How to find Swirls on a Light-Coloured Cars?

[God77]

Hi Brothers,

I`ve 3 white and 1 silver cars. I know that there are a lot of swirls and scratches on my cars. For scratches, it`s easy to find. But for swirls, it`s almost impossible to find them in day light (I`ve tried torch light, direct sunlight, dim light but failed). The only way I can find them is when parking my car under road lamp (halogen) at night and WoW, I can`t believe it, there are lots of lots of swirls. For some fine swirls, even at night, I can only find it by viewing quite laterally.

The problem is I only do detailing in day time and don`t know where to correct. Please help me brothers.



Thanks,

77

[imported_DetailDan]

Angles, angles, angles. Dont look at the paint straight on. Buy yourself some halogen lights too.

[qwertydude]

And also a bright led flashlight. A single led I`ve recently found works better than a cluster. I have this one on order.



DealExtreme: $44.97 SSC P7 900-Lumen LED Flashlight (18650) (http://www.dealextreme.com/details.dx/sku.12271)



About as bright as a car headlight and smaller than a maglite C cell flashlight.

[Mark77]

I also use a strong LED light(Gerber I think it is) to find swirls on light colors. But usually I don`t worry much about swirls that I can`t see in other lights. I don`t want to go crazy, like I did when I had a black car :scared:

[Gopher]

For me on my titanium silver car, hallogens don`t help at all. Swirls only really present themselves to my eyes at dusk under dim/distant street lamps.



I have read that polarized sun glasses in natural sunlight help, but I have yet to try it myself.

[God77]

Yes, Gopher, that`s what I`m talking. In day time, after waxing my car, I was so proud how swirl-free my car was but when I park my car at night under street lamps. They are there and I think the only way to tackle them is to bring out a PC on to the road and doing detailing under street lamps.:think2:think2

[imported_DetailDan]

Sounds like a plan to me!

[Slik560]

I feel yer pain. :sadpace: The good thing about white is that it`s very forgiving. The bad thing is that you literally have to work in the dark with an indirect light souce to see the imperfections when polishing. I`ve almost considered buffing at night. My problem is being able to tell when the polish has been worked enough. I look for light dusting from the Meg`s #83 that I`ve using, but looking for white dust on a white car...you go blind after a while. :waxing: I still have not been able to get the results I want, simply because I stop too early. I wish they made the stuff in colors!! I`ve got a good set of halogens on a tripod, so I guess the most important part of the process is patience. :grinno:



PS: I had a similar experience - I spent an entire day polishing and waxing the old Benz, then when I drove to the local station for gas that night, all of the swirls that I swore I`d removed magically reappeared under their metal-halide lights in the canopy over the pumps. :scared: Very disillusioning!



Let me know if anyone comes out with a good polish that dusts-up BLUE when it`s worked enough! :cooleek:

[Accumulator]

Find a way to duplicate the lighting that *does* show the marring.



For me, it`s incandescent light in an otherwise dark shop. No more surprises in weird lighting conditions at night :D Just gotta get the illumination and viewing angles right for the area being inspected.



Yeah, it takes time...Spend a few hours inspecting your silver car lately?



I spend literally *more* time inspecting our silver vehicles than I do correcting them (and that`s saying something, considering how hard the Audi clear is). Five minutes per panel, per inspection isn`t unusual and that`s repeated over and over and over...but I do finally get things as close to perfect as my don`t-overthin-the-clear approach will allow. Consider how long five minutes *really* is when you`re talking about looking at a single panel on a car..it`s forever.

[God77]

Inspecting! You mean "In day time" or "At night with incandescent light"? "In day time" I`ve tried at many angles, paying attention but failed. At night, Yes, I can see them. It`s something like, I`ve to take photos of the areas of swirls and do correction in the morning according to photo and guess.!!! :o:o Hee Hee. My family will think I gone crazy! Yap, I think they are start thinking now as I`m finding the swirls which other people can`t find. :lol:lol