In my picture below this is less of an issue because I’m using an edgeless towel. That said, some microfiber towels have sewn edge and sometimes this edge isn’t as soft as the actual towel. By lifting it up slightly you ensure you don’t rub the edge against the paint. When possible, try to use an edgeless towel when working on black cars like this classic Studebaker, or anything that’s important to you.
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Here’s me gently removing the PlasmaCoat off the black paint using the tips and techniques described above.
Technique Tip: Work from the Top Down
Like I said earlier, the best way to apply wax to black cars is to start by applying the wax to the roof then working your way down.
So, after the roof, you’d want to move downwards and apply the wax to the hood and trunk lid.
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After waxing the hood and trunk, next tackle the vertical panels. The normal approach is to start at one end of the car and then work towards the other end of the car. After finishing one side, tackle the other side.
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Add small amounts of PlasmaCoat to the applicator as needed.
Step 6: Allow Wax to Cure on Black Paint Undisturbed
Once the wax has been applied and wiped off the entire vehicle, you’ll want to leave the wax to cure undisturbed for as long as the manufacturer recommends. In the case of PlasmaCoat, this would be at least one hour of undisturbed cure time.
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How Often Should You Wax a Black Car?
How often you should wax a black car depends on how durable the wax is. Ceramic waxes can last a year or more if maintained properly. On the other hand, old school organic carnauba wax degrades within six months at the longest.
How Do You Wax Flat Black Paint?
You should NEVER wax flat black paint, also known as matte black paint. Wax is designed to fill imperfections to create a shine, so when you apply it to flat black paint, it fills and flattens the bumpy paint microtexture that creates the matte appearance, adding gloss instead.
Instead, use a ceramic coating designed to maintain the appearance of a matte finish paint. This will protect the matte paint like a wax would but without adding gloss.
Final Thoughts: You’re Not Waxing Black Paint — You’re Waxing Clear Coat
The title of this article is “How to Wax a Black Car”. The honest answer is, the way you wax a black car is the same way you wax any car – assuming your goal is to be CAREFUL. There are a number of primary goals when it comes to waxing a car,
1: Apply a layer of wax protection to protect the paint from the elements and normal wear-and-tear.
2: To maintain or restore gloss, shine, richness-of-color, depth, and reflectivity.
3: To preserve the paint in order to maintain its resale value.
4: To make future washing and drying faster, easier, and also safer.
Using a quality wax and good technique you can do all of the above on black cars, but also any color of car. It’s also important to keep in mind that almost all new cars, (there are a few exceptions to this rule), are painted using basecoat/clearcoat paint technology.
This means the color coat also called the basecoat is sprayed first, (after the ecoat and primer), this layer of paint gives the car color. For a black car, this would be black basecoat. For a red car, this would be a red basecoat.
After the basecoat is sprayed, next the car is painted with a layer of clear paint, called clearcoat. This is paint, it just doesn’t have any pigment in it.
The reason car manufacturers and collision body shops use the basecoat/clearcoat paint system is because by spraying a dedicated layer of nothing but clear paint over the basecoat, you get the same visual results, that is a black, red, blue, orange car, (whatever color was used for the basecoat), but because the clearcoat layer of paint is PURE resin, with no pigment, this clear resin is simply more stout than a single stage paint where the resin is mixed with pigment.
Thus with a basecoat/clearcoat paint job, the paint can last longer and look good longer than a traditional single stage paint like was used on cars before the 1990s.
The Black Color is UNDERNEATH The Clear Coat
Assuming you’re getting ready to wax a black car, technically you’re not waxing a black car, you’re waxing a layer of clear paint that is layered over the top of the black paint. Thus you’re not working on black paint, you’re working on clear paint.
And back to what I shared in the first paragraph. If your goal for waxing a black car is to be careful so as to do it in such a way as to not put in any swirls or scratches – then the technique you use would be the same for a black car, a red car, an orange car, and even a white car. In most cases you’re not working on a colored or pigmented paint job, you’re working on a clearcoat layer of paint.
Does Clear Coat Paint Still Scratch?
Yes. Interestingly enough, clearcoat paint will reveal swirls and scratches to your eyes more easily than an old school single stage paint. Decades ago, when basecoat/clearcoat paint technology was first introduced, a long-time friend of mine and well-known figure in the car appearance world, Barry Meguiar, coined this saying,
Clearcoats are scratch-sensitive.
What he meant is, even though clearcoat paints tend to be harder and resist swirls and scratching better than old technology like single stage lacquer and enamel paints, they do in fact still scratch easily!
This means, whether your washing, drying, or waxing and the wiping the wax off, you need to make sure you use,
1: Quality car wax.
2: Good technique – more about this down the page.
3: Anything that TOUCHES the paint must be clean, soft, and uncontaminated.
While all three of the above are important, the most important of these things is number 3, and that is, anything that touches the paint must be clean, soft, and uncontaminated. The reason I stress about keeping anything that touches paint uncontaminated is because, the majority of time I look at other peoples,
- Wash Mitts
- Drying Towels
- Microfiber Wiping Towels
These things are almost always contaminated. Here’s one of my own sayings,
It takes hours to buff out a car, it takes seconds to put scratches back into the paint.
And by this I mean, it does in fact take hours to methodically perform any paint correction steps to remove pre-existing swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation. Then once the paint is perfected, it only takes SECONDS to put swirls and scratches back into the paint because the THING that you’re using to TOUCH the paint is contaminated.
This is why I practice and preach to always pre-inspect any tool you’re planning on using to wash, dry or wipe the paint on your car. To read my article about this topic, click the link below. This article shares how I wash and dry all my microfiber tools, as well as a section on how to INSPECT these microfiber products.
How To Wash Microfiber Towels & Wash Mitts
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Waxing a black car with the goal of laying down a layer of wax protection and doing it in a way that avoids streaks, smears, swirls, and scratches is as easy as the step-by-step directions I shared above.
Remember that the final results always start with the prep work, things like safely washing and drying a black car and also ensuring anything that touches the paint including wash mitts, drying towels, wiping towels and wax applicator pads are clean and uncontaminated.
If you do all of the above things right plus follow the manufacturer’s directions, I’m confident you’ll get pro quality results no matter what you’re working on.
My Personal Offer to Help
I’ve been answering car detailing questions professionally since 2002 and moving forward, if after reading this article you have any questions about polishing and waxing, or how to use an AIO, my contact information is below, reach out to me, I’m always happy to help.
Would You Like to Learn How to Machine Polish Like a Pro?
- Would you like to take your detailing skills to a higher level?
- Do you find you learn better by doing versus sitting in a chair looking at a PowerPoint presentation about car detailing?
Here at Dr. Beasley’s O.R., (Operating Room), in sunny Stuart, Florida, we teach the most hands-on car and boat detailing classes on planet Earth. And we prove it too. You can find write-ups on the Dr. Beasley’s Blog that photo-documents just how hands-on our classes are plus you’ll see the kinds of cars and boats you’ll be training on.
Click the link below to find the dates, locations, topics, and prices for all upcoming detailing classes.
Upcoming Detailing Classes – Prices – Info – Topics – Locations
And if you ever have any questions, always feel free to reach out to me personally via text, phone call or email.
I hope to see you in a future detailing class!
Sincerely,
Mike Phillips
Chief Education Officer for Dr. Beasley’s
Mike@drbeasleys.com
760-515-0444
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