Well, I just got my first black truck well even car for that matter and I'm scared to death of all the talk of how hard it is to take care of black. I've always used meguires products. I use to be a huge fan of the step products they had. The #1 paint cleaner was great. I'd follow it up with basically any wax and was pretty pleased. I just picked up some mequires black wax and there ultimate wash and wax. Any comments welcome on my choices. Good or bad since I'm just graduating for dish soap.
Welcome to obsession...having owned 6 black vehicles now they are more work but are by far the best looking when cleaned properly.
Now a few tips:
1. Don't use dish soap unless you are going to polish, wax, etc the truck. Dish soap is harsh and will strip most waxes leaving you unprotected. Buy some proper "car shampoo" and I don't like the turtle wax, armorall brands. Adams is a vendor here so they would be a good choice.
2. If your accustomed to using wool, cotton or chamois, stop that practice. Cheap towels will leave micro marring on the paint and in the sun you'll see small scratches and swirls. Buy some high end (not Walmart) microfiber towels and wash mitt. You'll use these for everything from washing, drying and even removing waxes and polishes. For example my towels are about 4 times thicker than what you would find at the auto parts store. If you ever drop a towel or wash mitt on the ground don't use it again till you have it properly cleaned. I even wash my towels by themselves and add some vinegar where the fabric softener would go to make sure all the soap is out, oh and use the "extra rinse" feature. I only use cheap towels on wheel wells. And no downy sheets in the dryer.
3. This might be overkill but I like to apply a quick detailer or spray wax after every wash. It doesn't add that much time to your overall job and adds a touch more protection. And you ALWAYS want to dry a car after washing.
4. As chewy stated, nothing beats polishing, the wax is more for protection, not shine. Polishing brings out the shine. If you want to cheat a bit use a high quality glaze before waxing and it will give the truck that "wet" look and can also hide small scratches.
Here's my truck after a full paint correction polish, finish polish (I call it jeweling), glaze, and wax. Show quality and you can put this thing under 1000 watt halogen lights and not see even a fine scratch. In fact I do all my polishing with the halogens at my back so you can see the results.
Enjoy the ride, I know, I'm obsessed....
