Cheap, but suitable-$2,500.00, expensive-$8,000.00

I got all my stuff from detailed image and they have good stuff. Not the products you find at a parts store..haha

After 10 hours of detailing, all the chemical smell was fun :bowrofl:

Pretty much.

A low quality paint job will be around 2500, this may still be better than the factory paint though...i'm not sure because i don't have a nissan.

a good paint job will be around 4000-5000 depending on the shop.

an excellent paint job will be around 8000-10000 but this is usually for a complete color change say from dark-something to light-something.


Still, even if you spend 2500, i'm sure you could sell your black z, and buy a new(ish) one with what you got for yours + 2500 just to swap colors. this way you won't be out of a car for a few days either

I have black. I obsessed for a couple months. Now I just let it go, and I'm a much happier person. If you don't let it go, you will be miserable every time you look at your car - and that defeats the purpose of owning it.

So you get it repainted, spend all that money and get a new scratch...then what?

Yeah, I hear you. It's just SO frustrating - I mean a brand new towel putting scratches into the finish? It's almost laughable. What's even worse is my friend brought his depth gauge over and took readings from the trunk lid and the hood - the readings were anywhere from 60-70 microns, which is ridiculously thin. So, I'm not even sure that it's feasible to repair what damage there is. Otherwise I would just repair it and throw a clear bra on.

Is it really like this for all colors, or is black just especially bad?

Oh you can detail our cars to death. But much like physics, if the paint is too thin, then chipping will occur again. Catch 22!

Invest in some yoga sessions to calm yourself and your OCD. It's car... and a black one at that. It's going to show just about everything. It's just how the cookie crumbles.

Enjoy the car!

what is this orange peel effect people speak of?

Look at the skin of an orange fruit. Then look at the finish of your car. There should be some similarities (ie orange peel)

a professional hand-made paint would be almost like mirror (glass-like) in smoothness/finish.

I feel sad when people who just spent big bucks on their bimmers and mbs with orange peel finish.

Btw don't be fooled by the clear coat finish. On robot-sprayed cars try to look at base coat; that would the paint underneath the clear coat.

Disclaimer:

I am by no means a professional painter. Yes, I painted 2 cars in my garage without blowing up the house and the cars turned out great. I made $$ out of them.

What I would like to share is what I remembered when reading a painter's book: "The paint actually does not dry.....and it should not. If it dries, it becomes dull. Thus, the other purpose of 'waxing cars' is to supplement to oil that the paint needs to remain wet. Keeping the paint 'oiled/wet' makes it shine."

This info/theory blows me away up to today. It is similar to welding: Do you guys know that metal actually evaporates? :)

yeah my car's got this effect on the doors and stuff if you look at it from an angle... =( dang it... my dad's audi doesn't however ...

Correction: audi does have this effect and due to the dark colour looks worse than my Nissan

I bet you're driving on the PA TP, lol.

In all seriousness, you aren't going to find a "new" car these days that doesn't have paint issues somewhere. It's just the way the industry has gone with new regulations and what have you. I know it is annoying and it sucks to see it happen to your car, but it happens.

guy I went to for my rims and advise on mods said it would be cheaper to get my car color stickered which is something like clear bra but colored. He said you can hardly see the difference and if your tired of the color you can just take it off. supposed to be alot cheaper

How much research did you do before buying a black car and cleaning it?

I have a black 370Z that I bought 15 months ago. I don't have any waterspots and no scratches (well, you'll probably find a few tiny scratches if you look real hard but not many at all). I have a couple of rock chips and a scratch where a mini cooper bumped me in a parking lot, thats it.

I am NOT ocd about my car either, but I regularly wash and wax it.

Strip all the wax from your car with dawn. Use P21S paint cleaner to get the waterspots off (don't know how successful that will be, I haven't had to remove any, but P21S is real good stuff).

Once you get the surface clean, use Zaino Z6 for black cars. It will keep the waterspots away. Apply 3 coats initially. Wax it every 4-6 weeks with a couple of coats. It last and last and you never have to strip it.

Do not use microfiber, some are good most are cheap. Use 100% cotton terry cloth towels MADE IN THE USA. 100% cotton terry cloth will NOT scratch your car. Its all I use. 100% terry cloth towels from other countries are usually NOT 100% terry cloth. Get towels from detailed image or some other reputable vendor.

My car gets filthy, and then cleans up beautifully with no scratches or watermarks. If you are so OCD you should be able to keep your clean with the right products.