Not getting a sharp reflection on the car

[Anthony199]

Hello everyone,

I have a 13 years old BMW e90, and the hood and roof were a bit swirly. I tried using a white pad from Chemical guys with meguiar's Ultimate polish, and it wasn't enough. I used the orange pad with meguiar's Ultimate compound, and then all the scratches disappeared. I followed with the white pad and some polishing to have a better finish. I don't have any swirls or scratches anymore, however the reflection is not super sharp, it's very slightly blurry or hazy.

Same on my newer 2012 E class, I cut with a wool pad and finished with a white pad, and the reflection is not as sharp as other panels, or glass.

What can be done to improve the reflection quality?

[Goonie75]

Switch up product and pad maybe. Black soft pad and some fine polish. Menzerna 3800 or Griots Perfecting Cream or Wolfgang Finishing Glaze or M110.

Odd the white pad wont give you what you're after. What is the color of the vehicles?

Others will chime in I'm sure.

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[Anthony199]

Will the black pad have any polishing capabilities? It's so soft I feel it only spreads sealants or wax.
The BMW is dark metallic grey, the Benz is metallic silver. The reflection on the Benz is slightly better than the BMW's, since I used a wool pad compared to the orange pad, which i think is less aggressive. And I forgot to mention, wool pad on rotary. All foam pads were used on DA.

[Goonie75]

Black has little to no cut. Typically. However, it can "refine" paint and really bring out gloss.

Perhaps the haze is leftover rotary... not quite polishing all of that out maybe. Or not working your white pad long enough.

Did you do a test spot to dial everything in before proceeding?

I've used wool or microfiber before... followed by white pad... followed by black pad...

Typically red pads are for just "spreading" product...

We will get it figured out...

Ryan

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[Anthony199]

So for the BMW, the swirls and haze were pretty bad since i haven't applied sealant after polishing last time (long story). So i had to use the compound to get them out. With the white pad, i might have not worked it for long enough. On the Benz tho, i use the rotary wool for just long enough, and did many passes with the white pad. I also put Adam's spray-able ceramic coating on top so I might have to stick with this reflection for another 6 months. But I am still curious why I wasn't able to get that car show reflection on the hoods and trunks. I will try to get pictures soon.

[Goonie75]

Pics would help. Polish will remove the coating.

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[Anthony199]

Pics would help. Polish will remove the coating.

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This picture is the reflection of the gas station LED on the hood, zoomed in from my phone. I know there is a some orange peel but its not that obviously in real life.


This is the reflection on the glass. I couldn't get a better picture, but the reflection on the glass was much clearer and sharper. I could see each individual LED and the borders of each LED. On the first picture, I can probably count the LEDs but with some concentration lol. There is obviously no waves or orange peel here, but that's not really what I care about anyways.

[Eldorado2k]

These are normL characteristics of the paint used on some hoods & roofs, especially silver and gray tones. I’ve seen this on everything from Cadillacs to Mercedes Benz. The paint on the hood will never shine like the paint on the fenders or any of the other vertical panels.

[Anthony199]

Here are other pictures. This is my garage light, pretty powerful LED bulb. I played with the camera settings to remove the glare, but i think it shows well what I'm talking about.
Glass:



Trunk:



I'm actually thinking this is orange peel causing this?

Trunk reflection overall:

[Anthony199]

Oh wow I never knew that. I'm assuming it has something to do with sunlight and rays and the life of the paint? Thanks for the info!