Nighthawk Black Pearl (NBP) paint correction on a budget.

Many moons ago I was contacted by the owner of this car, and while on the phone I got a pretty good sense that this car had a bunch of issues going on. I asked the owner to send some photos, and carefully looking them over I could see some issues. We spoke at lenght about his goals for the car, and how to best meet them. In these goals were a budget he needed to stay within, which was possible but until I saw the car I couldn’t say for sure.

Now if you are familiar with detailing, there are certain OEM paints that are a PITA to work with; BMW jet black, Bentley black, Porsche black and Honda/Acuras Nighthawk black pearl. When heavy correction is needed on these paints they like to fight you, and they don’t like to finish down all that well. You always have to do a 3rd or 4th polishing step to make them perfect, whereas others you can reduce that by 1 or 2 steps. So having a budget which sets the time frame you have to work with on these paints presents an added dimension to the whole job, and you have to think though what is it going to take to meet that goal.  The budget didn’t allow for many steps, hence the challenge.

When the car arrived it was in rough shape, the photos didn’t fully show the true issues in the paint. The owner was keen enough to see them, and aware that he might have to settle for less of his goal……and I had my head spinning as to how to best attack this. He left it with me for a few days which really helped, because I needed to do a few test areas to deal with this challenge of correcting a super finicky paint in as few of hours as possible. I took some paint thickness readings to see, and to my concern the readings showed repaint work, super thin areas, and areas with huge thickness ranges on the same panel.

I felt confident I could give him a great outcome even with his tight budget.  I’m pretty sure I did a bit extra just to be on the safe side of the outcome.

Products Used:
Megs 105
Megs 205
Megs 300
Menzerna 203
Menzerna final polish II
Menzerna 106fa
Megs Unigrit sanding paper 2000 and 1500

Blue foam
Black foam
Megs MF cutting pad
Megs MF finishing pad

Blackfire wet diamond
Danase Wet Glaze (Chemical Guys EZ Creme Glaze)

Window cleaner to remove polishing carriers vs. IPA. IPA was causing the paint to swell creating issues.

Many will ask why so many products. Well each panel was so different as to the amount of marring, yet I wanted a consistent finish and I was on a budget so If I could get the results I wanted by using black foam and menzerna 203 then another panel needed megs 300 and finishing pad, I did it.  I know it sounds confusing but it worked and saved time. Also repainted areas react differently than OEM paint.  I had to wet sand a few areas since wet sanding can be a more consistent removal method…not a lot of spots but a few.

I have learned to read how the paint in reacting to what I’m doing, so I can quickly modify my approach by simply changing out pads, or liquids……….. This is why professionals are worth the effort to seek out.  The local car wash only teaches their staff one system and all cars get that system, yet the outcomes are hugely different for each car.

Here is a collection of what I found………..

When someone did a repaint, you are suppose to take your repaint to a hard edge not leave it in the middle of the pillar! You can see the line.

Here are some thickness samples from the car, all over the map.  I had to check each panel in several spots to double check as each panel could have more than one thickness!!!

ARE we getting to a point we can correct?  I need a photo or two that are cheery after the sea of swirls!  This will calm your nerves I hope.

So did the owner meet his goals? I sure hope so.

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