What to use and why on silver, white and grey

Polished Bliss

White, silver and grey are colours that a lot of people find it hard to achieve a good finish on. This is because the lightness of tone precludes decent reflectivity, and thus makes it hard to achieve a finish with any depth. However, as always, a combination of good methods and good product selection helps no end, and I find it really easy to produce stunning results on these colours these days. So, what is the golden rule for everything from solid white through to mid grey? The answer is only use sealants. Unless you have a huge wad of cash to burn on a very high end wax like Zymöl Vintage, don’t even think about a wax finish on these colours. All you will get is something like the following results…







What we can see above is a lovely warm, fuzzy glow. Okay, it’s wet looking, and overall the car looks good, but there’s no wow factor to the finish… and if you spent the best part of two days doing the work like I did, you’d be rather deflated with it. For reference, the above finish was produced by a reasonably decent carnauba wax, around the £40 price point.

So, how do sealants help? Well, because of the chemical structure of sealant polymers, they allow light to pass through the protective layer with much less distortion, meaning you get a much crisper, sharper look to the paint. In some cases, this effect is so pronounced that any metallic flake present will stand out much more in direct sunlight. It is important to note that some sealant systems are impregnated with carnauba wax to add more glossiness; these are best avoided, as the optical benefits of the sealant are mostly lost. My advice is to stick with pure sealant systems, and there is none finer than the Werkstat Acrylic system. I’ve had my 2001 Leon since new, and I’ve tried countless products on it, but nothing comes close to the finish that this range of products produces. They leave a level of gloss in excess of that of any carnauba wax I’ve tried on the car, and make the metallic flake really explode from the paint when the sun is out. The final killer benefit is that it is the most durable protective system I sell; a proper application of the basecoat product (Prime Acrylic) followed by a couple of layers of the spray sealant (Acrylic Jett Trigger) will give around six months solid protection with little or no maintenance. Enough talk, here’s proof of what it can do on my car…

Superb Reflectivity







Amazing Flake Pop







Brilliant Durability



This system is so good we use it on all white through to mid grey cars, and talk customers out of more expensive wax options as they simply don't give the same incredible results. Here’s a selection of shots showing the finish on a wide range of cars we’ve done with these products…

















And here’s the recommended products in question…

Werkstat Acrylic Kit

Scooby Dan

It also works great on WR1 Ice Blue
I love Jeffs Acrylic Gloss Once the car has had a couple of coats of the Acrylic Trigger I just keep wacking a bit of the Gloss on everytime I dry the car , it is top quality stuff and it even makes the windows and the black trim around the windows shine
Probably not a great idea to get it on the windscreen though.

Polished Bliss

The Jeffs Acrylic line is perfectly safe for use on windscreens; I use Prime Strong on my glass every 4-6 months, and Acrylic Glos after most washes.

T123VOR

Jeffs Werkstatt Acrylic Kit used on my JDM

I think it has worked well

hoskib

yup, good stuff the jeffs

Elmer Fudpucker

just ordered some

Polished Bliss

Nice pics guys, if you've got any more throw them up... and get them enetered for the show n shine comp on our site! I'm always short of entries and free stuff is up for grabs! Yes, FREE!

hoskib

lol, i've seen some of the winners of the show and shine and their efforts are stunning would kind of put my polishing skills to shame

let me know if you're having an exceptionly quiet month though

Polished Bliss

Lol, there has been a few REALLY good ones...

bluetonic

A big thanks to Polished Bliss.
After a very quick delivery this week I had to wait to today to try the above Jeffs kit out.
I have to say I'm very impressed.
Car looks amazing! It was all very easy to apply by hand (following the instructions on the polished bliss site).
The main thing that hit me was not just the shine but the feel of the paint work after the application.
I'll have to see how long it last but I'm sure it will be longer than the Meg's NTX I used to put on.

I'll try and post some pictures later.

bluetonic

It's getting a little dark but I popped out and took a few shots anyway....

hoskib

cracking looking finish bluesonic

just to show you can get reflection from a white one

Polished Bliss

Nice work fella's, looking good! Get them pics sent in to the show and shine comp for this month - see here for details and piccie requirements...

Polished Bliss - Show n Shine

RS Grant

Bluetonic, is that a Crystal Grey car mate??


Cheers,
Grant

Elmer Fudpucker

What am I doing wrong then?

I used the Primer first,then the Jett Trigger and then the Acrylic gloss.

But its making a right mess,I cannot for the life of me get the Acrylic to buff out

I've had to take it all off with the detail spray nothing else would shift it

hoskib

maybe reacting with a coating the dealer may have put on? unlikely but a possibility.

i have read that the prime is a bit of a git to buff off and normally the glos is used to help it along. might stop the acrylic jett from working properly if it isn't all buffed off?

i've only ever used the acrylic jett and had no probs with that at all, no help i know but if you can get on with it, it really is cracking stuff.