black car in the sun and under flourescent lights

[jpws6]

I have set up flourescent lights in my garage. I have a 2001 trans am which is black. I use zaino on it. I have quite a few coats on it. Probably about 30. It looks VERY good. I would say that I no longer have any swirl marks except for some on the back bumper. Anyway, how good should I expect the car to look under flourescent lights? At the right angle it looks perfect, but if you look really close(you have to put you head right next to the car to see them) there are very faint scratches. Is this normal. I understand they show everything, but is there only so much you can do? It looks near perfect when you compare 95% of the cars on the road. I have been checking out other black cars on have seen only one which does not have some type of scratching or swirl marks. I watch them in the sun and when it hits at the right angle it looks like someone went crazy with the buffer. The only one that did not have swirl marks I saw was at the world of wheels car show. It was indoors and the place had hundreds of flourescent lights. Every car I looked at had some type of swirl marks or very light scratches except for a 57 chevy with a supercharged 502 big block The car was the best paint I had ever seen and it was black. The guy must have had a ton of carnuba wax on it as you could smell it 10ft away,literally. I wanted to ask him what he used, but he was not around the car all day. I guess what I am asking will it only look so good under these lights without having it professionally painted and pay thousands of of dollars? I get to gether with some other fbody guys over the weekend for lunch and we were checking out each others cars. One, I could not believe I had the only black car there, there were about 15 of us. The car was in the direct sunlight and it looked pretty good everyone commented on how good it looked, except for what looked like spierwebbing, they were real short what looked like scratches, but are only there when you catch them at the right angle in the sun? What is your take on this?

[Dr. Jones]

I own a black car too.. and yes the lights show a lot. Even with the sun i can see swirls and scratches in the clear coat. I tried for a long time to get it perfect under all light, but that's a losing battle. I still see swirls when i look at mine, but then when i'm parked next to somebody.. my car does look perfect. Also IMO the type of floresent light does make a difference. The big long tubes dont' highlight to many imperfections, just illuminate the surface. The smaller 500 watt spot lights are what will show them... and even then unless the light is really focused over a small area most imperfections are still hard to see.

[bjwebster]

Posted by Dr. Jones: but that's a losing battle

My life story! "Swirls and Scratches...The Never Ending Battle"