Kar don

Saw it at the car show, fell in love. Def my next car. Not a swirl on it!!! Except the lip spoiler was swirled to hell.

05C55

I saw it in person, outside au natural, wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole, looked like a Ford Focus with that shape shifter paint. It looks purple. I don't mean to offend you but definetly not my thing. BTW nano paint is a process and is used in all the C-class cars.

Blake P

The color looks too blue in those pics for my taste.

Rareamg

nice color..... love the color...

EKaru

Is this Mercedes version of BMW's Carbon Black or is this more blue? I Love Carbon Black....
Eric...

05C55

Yes, but the underlying color, which IMO is purple is much more pronounced then the CB of BMW. The BMW has to be in certain lighting conditions to see the blue, the daimond black looks purple even in overcast conditions.

Kar don

close to carbon black but the metallic spots are finer. I love it

FrankW

ok...what exactly is black about diamond black? it looks blue to me...

05C55

If you look at it under the intense light of a camera flash it may look blue. It looks purple otherwise.

BenzoAMGpower

i wonder if nano paint is available through sikkens or something!!

Darba

Car paint is very hard to see correctly with pictures, I personally am not a fan of purple, but I can’t make a decision without seeing the car myself. Hey AL is there a car show going on in Boston? Would be fun to go.

rguy

Well, it seems that people really haven't seen the paint in person, save for the picture taker and one other. But to really see the paint, you have to spend some time with it. You have to see it in the daytime, nighttime, overcast, sunny, indoors, outdoors. It is a complex color and requires a complex evaluation. To say you like it or don't like it seeing it in one condition isn't good enough.

I happen to own a Diamond Black C55 and it is amazing as a color. From 20' or more the car appears black except in the brightest of suns. As you get closer it shifts from all black to all purple to all the deepest blue with all kinds of diamond like refraction of light in it. I believe it is the metallic refracting bits that give it the Diamond name.

Everyone gets plain old black or even worse: bandwagon silver.

Live a little, grow a pair, take a risk...... think outside of the grey scale.

I did and am happy that I don't see the same friggin' car in the same friggin' color every day when I go out. Diamond black might be a little too hot rod for some, but it is elegant and not flashy.

It is a perfect german color, it is extremely conservative to the casual observer, but hints at the freak inside.

Good luck ladies and gentleman, but bad mouth the diamond black no more.

05C55

Nano paint is a process by which ceramic particles are baked into the paint. It is not available outside of your friendly Mercedes manufacturing facility. If you need paint work, you will not be getting the nano they put on at the factory.

Rareamg

Is that like Mork and Mindy?? Nano Nano??

rguy

No, it is like ceramic particles that measure on the nano scale....as in a billionth of a meter. They act like little scratch-resistant shields that roughly triple blemishless paint life. That means less chips from road debris, less to no swirl marks from competent buffing and polishing, and a paint finish that I find to be deeper. It is essentially the best solution so far to make water-based auto paints perform like oil-based paints of the golden era.

McGuireV10

And it's worth noting that the "nano-paint" process is unrelated to the color (or to the photographed car's color-shifting paint, if that's what it has). Nano-paint is an improvement to the clear coat. MB claims it is 40% more resistant to scratching, chipping, and swirling. It will be the standard clearcoat starting on 2005 C, E, S, CL, SL and SLK models, and just as 05C55 says, you won't get it anywhere else -- it's a fairly elaborate process.

http://www.auto123.com/en/info/news/...tid=21942&pg=1

rguy

The paint isn't a color shifting paint. Color shifting paints change color based on angle and lighting and are not consistent in changing. They are kind of splotchy if you will, little bursts of color here and there. The diamond black tricks the eyes, it doesn't actually change color by reflecting different angles of light. From more than 20' away it is just very difficult to tell the color isn't black. As you get closer it looks less black and maybe a little purple. When you get right on top of it, it looks deep navy with metallic fleck that refracts basically a rainbow of sparkle back at you.

rguy

McGuire V10, the link you provided confirms my statement of a three-fold increase in scratch resistance. Not the 40% in your post. I don't know where that number came from, maybe it makes sense but just wasn't explained properly.

rguy

I read more and I think your number comes from the enhanced gloss over that of the conventional paint work at the end of that paint-life.

McGuireV10

Yeah, I actually posted the link the day after I read the article, but you're right -- scratch-resistance is 3X better (which is a big difference), and they concluded this produced a 40% improvement in appearance after a long run of abrasive car-wash tests.

Interesting description of the color you gave. I'll have to see if Brumos has an example in stock.

rguy

Thanks... we all misread figures, it is just important to correct them so other people don't get the wrong idea. Thanks for not being a hot head about it.

Diamond black is available on a ton of cars, but it is probably best to see it on some kind of c-class if possible.

Kar don

AFAIK diamond black is only available on the W203. It's ashame because its such a beautiful color.

MerlinMc

AlBoston -- do you prefer Zaino or Klasse?

rguy

I think it was black opal that I was thinking of on the other cars.... sometimes I just go through those color swatches and forget there are 4000 types of black and none of them are diamond. My apologies.

Kar don

tough question. I really like them both a lot....

Pros
Zaino: Superior beading, unbelievable shine, leaves an incredibly slick finish, very durable, when used in combination with his other products it is outstanding
Klasse: Leaves a hard finish (harder to spot/stain), VERY easy to apply (wipe on/off), extremely durable

Cons
Zaino: spots easier, application is slightly annoying, can be confusing to a novice, requires a dawn wash prior to application
Klasse: Can sometimes leave an oily haze which is difficult to remove (had it happen once, others have experienced it as well), not as slick feeling as zaino, does bead as tight as zaino, Must use very little product when applying or it is a bear to wipe off.

Both products are very good, IMO you cannot go wrong with either of them. They both excel in different areas. If you are applying it on a light metallic color i'd have to give the edge to zaino because for some reason it really makes the paint "pop". On black I never know which one to apply because I like both so much! I am doing a black SL55 and my C320 this weekend.... klasse on the SL (black) and not sure what I am doing with the C.