Scratches in certain light?

[Hawk75]

Hi all - need some help as I'm having issues with scratches that are only apparent in certain light. Here's the situation. Wife's 2019 Volvo XC90 pearl white, been through plenty of automatic car washes. However the gloss, sparkle and shine are all great. I've completed a wash, iron remover, clay bar, 3D speed, and a layer of collinite. In direct sunlight the paint looks great. In the garage under halogen bulbs it looks great. With direct flashlights it looks great. However, at certain times in the late evening when the sun is starting to set, the light reflects in a certain way and at certain angles I can see lots of scratches. Hopefully that doesn't sound too crazy...but it's driving me nuts. The rest of the day I think the car looks fantastic and then at night I think what is going on!

Maybe I need to buy some type of detailing light to see these while I'm working on it? I've tried a couple of led flashlights and a headlamp but they show nothing but gloss and sparkle when I use them.

Help!

[Eldorado2k]

Hi all - need some help Here's the situation. pearl white

Nuff said. Lol.

Long story short, pearl white is kinda crazy to inspect. Even if you correct it to perfection, you’ll probably only notice that perfection during that 1 hour of the day when the stars align and you’re in that perfect lighting. Your choice whether or not to fight that war or just enjoy it the way it is.

I once owned a pearl white Cadillac [actually my 1st 3 Cadillacs were white] when I 1st got into detailing, and I didn’t learn how to spot swirls until my next car. Lol

[2black1s]

I agree with Eldo. White is hard enough to inspect for swirls and Pearl White is even harder as the pearlescent particles do a great job at camouflaging the swirls.

Back in my painting days, white was the biggest PITA to wet sand and polish because it's so hard to see your progress during the process.

[Desertnate]

I'll echo the other, pearl is probably the worst to see.

The best bet is to put the car in a dark area like your garage with the lights totally off. Then put a light source at a very steep angle to the side of your car at about fender height. Stand a distance back from that light source and then move you sight lines towards the side of the car, you'll start to see the swirls appear.

One thing I found when doing a white car is while you may have a hard time seeing the swirls, any polishing will product noticeable results. The white will be so much more crisp and "clean" looking. Gloss will increase quite a bit too.

[Hawk75]

Thanks everyone!

Desertnate - what you are describing is similar to when I can see the scratches. In the garage, setting sunlight coming in at an angle, and me looking at a side angle view just right. Then they all appear!! All other times the paint looks flawless with great gloss and sparkle.

I will say I have a similar experience with another vehicle - 2015 F150. This one is dark grey but very metallic. I think it was called magnetic metallic from Ford. Maybe it's similar that the metallic nature of the paint helps hide the swirls and scratches too?

[Desertnate]

Metallic paints do hide swirls and they also make it harder to correct. From what I remember of some Ford metallic paints I've looked at, they have a high flake content and the flakes themselves are pretty large. This, IMO, makes them hard to correct because the dazzling effect they create. The bad part is, they reach a certain point where even the flakes can't hide the damage. By then it's in really bad shape.

There is a black Fusion in the lot here at work that has hit the point where the swirls are noticeable no matter the conditions.

From the couple white cars I've polished out, it's really surprising to see how much gloss and clarity in the paint is being lost due to the swirls even if they aren't really noticeable in normal light conditions.

[Hawk75]

Thanks all. So a couple questions on how to proceed
1. Setting up the lights as described above, do I need to purchase some LED spotlights or will the halogen spotlights I already have work? Any other lighting recommendations?

2. Since the 3D speed/white pad didn't correct, is 3D one and orange pad a good next combo for these type of scratches ?

[Desertnate]

My 2 cents.

You're halogen spotlights should work just fine. I actually think the color temperature of the halogen spotlights actually works better than LED.

I'm not familiar with the 3D products, but One might have more cut than Speed, so you could try One on a white pad first and then go to orange if you don't get enough cut.

[PaulMys]

If Speed didn't "cut it", I would go right to an orange pad and One. As One is "pad-dependent" product.