Need advice, silver swirl hiding paint.

[UFgatorEE]

So after having the PC for over 2 years and not having a car worth using it on (unrelated story, but think bad single stage paint, reeeaal bad). I now own a 2002 Subaru Impreza WRX in silver.



For the life of me, I cannot find any swirls on this car. I know there should be swirls because I bought this car from my uncle, and I`ve seen the way he washes. It should be swirl galore. I`ve tried using the sun and my halogens, and no swirls show up. The next best solution I had was to look at reflection in the paint and compare the quality of the image in one panel to another, polished vs. unpolished.



I don`t have any useful pictures. My camera doesn`t seem to be able to do a sun shot very well, and my halogen broke before I could use it to take a picture. Unfortunately, I bumped my halogen light and it fell on the guard, breaking the bulb inside (it`s very fragile, I broke the other one, with no clue on how I did so, about a year ago).



So what should I do? Should I be contempt with my swirl hiding paint and not worry about it, or is there another method I could use for inspection?



Tools/Products:

PC7424

4" LC orange (light cut) and white (polish) pads

OP



Yesteday I washed with Meg`s Gold Class, Clayed with Meg`s Smooth Surface kit (jeez it was dirty), washed again, then used Meg`s Quik Wax (wanted to try it out, really easy to use actually).

Today I used ONR in a spray bottle, then 1:1 IPA to wipe down, then used the DA.

[efnfast]

Silver is soooooooo nice because it hides soooooooo well, hehe.



I`ve found 2 technieques that seem to work well for me.



GO to a wal-mart or home depot in the middle of the night and park under one of the huge flurescent lights - study the hood; if it`s marked up, you`ll see it under that large lighting for sure in the middle of the night.



Alternatively, close all the lights off in your garage and use a Brinkman and start holding your head at every possible angle on the hood. Eventually you`ll see them when you find that right angle.



However, if you can`t find them without hanging upside down in some of the weirdest possible angles, why do you want to correct the paint and shave off valuable clearcoat?

[Accumulator]

...owever, if you can`t find them without hanging upside down in some of the weirdest possible angles, why do you want to correct the paint and shave off valuable clearcoat?



That`s what I was thinking.



But...OTOH...I have silver vehicles and I`m somewhat fanatical about having them marring-free. I find that the *BEST* swirl-spotting illumination is incandescent ("point-source") lighting in an othewise dark environment. I`m able to spot *everything* on silver this way, and yeah, it worked fine on the silver WRX I used to have.



Brinkmans, SunGuns, halogens...nope. The cheap old incandescent lights work better for me *for this*, every time. They are my final inspection lights of choice on silver hands-down.

[UFgatorEE]

Good to know. I noticed a slight clarity difference on the polished portion vs. unpolished, but in the end, no one will notice so I`ll probably leave it as is. Thanks for the help.

[imported_Ol' Red]

I agree with these guys... If you can`t see them at any angle under any light, especially the sun, then what is the point of fixing something you cant see? If it aint broke dont fix it.



Oh yeah, Roll Tide!

[Accumulator]

If the car`s owner is happy, that`s all that matters. Period. Everybody else can stuff their opinion, and that includes me :D

[nighttraingirl]

Ohhh I know I`m a bit late in on the party, but my truck is sliver. I like the look of it, and after learning all about swirls and how to spot them and such.... well I always hope I can get a silver vehicle. Not only do they not show swirls, they don`t show dirt, either.

If you really want to see the swirls, I think someone mentioned Home Depot, or Walmart, at night. I only saw mine when one very late night, I had to fuel up and I finally saw the swirls under the gas station lights. I was mortified. I polished the truck well..... I probably wouldn`t have had to.

I think it did help out a bit with the brightness or reflectivity coming off the paint, as you said you noticed. Did anyone else notice, other than me? NO. They all thought it looked good before... I still get compliments on the condition and such on my truck and I have not polished it since. I just keep it very clean and a good coat of sealant and wax on it.

Sliver ROCKS.

NTGirl

[Accumulator]

nighttraingirl- Yeah, it was gas station lights at night that prompted me to get my final-inspection lighting sorted out :D Not surprised that you noticed the improvement; reflecting light beats refracting light every time so those "swirls you can`t see" really do make a difference.



As for anybody else noticing...eh, most people are clueless.

[LeadingEdgeDetail]

Adding fuel to the fire, but....



If you can see swirls in those gas-station lights, then you know they are there...



And you also should know that swirls prevent perfect reflectivity.



Can you see swirls in your bathroom mirror? Me neither! So if you want a mirror reflection, you gotta get rid of the swirls.. Silver just GLOWS when polished well!



Mostly because 99% of silver cars are never polished, they all look dull... throw one well polished one in the middle and the difference is night & day...



I say polish it!

[Accumulator]

Adding fuel to the fire, but....

Mostly because 99% of silver cars are never polished, they all look dull... throw one well polished one in the middle and the difference is night & day...







Yeah, I once had my S8 parked next to a pal`s *identical* one. His was "just detailed" and mine was in my version of "before condition", yet his simply looked blah by comparison, even from a distance.



It was hard to keep a straight face and keep biting my tongue while he went on about how good his detailer is :rolleyes:



But then he liked his mechanic too, even though his tires were all worn down in really weird ways from years of bad alignment...