Why do black cars show more scratches?

If you own a black car, you know that every little scratch and smudge shows up. While it may seem like black cars scratch easier, they don’t. They just look like they do.

The colored paint used for cars is more delicate than it may seem. It’s protected by a clear-coat paint. When you wash your car, you’re actually washing that top layer of protective clear coating. Scratches in the clear coat appear white. The contract of the white scratch in the clear coat next to the protected black paint shows up more than on other colors, making it seem like black scratches easier.

How to Wash Your Black Car

While dirt and other contaminants scratch the clear coat, it’s improper car washing techniques that contribute to causing them to scratch. Anything that scrubs – whether hand washing with a cloth or using an automated carwash with big rotary brushes -- puts the coating at risk of scratching.

With a black vehicle, the goal is to prevent dirt and other contaminants from getting scrubbed into the top coat and creating scratches.

1. Don’t use a public carwash. Carwashes that use the big rotary brushes are not safe for a black car. Dirt and grime from other vehicles get caught up in those brushes and can lead to scratches.

2. Don’t use a hand-wash car wash. You don’t know how clean their towels are.

3. Touchless carwashes are a better option because they don’t scrub dirt that can scratch the clear coat. Public carwashes are not ideal, however, because their chemicals may be too harsh and strip the wax. 

4. For a black car, your safest option is to wash at home using a touch-free washing method, like the Pro Tool Wash Sprayer. 

The ProTool Wash Sprayer provides better pressure than your garden hose, but is not a pressure washer, so you’re not risking potentially damaging the surface. The ProTool wash sprayer uses the concept of “soft washing” – which means using the right cleaning solutions to do the cleaning, then using water with enough pressure to produce a nice, solid stream, but not enough to damage the surface.

Features:

• 1.72 gallons per minute, 1700 psi maximum pressure
• 18” long x 11” wide x 12” high
• 6-foot inlet hose with filter
• 26-ft outlet hose
• 90-day warranty
• Variable Spray Wand Tip included

Optional accessories:

• 1L foamer bottle
• ¼” Spray Tip Attachment Kit w/ 5 tips

Choose a Carwash Soap that Cleans and Protects

Wax protects against the sun’s rays, helps the coating shed water, and maintain shine. Check your vehicle’s owners manual for waxing recommendations

Apply wax as soon as possible to protect the paint, but also check the owner’s manual for its recommendations. There are waxes designed specifically for black paint, created to make a deeper, darker reflection. Some also polish to remove mild scratches and defects.

We recommend using ProTool Shine Up, which is specially designed to clean and protect your car, which is especially important for a black car. Shine Up is a concentrated, high foaming liquid car wash and shine formula containing special water repelling polymers. It t quickly removes dirt, grease, and road grime from cars, vans, buses, trucks, RV’s, etc., leaving behind a water repellent high gloss shine. 

DIRECTIONS

1. Add 1-2 oz. of Wash Up to the ProTool Wash Sprayer Foamer Gun for excellent results, or add 2-4 oz per gallon of water in a bucket and mix well to work up suds. For High Foaming action, use 2-4 OZ of Wash Up in the Foamer Gun.

2. Pre-wet car with a hose to remove excess dirt and to cool the surface.

3. Apply Wash Up via the ProTool Foamer gun or via sponge/applicator. If suds dry on the surface re apply soap.

4. Agitate dirty areas with a sponge where necessary.

Rinse using deionized water for a spot-free finish.

Water is a universal solvent, which means it can dissolve and absorb molecules from a wide variety of organic and inorganic sources. While the water droplets eventually evaporate, these dissolved solids don’t. That’s why you get spots.

The simplest way to get a spot-free rinse is to use deionization (DI). The DI method runs water through specialized filters that can remove inorganic chemicals down to very small parts per million. These filters do this by exchanging positive contaminants like calcium with hydrogen molecules, and negative contaminant ions like iodine with negative hydroxl molecules. T

We recommend connecting the Unger Rinse 'N Go deionized water unit to the ProTool Wash Sprayer for an easy spot-free rinse that does not require hand drying. With the help of the Unger DI water purifying filter, the revolutionary Rinse 'N Go system deionizes the tap water from your hose by pulling out all of the spot-causing minerals and contaminants. The result is water so pure it will dry without leaving spots or streaks. After washing your car, just rinse it with this pure water and go. You’ll get spot-free results with no need to hand dry. Works great for your home or office exterior windows as well!

The Unger Rinse & Go makes it super easy. 

• Ready to use right out of the box
• Spotless results every time you wash your car. No need to hand dry, just wash, rinse, and go!
• Uses tap water from your house and removes all minerals and contaminants, a water purification process called deionization, leaving no spots or streaks
• Lightweight and compact design lets you bring the Rinse ‘N Go anywhere there is a water supply
• Also great for RV’s, motorcycles, windows, solar panels, and more