Detailed my New 2011 Black Tahoe

[NCTahoe]

Nice work Chris! I have noticed that Reflect just does not finish down nicely on the black on these vehicles. Under normal lighting it looks good but when being picky and using LED lights it still leaves a good amount of micro marring on the GM black paint on these. You should give Optimum Hyper Polish a try or even CarPro Essence. Enjoy playing with it in the winter.

Thanks. I normally work on German paints so Relfect is my go to! I've used Optimum before as well as several other polishes and I've been loving Reflect so far. I was happy with how it finished down on my truck but definitely wasn't going for perfection since I was heading into a buffalo winter. I've been reading a lot about a Essence but since starting work my detailing work load has decreased significantly. No more customer cars to play with new products on. Maybe I'll snag a sample from someone to try out. Or in a year or two I'm sure I'll go over this truck again.
I didn't notice much micro marring on my truck though in natural light or under my LED's. The garage lights shown are LED and I also use a LED hand light with individual LEDs...are you usually getting a lot of micro marring when you use it on GM paints?

 

[65stang]

I have noticed that I get marring from reflect on both GM and BMW blacks. Honestly it is probably because I am way more fussy then I need to be, as next to no one would ever notice the marring under normal conditions. However any marring will take away from the gloss and depth of the finish. If you really like reflect you will LOVE Essence.

Were you able to sell your BMW yet?

 

[NCTahoe]

I have noticed that I get marring from reflect on both GM and BMW blacks. Honestly it is probably because I am way more fussy then I need to be, as next to no one would ever notice the marring under normal conditions. However any marring will take away from the gloss and depth of the finish. If you really like reflect you will LOVE Essence.

Were you able to sell your BMW yet?

Interesting...I've used reflect on a carbon black bmw and a few jet black bmw's, and a dark blue one recently and haven't noticed any more than with other polishes such as Menz SF4000 or Blackfire SRC. I usually use it with a flex and white hybrid pad. I'm usually pretty picky about finish quality so that's surprising I haven't encountered it or maybe I'm not using the right kind of light. Sounds like I'll need to grab some essence to try come spring time! Autogeek forums have been praising it so far.

Yes I sold it within a few days actually! New owner was very happy with it and I sold it as is so I didn't have to worry about stripping it back to stock which was nice since taking downpipes off that thing is a PITA!

 

[65stang]

A little trick to try next time your working on a black vehicle and you finished polishing it. Shine your LED flashlight on it, close one eye and cover up the direct reflection of the light in the paint. You will be shocked that in most cases there is marring even when you really haven't noticed it normally as it is washed by the lighting. This was a great tip I learned last year from someone and it has really made a huge difference in things. The only reason I brought this up is because in this picture below there is clearly still marring on the finished side, however it is very possible that is only in the location due to being near the tape line and not being finished as well as the rest of the the section.

The last time I actually used Reflect was on a 2010 Black Tahoe LTZ I did last spring. I had the whole vehicle finished and was wiping it down with Eraser to begin the coating process and when down low I noticed something did not look right. After inspecting the vehicle very closely from different angles and using the tip above Reflect had left very fine marring all over the surface. Needless to say I was not very happy and re polished the entire thing with Hyper Polish which made a rather large difference in gloss, depth and color. The funny thing was I thought it looked really good after being finished with reflect, but Hyper Polish took it too a completely new level.

I will be redoing this vehicle this spring again as they were in an accident with it and the body shop did a number on it after fixing it.

Either way you did a great job and your Tahoe turned out great. I certainly hope your not taking my comments the wrong way, I am just pointing out my experiences with Reflect and know quite a few others who have noticed the same thing over the last year.

 

[NCTahoe]

Gotcha I'll try that next time! I just looked back at some of the BMW close ups I did on black and dark blue paints and see what you mean. I never looked at the pics that closely. When comparing the Reflect to some of my other finishing polishes there is some micro-marring but doesn't seem like a noticeable amount unless I really strain to see it. I've just been so amazed with the gloss I get from the Reflect over the past 4-6 months that I've been using it.

No worries btw I'm not taking your comments in the wrong way. I'm by no means a professional. Just do it for fun on weekends and built up a semi-big client base at home before starting my full time job. I appreciate the info!

Some of my other work is here if you care to look.. I've seen your company mentioned when I was reading through some ask-a-pro articles on DI when I was getting started.

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