Best polish & glaze option for a dark grey metallic?

Rich,
I've read your threads and advice on dark metallics, but before I take the plunge and choose one of your selections, I'd appreciate one last piece of advice in case it makes a material chnge to the alternative options you'd recommend...

My wife's car is six months old and ready for next valet. When brand new, I clayed it and put on two coats of Collinite 476S. Its never had a "polish" on it...

When the sun is on the paint, the flakes really come out and it looks great.



But when the sun's not out, it just looks a bland grey... (See the bumper here below...)





There's still a good "shine" on the paint, as you can see from the reflection off the doors, but there's no "depth" to the colour when the sun's not on it - it just looks bland.

I'm not sure if this is just a factor of the clearcoat over grey metallic, or if there's something I can do to make the flake shine through better on a dull day.

I was on the verge of ordering your Acrylic kit (especially as my A3's silver, so it would be good for that too), but thought I'd seek your advise in case you had any better suggestions to make the paint stand out better when the sun's not out...

Thanks,
Graham

Thanks Rich,
I think I'll get the Werkstat kit and give it a good clay and polish. Its six months old now anyway so ready for a good going over again.

The "dull" effect is at its greatest when viewing the paint from a shallow angle. Its as if there's a "layer" somewhere that's not letting you see the depth of the paint unless viewed straight on.
Perhaps a good polish of the clearcoat will help.

I was just checking that you didn't think there would be a material difference between results from the Werkstat Acrylic and the Blackfire Gloss Ehancing polish in this situation....

Thanks again,
Graham

He he. Its like Christmas. Two boxes of detailing goodies arrived today!

Frustratingly, its a baking hot 25c outside, so there's nothing I can do today to make a start......

Still, I'll post an update when I make progress....

Well here we are, 14 hours of hard work later......

Spent Friday evening and the whole weekend in the shade of my garage whilst the rest of the country baked in the sun!

First, I can't believe the colour change to my A3.

It'd previously been clayed and had two good coats of Collinite 476S wax. That had given it a slightly darker shade and the light did fall off differently angles panels quite nicely, but stripping all that off and applying the Werkstat Acrylic kit has returned the car to its naturally light shade.

Picture doesn't really do it justice...



But the real difference is to my wife's dark grey metallic Yaris.

That's only a few months old, but the two coats of Collinite created a slight sheen on the paint that didn't allow you to see the detail in the paint at shallow angles of reflection - but I think you'll see here that the difference is amazing..

Firstly, this shows the mess in the garage, but the reflection in the roof has to be seen to be believed....



Now before and after images of the front wing, where you can see the clarity that the Acrylic kit gives through to the paint flake...

Before:


And after:


So what did I do?

1) Wash with Pollack detergent
2) Meguirs clay bar cleanse.
3) Hand polish using Menzerna 85RE compound. (Not sure if this really did any good, but wanted to try and make sure I'd removed all the previous wax)
4) Hand-applied coat of Werrkstat Acrylic Prime
5) 3 coats of Jett Trigger, each half an hour apart
6) Final coat of Werkstat Gloss to ensure all residues removed and to apply final finish.

(oh and in between the Jett Trigger coats, I clayed the wheels, applied one coat of Prime and two coats of Collinite 476S wax to protect them and cleaned the exhaust tailpipe's with Meguires metal polish....)

After doing that to two cars all day Saturday and Sunday, I slept soundly last night!