Which color is most difficult to detect

[ShaunD]

True. Street lights are HIDs. On gold and silver metallic paint a light with a yellow-orange tone shows swirls best, ime.

 

[goldendodo19]

I find silver and whites to be the hardest to detect defects on. At the dealer I worked at for a couple months brand new cars came up for delivery from prep "washed" black cars looked grey, you could see swirls on white and silver easily. Just a testament to the quality of work done at the prep department. The black cars had all holograms down the sides just from being washed with dirty rags from the floor. It wasn't light swirling either, rather heavy as if the cars had been washed through and automatic wash several times.


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[FUNX650]

Back To Being Serious (BOO, HISS):

Silver(s)...is(are)...considered the most difficult paints in which to detect paint defects.
Why, though, is this so?!?!
Could it be due to any/all of the below factors?

I. The Human Eye(s) and the Detection/Distinction of "Color(s)"
A. Cones
1. Red
2. Green
3. Blue

II. The Electromagnetic Spectrum
A. "Visible Light"
1. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Violet
2. Low Value: ~400nm
3. High value: ~700nm

III. Is Silver a Color
A. Yes...Based upon the color of the metal: AG-Silver
1. Can be a color derived from mixing "Blue/Black"...with some "White" blended in for varying shades/hues.
2. Silver is always a "metallic-color"

IV. Difficulty of Humans "Seeing" Swirls/Scratches/etc., (Blemishes in Bob's-Paint-Defects-Speak), in Silver (metallic)
A. Different degrees of ones "cones' health"
B. Chromatic Dispersion
C. Absorption Coefficient
D. Refractive Index
E. Low-light/High-Light lighting conditions


Anyways: Happy Holidays!!

Bob

 

[Kevin Cullen]

Often the angle you look at it makes a difference. I have a grey car that when looked at from most normal approaches looks swirl free. However in sunlight at a very steep angle and moving slowly, I can start to see the swirl marks.

Take it in direct sunlight. A car that's 3 years old will show some washing swirls.

Agree with both, sometimes you have to look at the surface from different angles to see the swirls etc. It sounds like your finish will not need aggressive products to get it back to flawless!

 

[FUNX650]

Silver(s)...is(are)...considered the most difficult paints in which to detect paint defects.

Speaking of Silver:
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B0HB0dhSyHA]Silver Bells sung by Andy Williams - YouTube[/video]

Bob

 

[cardaddy]

Oh they are there, unless your car, (according to Carnac the Magnificent) "Has been kept hermetically sealed, inside a #2 mayonnaise jar underneath Funk & Wagnalls porch" since 2010. :laughing:

Problem is, white and silver are harder paints than dark gray and black. Especially if it's a single stage paint. However you're dealing with metallic so it's the clear that you're looking at to see swirls, whereas the "Titanium Gray metallic" is working to hide any swirls you may see, with them blending in with the various reflections from the metallic itself.

I'm thinking two things; 1 is it's a harder paint, and 2; it must be an American brand as that's where the harder paint tends to be. (Although I could, and can quite often be wrong..... if you ask my wife.)

I agree though with the statements that it takes a different light (wavelength of the light coming into play) as well as different angles to find said swirls. My Cadillac is a 1999 and you'll look long and hard to find swirls, but I assure you they are there. Some so much so that they just REFUSE to be buffed out. (That's more like RIDS, but still there none the less.) Pull it in bright full sunlight and you'll go freaking blind trying to find swirls. Take the Brinkman Swirl Finder (Dual Xenon) and you'll do much better. Do it with an LED light and they'll disappear again. :dunno:

Bottom line is this; If you have to stand on your head, holding a candle between your toes on your left foot, whilst you hold the driver side mirror with your right foot, facing the east with your right shoulder while the sunlight comes from underneath your armpit with your hand on your waist and in your left hand you have a "swirl finder", and between your teeth you have a high powered tactical strobe led flashlight (that you borrowed from your AR15). And ONLY THEN can you see the swirls, then I'd put some sealant on that puppy and call it a day! :dblthumb2:

 

[Romans5.8]

Oh they are there, unless your car, (according to Carnac the Magnificent) "Has been kept hermetically sealed, inside a #2 mayonnaise jar underneath Funk & Wagnalls porch" since 2010. :laughing:

Problem is, white and silver are harder paints than dark gray and black. Especially if it's a single stage paint. However you're dealing with metallic so it's the clear that you're looking at to see swirls, whereas the "Titanium Gray metallic" is working to hide any swirls you may see, with them blending in with the various reflections from the metallic itself.

I'm thinking two things; 1 is it's a harder paint, and 2; it must be an American brand as that's where the harder paint tends to be. (Although I could, and can quite often be wrong..... if you ask my wife.)

I agree though with the statements that it takes a different light (wavelength of the light coming into play) as well as different angles to find said swirls. My Cadillac is a 1999 and you'll look long and hard to find swirls, but I assure you they are there. Some so much so that they just REFUSE to be buffed out. (That's more like RIDS, but still there none the less.) Pull it in bright full sunlight and you'll go freaking blind trying to find swirls. Take the Brinkman Swirl Finder (Dual Xenon) and you'll do much better. Do it with an LED light and they'll disappear again. :dunno:

Bottom line is this; If you have to stand on your head, holding a candle between your toes on your left foot, whilst you hold the driver side mirror with your right foot, facing the east with your right shoulder while the sunlight comes from underneath your armpit with your hand on your waist and in your left hand you have a "swirl finder", and between your teeth you have a high powered tactical strobe led flashlight (that you borrowed from your AR15). And ONLY THEN can you see the swirls, then I'd put some sealant on that puppy and call it a day! :dblthumb2:

Quite a description!

Hehehe.

My wifes Silver Taurus is VERY swirled, but hides them well. You can't tell it from even a few feet away, unlike a red or a black car; which you can see across four lanes of highway coming the opposite direction!

For the record- some American paint is super soft! Tuxedo Black on the new Fords is uber soft. I had some swirls in my spoiler from where the dealer removed some plastic and scrubbed residue (I told them not to wash it; but they still removed the plastic!). Polished out completely in one pass with a 3" mild polishing pad, Ultimate Polish, and speed 3. ONE PASS. Completely gone. (Checked, double checked, and triple checked with IPA and various lights; couldn't believe how quickly it de-swirled).

 

[cardaddy]

Quite a description!

Hehehe.

My wifes Silver Taurus is VERY swirled, but hides them well. You can't tell it from even a few feet away, unlike a red or a black car; which you can see across four lanes of highway coming the opposite direction!

For the record- some American paint is super soft! Tuxedo Black on the new Fords is uber soft. I had some swirls in my spoiler from where the dealer removed some plastic and scrubbed residue (I told them not to wash it; but they still removed the plastic!). Polished out completely in one pass with a 3" mild polishing pad, Ultimate Polish, and speed 3. ONE PASS. Completely gone. (Checked, double checked, and triple checked with IPA and various lights; couldn't believe how quickly it de-swirled).

Yeah, me sometimes gets carried away in those discriptions.

I agree with the single stage black. Remember that carbon black is the pigment whereas with white it's titanium dioxide (basically hard as sandpaper).

That Ford sounds as bad as Porsche black. The easy part is it corrects without much effort. The hard part is it scratches when you look at it funny! I'd get it corrected and put a monster coat of either OC Pro or a couple coats of PBL (or cQuartz perhaps).

 

[Romans5.8]

Yeah, me sometimes gets carried away in those discriptions.

I agree with the single stage black. Remember that carbon black is the pigment whereas with white it's titanium dioxide (basically hard as sandpaper).

That Ford sounds as bad as Porsche black. The easy part is it corrects without much effort. The hard part is it scratches when you look at it funny! I'd get it corrected and put a monster coat of either OC Pro or a couple coats of PBL (or cQuartz perhaps).

Oh it's taken care of.

I told the dealership not to wash it. They obliged but they DID remove plastic and rubbed it down with what I would assume to be some sort of APC. All I know is when I picked it up, I knew exactly where the plastic was as there were severe scratches and swirls in those areas! Corrected easy though.

In the spring it'll get a coating. But in this cold with no garage and having access only to an unheated garage (My mom lives nearby), even with a space heater- I'd be concerned about not having an 'ideal' environment to apply the coating. It does have layers of sealant and wax though!

Believe it or not, I've even water-less washed it a dozen times or more and have noticed no real marring or scratching. Just a few scratches that happened from dirty ice sliding off the paint as it melted; which I corrected when I corrected the spoiler.

Ironically, I gave up on the black plastic side pillars on the doors. I'll have to get some more aggressive compound and pads. With a 3" foam cutting pad, my GG6 going as fast as it could without spinning that little pad into oblivion, varying pressure and SEVERAL passes with Meg's Ultimate Compound didn't make a dent. THOSE were scratched by the factory, believe it or not. I happened to have pulled in as they were scrubbing on my spoiler with rags and asked them to stop and told them I'd finish with the plastic. I peeled the side pillar plastic off to reveal a swirled mess!!!