Pewter Metallic - where is the marring???

[markw78]

I was just looking at my 2002 Pewter trans am under the HID's in the garage...



I can see like no swirls or marring at all, even around the lights or right on the reflections, nothing... a little halogramming, and some bad orange peel on the hood, but no swirls or scratches (other then the real scratches)...



So this car has like never been washed.. I washed it a few times over the 7 years (pewter just never looks too dirty when it happens gradually, now that I washed it a few weeks ago, huge difference in shine).. So anyways the only washes it saw over the 7 years were a small handfull of gas station washes, mostly if not all touchless... Is it possible the car really has no swirls etc? That would be awesome, the orange peel on the hood makes up for it and then some



Any tricks to bring out the marring/swirls in a pewter/silver metallic paint?

 

[Barry Theal]

The metallic in the paint will hide a lot, more so on a lighter car. IF you have a garage pull the car in turn out all lights the use halgens that will bring out defects. Remember when looking for defects our eye is normally trained to look down on a car. you need to change this and look across panels and up on panels. good luck, hopefully you find nothing.

 

[see_otter]

+1 what Barry said.... then make a late night trip to you local Walmart parking lot. Best swirl finders I have ever found!

 

[Accumulator]

IME to *really* inspect such colors you need a dark environment and either an incadescent light or a 3M SunGun (these can duplicate the "parking lot at night" effect). I've had *lot* of silver/etc. cars, including two in Pewter, and it just takes a bit of work to learn how to inspect them.



Clearcoat is clearcoat and it gets marred up. If you have scratches then you also have milder flaws.



Do you really want to know how bad your paint (really) is? Ignorance can be bliss

 

[markw78]

haha yah, this is going to be a showish car I *think*. (not full blown show, WAY to much work lol). It's a garage sitter now that I got the G8, so wanted to get it all perfected out (is that a phrase? perfected out? lol)



I may just hit it with the Z5 filler... though I would like to know whats going on with the paint, I'm too into this whole detailing thing now...It's like being 16-18 again but with a lot more common sense, patience, and knowledge (not to mention great forums like this on the internet)



FYI the "parking lot effect" is because those are HID (metal halide or sodium vapor bulbs, which are VERY close to the same spectrum as a Sun Gun would be. We use them a lot over certain types of aquariums.



Thanks for the replies I will give that a go some night and keep my fingers crossed! The "scratches" I referred to are actual 'something dragged across here' lines I just need to blend, not too many. You could get those without milder flaws, keyed cars, shopping carts... but yah I know what your sayin



You do a lot for this forum Accumulator, your # of posts shows that!! A big thanks on behalf of newbs everywhere If I ever find anyone in NE Ohio needing a detail I will send them your way!

 

[Accumulator]

haha yah, this is going to be a showish car I *think*. (not full blown show, WAY to much work lol). It's a garage sitter now that I got the G8, so wanted to get it all perfected out ..

Yeah, I can relate; I hardly ever drive my (silver) S8 these days so I get a kick out of keeping it really nice.

I may just hit it with the Z5 filler... though I would like to know whats going on with the paint, I'm too into this whole detailing thing now...

Heh heh, watch what you wish for

FYI the "parking lot effect" is because those are HID (metal halide or sodium vapor bulbs, which are VERY close to the same spectrum as a Sun Gun would be. We use them a lot over certain types of aquariums.

Note that for this purpose, it's not really a matter of the spectrum matching, but rather the particular type of contrast provided by "point source illumination". It's kinda funny what does/doesn't show up under different types of lighting.

... If I ever find anyone in NE Ohio needing a detail I will send them your way!

Heh heh, I appreciate the sentiment, but I'm not a pro and I don't do cars for others. I have my hands full taking care of my own stuff !