How easy/difficult is it to keep WRB "clean"?
 

We all know black cars are the worst to maintain. Having said that, does anyone have any experience with WRB paint? Are paint imperfections easily visible to the naked eye?

It likes to swirl IIRC, and it does show scratches but it's still a relatively light blue so it's more forgiving. If you've got an eye for spotting scratches though, you'd probably still wanna buff it occasionally, but it's not gonna be as much of a pain as black.

I'm planning on buying a new buffer and some light buffing compounds once I move into a place where the car won't be parked outside all day.

P.S. We need a Maintenance sub-forum.

i recently bought some tools to remove imperfections on my current car. it's definitely good to get some practice before doing the real thing on the brz.
:bow:

Well with my WRB STI its terrible trying to keep it clean. I basically stop trying to keep it clean in the winter because its impossible. When its dirty it looks like shit. Scratches are super noticeable. Chips in the clear coat are really noticeable as well.

BUT when its clean it looks AMAZING!
If you're getting WRB seriously consider getting a clear bra. Especially if you commute in LA like I do.

Dunno about everyone else but I haven't washed my car in months and it looks clean. I think WRB is good in that way. Sure you'll get paint chips but any car is like that. I have quite a few bumps and scratches especially from autox. Paint still looks great 5 years on!

Dual action buffer + Meguiars 105 & 205 FTW.

Never used Meguiars compounds to buff before, I'll look into that, thanks.

I'll continue this tangent, but I use Menzerna Super Intensive Polish and Final Finish with my Porter Cable and have had quite good results.

As for the OP, I am wondering this same thing too since I currently have a silver car which is a dream because it's always clean looking. My brother has a blue cobalt and it never looks THAT dirty so I was hoping the WRB would be similar in that respect.

We definitely need a maintenance sub-forum.

I want to start experimenting with new cleaning products... expensive ones as I plan on keeping this car as long as possible. Right now I'm a big fan of anything by Mothers and Meguiar's. I start with a Mothers California Gold clay bar and then do a Meguiar's 3 step process - cleaner, polish, then wax. The only problem is that it takes 3 hours, 3 applicators and 3 cloths to do by hand. You have to apply cleaner, then wipe it off. Apply polish, then wipe it off. Apply wax, then wipe it off. The end result is fantastic (turns my faded "pink" MR2 back to a shiny red), but it's exhausting and the sun's usually going down by the time I get to go out and enjoy it!

i have that same exact combo with a porter cable 7424xp buffer. very noob friendly.

i'd say definitely invest in a porter cable 7424xp dual-action buffer. it's impossible to match the finish of a buffing machine with hand.

with modern day paint, it's very labor intensive to remove all the swirls.

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Porter-Cable-7424XP-6-Inch-Variable-Speed-Polisher/dp/B002654I46"]Amazon.com: Porter-Cable 7424XP 6-Inch Variable-Speed Polisher: Home Improvement[/ame]

if you buy that, don't forget to also buy the 5'' backing plate for your buffing pads.

i'm currently practicing on a lexus. once i get the process down, it should be a lot easier and less mistakes to be made on the brz.

The porter cable 7424 is the way to go, had mine for about 10 years now, would never go back to hand polishing, removes swirl marks you see with 99% of cars. Also makes car washes easier since wax or polish adheres to paint much better.

Had a 02 WRX in WRB and it's a lighter color, so somewhere in between silver/grey and black in terms of seeing imperfections, not too bad.

Polish does not 'adhere' to the paint, a good polish doesn't have fillers. It is used to cut the clear coat and break down with heat. When you polish you're effectively removing the peaks and valleys on the clear coat, or at the very least softening their hard edges. This in turn reduces the thickness of your clear coat by a small amount every time you polish, but the upside is that you've removed your swirl marks and softened the appearance of deep scratches to the point that your paint looks like it is brand new.

Wax on the other hand is a filler, and stays on top of the clear. If you notice after you wax, it looks pretty good - but wash it a few times and your scratches begin to re-appear. Polishing removes the hard edges, and no matter how many times you wash (assuming you don't damage the paint while washing), you will not get the scratches to re-appear as they used to.

One of the best things you can do to maintain your paint is proper washing technique. The majority of swirl marks are from you washing your car with little fine pieces of dirt caught under your wash mitt. Without contacting the paint, cover the entire car in soap suds. You can do this with a foam sprayer/lance, or by wringing out your wash mitt over the entire car. Follow with a two bucket wash (rinse the wash mitt in a water bucket, and THEN dip it into your clean soap bucket). This will help a lot with swirl marks.

If you're interested in learning more, have a look for JunkMan's videos on youtube he's great.

had a 04 wrx in WRB. Color is not hard at all to keep clean, esp compared to black. It won't be as easy as silver or white but that is given..

Just be aware that all subaru paint chips easy, and on WRB it is very noticable as you will start seeing white specks on your paint which stand out. On a silver/white car this is less noticable.

+10 on paying for a high quality/install clear-bra, as this cars front bumper/hood is so low, it will surely be attacked by rocks/salt..

As has been said in the clear bra discussion, the front black "mustache" part will take a majority of those rock chips, and it's black plastic all the way through, so the front bumper shouldn't look too awful.

This is all good info.

I had a 2002 WRX in WRB. The color looked good dirty, and fantastic when clean. On more than one occasion, I had people chase me down to ask what the paint code was so they could use it on their vehicle. Nothing looks better than a clean WRB.

I got the best results with the following:

Annual: Wash, clay bar, scratch remover (if required), polish, wax, quick detail

6mo: Wash, scratch remover, wax, quick detail

1-2week: Wash, quick detail

Wash: As above, using two buckets
Clay bar: Cleans paint, removes wax and embedded dirt
Scratch remover: obvious
Polish: While this does knock the minor edges off the clear coat, it also leaves a thin synthetic coat that protects the paint.
Wax: Deepens the shine, protects the polish, and get the water beading
Quick Detail: builds a layer of synthetic over the wax with each application, so it gets better with each wash.

Keeping a good base underneath keeps the weekly or bi-weekly washes quick and easy.

how do you know this for sure? have you driven the car extensively on public highways??

based off all my previous cars, the front of the hood ALWAYS develops paint chips. The fact that the BRZ is lower than any car i've owned only makes matters worse. The only hope we have is that the front bumper section carries over to the hood, however once chipped it will still show...

Once again this is just speculation however its better to be proactive in protecting your paint than reactive. Just my $0.02

I worked at a Porsche dealer for 5 years as a detailer. Saw lots of Boxsters, Caymans and 911s come in (same size and height as the BRZ roughly), and the ones without clear bras hardly ever had paint chips on the hood, even the ones with high miles. And since the bumper normally gets most of the abuse, as I saw in the Porsches, and the BRZ has a huge piece of black plastic in the most common area of chipping, that is why I say that I'm not worrying. If buying a clear bra gives you piece of mind then that's fine. I'm just speaking from experience with similar cars.

Please don't compare Porsche paint to Subaru paint.. Coming from an 04 WRB WRX, I already know what to expect... Talk to other subaru owners, they will all share how crappy the paint quality is...

Also I do think where you live plays a big factor. For example So-Cal/Nor-Cal owners prob don't need to worry as much as people in New-England do...

I own a 2006 Legacy GT, it has 74k miles on it, at least half of those are highway miles, I can count on one hand the number of chips in my hood, the front bumper is not quite as good, but it's not horrendous either. You guys must be following a monster truck on a rally circuit, I dunno where all these horrendous chip stories are coming from. I've taken a power washer on full blast within 2 inches of my paint and it's been fine.

Can't speak to the US manufactured cars such as Legacy, but for cars made at the Gunma plant (WRX and now BRZ) paint quality is subpar. Hopefully subaru stepped their game up with the paint on these cars...

Also where do u live?


Anyways- Didn't mean to derail the thread. Back to OP topic, WRB isn't that bad to keep clean :)

Pittsburgh, we have pretty crappy roads.
I'm confident that these new cars will have better paint quality. The WRX is not built in the same plant as the BRZ, before building BRZs that plant was building kei cars, if they haven't improved the painting process from those crappy little cars then we really are in for some trouble. :bellyroll:

What kind of wash mitt do you use? I normally use a wool mitt because it lathers up better than microfiber mitts, but I've seen wool mitts put swirls in dark color cars too...

I would generally have gone with the microfiber. The soap is there to break down surface tension of the water, and I don't think lather means much.

Thanks. I think the people trying to talk everyone out of getting a clear bra, based on assumptions that make no sense to me, should have to pay to repaint their victims front hoods in 2 years.:paddle:

I have a 2011 Legacy. Paint seems fine so far, but had a few chips that i touched up before I put the clearbra on the front. Car only has 5k miles on it though. Biggest issue on this car seems to keeping door dings off of it. It has the thinnest body panels I have ever had on a car and they ding if anything touches the door. Even considerably thinner than the ding happy panels on my 2007 STI.

My WRB STI was a complete pain to keep looking good though IMO.... but not as bad as my friends black STI.

Lol we can compare paint in the member's car journals sub-forum in 2 years. I'll probably have more chips than you, but not enough to warrant a thousand dollar piece of plastic either.

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/s...g/387f9bd5.jpg

Chemical guys 50/50 keeps mine shiney
http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/s...g/098288a0.png

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/s...g/b4fbb9e3.jpg

Still prefer the classic in mica green though


http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/s...g/e9090741.jpg

My Subaru twins

Hopefully they will mate and have a baby BRZ next :D

I use a 2bucket method ,sheepskin mitt and CG medium waffle towel &miracle dryer to pat dry

It does show a few swirls though and I have an odd stone chip but that soft Subaru paint for you

Both look great :)

2 guys at my work have Subis and I noticed they both have chipped up paint.

good read :P ummm for those of you who havnt seen or touched a real brz heres some insight

when you go to the dealership run your finger across the paint on a BRZ then run your finger across a WRX/STI you will notice the BRZ has smoother and thicker/harder paint
quality is better, in fact when i was at subaru plano and saw the pre production 2013 wrx and brz next to each other (ready for shipment to the dallas autoshow sitting in the back) the paint quality was about the same, which means all future subaru's should have better paint...

ill ask to see if we can get a subforum for maintenance up :P

I have 99 RS and to me it never really looks dirty. I dont really wash it much in the winter either.

your welcome, subforum created :D

i owned a NHBP rsx it looks awesome when it was clean but it got dirty so easily and the rock chips overwhelmed the front bumper