Correcting titanium silver = blindly attacking a pinata?

[Gopher]

I decided to give my Titanium Silver 540i a full correction today. Its pretty much covered in swirls, but they are nearly impossible to see 98% of lighting situations (including in the sunlight or under halogens). In fact, the only time the present themselves is after dusk in the very dim light coming from street lamps.



My question to you pros is how the heck you see what you`re doing. I made a few passes over the hood, but really couldn`t tell if I was making any difference. I think the clarity of the refection of the overhead light may have improved slightly, but I`m really not certain.



How do you guys gauge your progress on hard to see defects? I`m also wondering, if its even worth my time or should I just grab a glaze and be done with it.

[drew.haynes]

I have the same problem on similar colors. I`ve used 1000W halogens and 300W incandescent. Still so hard to see, having to change angles all the time to find any swirls. I wish I could find a cheap sodium lighting setup, but it seems they are all designed to be mounted somewhere, not portable at all.

[Gopher]

sodium lighting, `eh? I guess i have to look into just what that is.



I pretty much called it quits for now and resolved to work on it a bit at a time over the next week or so at dusk under the street lights. I really wanted to do it today in my parents garage, because it so annoying how my neighbors at my condo all stop to watch and try to figure out what the heck I`m doing and why I am so obsessed with my car.



Can`t wait to own a freestanding home w/ garage!

[Holden_C04]

Part of the problem is that you have to increase contrast. Working in a garage with 1000W Halogens & and a Brinkmann will certainly help.

[drew.haynes]

Sodiums are like the lights at the gas pump usually.

[Bigpoppa3346]

I can see swirls easily on metallic silver with both my good and my cheapie halogens. :nixweiss



I`ll usually have the lights about ~6` from the car, and ~7` to the left or right of me when buffing (try to visualize this). Angle the light towards you about 20 degrees and you should be able to see the defects easily. Make sure the garage is closed.

[ricka]

I can see swirls easily on metallic silver with both my good and my cheapie halogens. :nixweiss



I`ll usually have the lights about ~6` from the car, and ~7` to the left or right of me when buffing (try to visualize this). Angle the light towards you about 20 degrees and you should be able to see the defects easily. Make sure the garage is closed.



Totally agree...you have to look at silver from an angle. Low light halogens or even florescent work the best to bring out swirls and shadows. Sometimes I`ll drive over the local gas station or mall parking lot. Those halogens work great for noticing defects.



Best thing about silver is you have to look real close at the correct angles--meaning the color looks darn good when just walking by.

[Bigpoppa3346]

Another way to spot defects on silver (usefull if you don`t have access to a garage) is to, in full sunlight, look at the paint with sunglasses on.

[Accumulator]

Incandescents in an otherwise dark shop, though as drew.haynes pointed out, it`s not exactly *easy*. Still, that works fine for me and I don`t have any surprises on our (many) silver vehicles under sodium/metal halide/etc. lights at night. Just takes time (I might spend five minutes doing each inspection of each panel; add it up, that means it can take a very long time to do a vehicle and I don`t mean just five or six hours).



I can`t see light marring on such colors under halogens, let alone fluorescents (of any color/type). Any marring I can spot under those light sources is quite severe, not the sort of stuff I`m generally concerned with. Gotta use the incandescents to spot the kind of marring I worry about. My 3M Sun Gun (gotta write up a review some time) doesn`t work well either and there`s a lot of stuff I usually can`t see under natural sunlight unless it`s at just the right angle (though sunlight is great for holograms).



There are innumerable threads on this topic, including some where the other PC explained how you need the specific type of contrast provided by "point-source illumination".