Can you get a car too glossy...

mjlinane

mjlinane

My name is Mike
...for a camera to focus properly? Strange as it sounds, I really was thinking this after looking at the After photos on this detail. The built-in gloss meters I was born with had me really proud of this one and almost none of the pics showed any of what I saw.

A coworker's pride and joy: a Copper Red Mica 2012 Mazda MX-5. Only maybe 6 months old and he wanted it OptiCoated. I really liked everything about this one so was happy to oblige.

It arrived rather dirty but that wasn't entirely his fault. It is a difficult time of year here: huge amounts of pollen, frequent rains and migrating birds.

Normal decontamination to start this:
Wheels - Muc Off Performance Wheel Cleaner followed by CG Sticky Gel Citrus Wheel Cleaner
Tires and wheel wells - Zep Orange 1:1
Foam - 1Z W99 and CG Citrus Wash
GDPWM - CG Honeydew Snow Foam
Iron removal - Carpro IronX Snow Foam
Clay - Nanoskin Autoscrub Pad on GG6 + DP Universal Clay Lube

Now that I could see the real condition of the paint, it was in pretty good shape. Minor swirls, some slightly deeper RIDS, light waterspots and one etched in bird bomb scar.
MX-5_Before_01.JPG


There was one scratch I thought was fixable - until I put my paint guage to it. Only read 70um!! Did what I could on but not enough paint to go too hard at it.

The paint was a bit harder than I was expecting but nothing outrageous like last week's Lexus. Yes, another hybrid correction but, this time, because that is what was needed. The sides were in really good shape and only needed some sprucing up.

Hood, roof and trunk - Rupes 21 + Optimum Cutting MF + Optimum Hyper Compound followed by Rupes 21 + LC CCS Green + Optimum Hyper Polish
Sides - Rupes 21 + Optimum Finishing MF + Optimum Hyper Compound
Back, front, ribbons and mirrors - GG6 + 4" Orange + Optimum Hyper Compound

On this paint, OHC - especially on the Finishing MF - worked beautifully. Good cut and finished beautifully.

Applied OptiCoat with the Opti Dual Pro Applicator. If you do OptiCoat, throw away the yellow applicators and get one of these. Makes application so much easier and you waste far less OptiCoat. Going back to the too glossy question, finding the high spots in bright light was difficult, too. Once the sun went behind the clouds, saw a couple that I had missed in "better" lighting - easily taken care of. The car took on that "wet lacquer" look OC gives you when properly applied to a near perfect surface.

Here are the After pics that turned out halfway decently.
MX-5_After_01.JPG

MX-5_After_02.JPG

MX-5_After_04.JPG

MX-5_After_03.JPG

MX-5_After_05.JPG

MX-5_After_06.JPG

MX-5_After_09.JPG

MX-5_After_08.JPG

MX-5_After_10.JPG

MX-5_After_07.JPG


Not sure exactly sure what happened with the camera. Hate that I lost my souvenirs from what I consider one of my better efforts. Oh well....

Thanks for looking. Questions welcome.
 

Mike, I still think you did great work. The pictures look nice and glossy to me.




My camera and most importantly my photo skills are lacking and I always come away with he same feeling. How it looks to me and how my photos look are always different. But I don't like to edit them so I let them be and post them anyway.

 
I find it difficult to photograph red in general, particularly that color. Of course I just have a point and shoot camera.

In general I agree with you about the "too glossy to photograph." The reason is the same as taking a photograph in a mirror. The camera (and the eye) will focus on the object in the reflection instead of the surface of the paint or glass. A scratch or other flaw (or a piece of tape) will change the depth of the focus to the surface rather than the reflection.
 
Thanks Troy and Steve.

Hadn't thought of that Nth Degree. Thinking about it, that camera (a Sony P&S) does use an orange-red light for setting the exposure. Might do same with the focus.
 
ihaveacamaro said:
Mike, great job!!

Question: Why did you use two wheel cleaners?
Click to expand...

Thanks Roshan.

On wheels that haven't been cleaned in a while (or, as is the case in a lot of cars I do, ever), 1 typically does not get everything off. So I use a different one for the second application. Most of the time, a different one tends to work better. Remember the definition of insanity? ;).

Doesn't generally matter what the 2 are or the order used.
 
Looks very nice. The car has a lot of curved surfaces that gives the paint some interesting reflections.
 
I dont know man..that paint looks deep enough to swim in. If you say these are bad pics, I would love to see the car up close. Great job
 
Absolutely gorgeous, clearly corrected work !!!

If you are saying this looks even better in person, wow, you are really running away with mad skills here, mi amigo !!!

I would have loved to see this in person as well.

Having used a lot of Opti-Coat and Guard, I can only echo what you have said above -
looks like "wet lacquer", and I really know what wet lacquer looks like too.

The Client is going to be so grateful every time they see and/or wash this beautiful car. It is going to be so effortless, and the finish is so strong.

I put Opti-Guard on my '09 Grand Cherokee last year and drove it over 6,000 miles through all kinds of weather, through 6 States, twice, and even dirty, the water beads off it like it was clean and just waxed. Perfectly lined up beads of water, rolling off the horizontal body panels...

Your pictures here should win the prize for best looking finish - 2013 !!!!

Thanks for the hard work and the time to share this with us.
Dan F
 
Thanks everybody. I appreciate the kind words.

I guess the biggest difference in real life v. the photos was the clarity of the reflections. Live, the reflections were as crisp as on last week's Lexus but here the are comparatively blurry in the photos.

Thanks again.
 
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