That New Car Look

July 19th was an eventful day for me. As I mentioned last time, I had my second dose of vaccine(Yes. I’m still fine. I’m annoyed you didn’t ask how I was doing yet; it seems selfish, in my opinion. Sorry. I just needed to get that off my chest). I also mentioned that there was a second event that day, and I’d write about it soon. This is ‘soon’. It took a bit longer than I thought because I had to looks some stuff up and do research, but I need to attempt to know what I’m talking about. Anyways, the event: I also bought a new car.

… Actually, it’s not a ‘New’ new car. It was used, but new to me.

…actually, no, it wasn’t new to me either. A company was selling their older vehicles. As I work for the company, I had a chance to grab a good one.

… actually, I don’t work for the company, but I work for the owners of the company.

… actually, I’m getting tired of amending my sentances.

… actually, I meant to type ‘sentences’.

My old car was getting to the end of its life; there were a number of problems that could be repaired, but would likely add up to more than the car was worth. They include(but weren’t limited to) the brake pads needing replacing, a hole in the muffler, rust underneath the car, a leaking head gasket, and the airbag warning light turning on randomly.

There was also a problem that couldn’t be identified, let alone repaired, namely: The engine would start randomly revving up and accelerating. That probably is a bad sign. It would be a worse sign if I didn’t drive standard transmission, as I always had the option of pressing the clutch or shifting into neutral.

But enough about my old car, lets talk about the new ones. I had a choice of a Kia Soul, a Kia Soul, or a Kia Soul.

Which one did I choose? Lets find out. In a first for this blog, I’m going to do a car review and comparison! I’m hoping to get a big sponsorship from this and retire wealthy, so I’ll be sure have a lot of good things to say about Kia. For instance, none of them have erupted in flames yet.

Review: Lets start with the technical specifications for the model first. Well… they’re all very car. That’s good. Are they too car? I wouldn’t think so. All three cars were extensively used, and have high mileage. They practically could have driven around the world before I bought them. I don’t know if I’m using ‘practically’ in the normal sense here, as they literally could have driven around the world about 7 times each. As you can see from the above photos, they have silver paint, which makes them go faster, but not as fast as red. They have an even number of wheels outside, an odd number of wheels in front of the driver’s seat, and the wheels are all wheel-shaped. They all have an engine, which many of the best-reviewed cars do, and…

…

%*@$ it.

I can’t do this. I don’t know anything about cars. I don’t know why I’m even writing a car review. I don’t even know if there’s any point to reviewing cars that are over a half-decade old. Start talking to me about any vehicle, and my mind starts to wonder and I think of funny insects. Cars aren’t my strength. I take photos. Maybe they’re good, maybe they’re not, but they’re usually interesting or at least weird. That’s my strength.

And that’s what I’m gonna do.

Car #1: A 2015 Kia Soul

I can confirm that it’s a car. It has some scratches and dents not clearly visible in this photo. There’s going to be a lot of photos, and I’m going to speed through them until I find something interesting to say. Here’s the car in the three colour channels.

Red:

Green:

Blue:

Nothing worth mentioning. The car looks pretty much the same in all channels. That’s probably good, but not very exciting.

How about infrared(With my Zomei 760 nm filter?)

Nothing.

Dual band Infrared & Ultraviolet(With my Schott UG11 filter)?

No.

My near-ultraviolet and some true ultraviolet Short Pass filter? It doesn’t have a brand name that I know of, as I bought the filter off ebay and customized it for my camera.

Still looks normal, even if I adjust the colour balance on the computer:

I like the ghostly green colour, though. Maybe I should see if I can get a car in that colour. Still, other than that, nothing worth mentioning.
Lets combine my Schott UG11 &BG40 filters to get a UV only image.

Okay. Something worth writing about! With the visible and infrared ends of the spectrum blocked, UV gets it’s chance to shine. Pun intended. Like I said, these cars were used for a local company; and as such, they had decals advertising the company. These included the company’s name, phone numbers and logo. The decals are removed, and the car was cleaned, but traces of them remain.

In essence, the sun fades paint. It fades paint a lot faster in the ultraviolet spectrum. This isn’t usually a problem, as the ultraviolet spectrum isn’t visible. Still, with the right equipment…equipment that I use to take photos…

Because the decals were opaque, the sun couldn’t reach the car paint behind them. The paint behind the decals remained unfaded, while the rest of the car’s paint became lighter.

Can I see it more clearly? Combining the BG40 and UG11 lenses still lets Some infrared & visible light leak through. It’s a small amount, but adding the short pass filter should eliminate almost all of it:

… not especially. The problem was that adding the third filter means I need a much longer exposure. As I couldn’t move the cars to get the optimum light, I had to take a photo of the shady side, and focus the camera blind for a long, long exposure. I could have kept on trying until I got a good one, but there was an alternative.

This is the photo from my Kolari UV filter.

This is the newest filter to my collection. It’s a dedicated UV filter, and I haven’t explored its full capabilities yet. That said, I think it doesn’t go as deep into the UV range as my double-stacked UG11+BG40 filter combination; however, the upside to that is that it can take a photo much more quickly than the aforementioned filter combination. It can get the correct exposure in a fraction of the time, which means it’s probably going to be come my UV filter for windy days and to use on the go. It also means that I’ve got a range of ultraviolet filters to select from; this is best for spectra between the short pass and the double(or triple) stacked filter sets. I’ll probably put photos from it from now on.

The unfaded decal locations aren’t any more clear with this filter; however, there is something else about the car that is most apparent with this filter. The front bumper is clearly a different shade in the UV range. It’s also apparent in the other UV photos; it’s just the most clear here. My theory is that it’s a different paint, with a different shade in UV. The bumper is made of some kind of fiberglass/plastic material, while the rest of the car is metal, so I’d guess they needed different paint for it. In the visible range, they look identical, but again, we’re looking outside the visible range now.

Okay. Car 1 has some body damage, but nothing too unusual is visible in the photos. But how does it stack up against…

Car 2: a 2015 Kia Soul

Again, I don’t have a lot to say about some of these photos; I’m posting them anyways because negative results are still results(I learned this from high school science, just like I learned to recognize the smell of a leaky Bunsen burner… I’d make a joke here, but that’s actually a true story, and more boring than you probably think) It seems that all the fun stuff is in the UV range, so lets just rush through the other spectra.

Red.

Green.

Blue.

Infrared.

That irregular light patch in the IR photo below the mirror looked interesting, but it’s from just the sun reflecting off of it. It’s visible in the visible range too, but due to the silver paint doesn’t stand out as much. Really, the only exciting part of these photos is that If I switch between the red and green channels really quickly, it looks like the car has its turn signal on.

… don’t look at me like that. I’m easily amused. It’s another of my strengths. Speaking of which, it’s UG11 filter time!

This time, the UG11 dual band filter is actually worth talking about. Specifically, the fact that the back of the car seems to be a different colour to the front. I’m pretty sure the car is supposed to only be one colour, so what’s going on? This filter, like I mentioned, captures both infrared and ultraviolet light. I already posted an infrared photo, and it looks ‘normal’, so the weirdness is probably from the other end of the spectrum.

Short Pass filter? do your thing!

Ultraviolet weirdness, definitely! I couldn’t set the white balance any better on the computer this time(it’s kind of hit and miss if I can do it, and usually I can’t). So, lets move on

Kolary UV:

Okay, I’m really liking the Kolari filter so far. I’m going to have to do a review of it sometime, but I need to play with it first. Still, It’s fairly fast for a UV photo, and clear, which is a big plus. The same dual coloured car thing is going on, but now the decal imprints are visible too.

Of course, these trends continue for the UG11+BG40 double filter…

.. and the triple stacked filter combo…

… a little bit clearer each time. So, what’s going on? This is the ‘research’ I was doing, looking up the history of a car. I found a bunch of interesting tidbits on Henry Ford, before realizing I should be looking into the history of a single car, not cars in general.

This car had a side-on collision. That’s it. The car was still usable, but the passenger-side door and the front panel of the body were too badly dented for repair. They were instead replaced. As UV light fades the paint, and the replacement parts of the car were probably kept away from natural light in a warehouse until they were used, they had less chance to fade than the original car parts did. They’re closer to the colour of the decal imprints, and the imprints aren’t visible on the new parts(okay, I’m lying here; If I use my full quality photo and do a LOT of alteration with the contrast and brightness, a discolouration that MIGHT be the decals can be seen. It’s too faint to bother posting here, and can barely be seen at all even with the enhancements, so just take my word on it).

So, new UV filter use: looking for hidden repairs when buying a used car! That brings the uses up to two; the other use is looking at flowers. That might be pushing the term ‘use’.

On to car #3, then?

Car 3: 2015 Kia Soul

Red:

Green:

Blue:

Zomei 760 nm Infrared:

Schott UG11 Dual Band:

Short Pass:

Short Pass(where I could fix the @!*#%ing White Balance):

It’s easy to see with the colour corrected: The doors look a little darker, but not by much. Were they replaced, or is it a trick of the light, or is something even weirder going on?

Spoiler: it’s the third one.

Kolari UV:

Okay. The doors aren’t a different shade, but they’re streaked. In fact, there are streaks on the hood and front body panels. The decal imprint isn’t as clear here either. The decal of the phone number just below the window on the back door is clear, but most of them aren’t.

Schott UG11+BG40:

Triple-stacked:

I did look into the history of this car too, but don’t have any explanation for these streaks. The three cars were bought at the same time, have approximately the same mileage, and have more or less been driven and treated the same way. My best guess? Cosmic rays are causing the car to mutate. It’s in the early stage of gaining superpowers, and only time will tell whether it will become a force good or evil.

…Look, you really need to be more specific . You didn’t define ‘best’, so I used my own definition. But because you asked nicely, my best SANE guess is that this vehicle was at some point covered with a protective coating that inhibited the UV deterioration. Over time, the coating wore off, but not evenly. Or perhaps the car was splashed with something? There’s nothing with the reports on the history of the car that explain it.

Conclusion:

So, which car did I choose? They are all the same model, and have roughly the same milage. Unfortunately, that mileage is approaching 300 000 km(Like I said, they’re cheap), but they have been well maintianed.

They all have some body damage, worst in Car #2. Car #2 also has much of its right side replaced.

Car # 3 is…

… melting? Is it melting in the sun? That ain’t good.

Car # 1 seems the most normal. I think that’s fairly obvious. And as such, there’s only one ‘best’ choice…. what do you think I’d choose? I’m not an idiot. At least, not consistently.

That’s right: I chose Car #4!

Car # 4 is a 2017 Kia Soul, with a little under 200 000 km under its belt. The main takeaway is that the first number is higher than for the other cars, and the second is lower. Car aficionados among you might know that is a good sign. It’s also a good sign that the other cars have an extra 100 000 km behind them, as that means I can hopefully expect it to last at least twice more around the globe. Maybe by the time I add 100 000 km to it they’ll actually build a straight road around the world so I can test the distance for myself. After all, you can’t really trust π these days of misinformation.

On the downside, the car is grey; silver paint obviously makes the car faster, but grey gives the world a message: I couldn’t decide what colour I wanted the car to be, so I chose ‘none of the above’.

Anyways, how does it compare to the others? red:

green:

Blue:

Infrared:

… this is awkward; I don’t actually have an infrared photo. I took this picture later at a different location, and didn’t bring any of those filters. Just pretend it’s here and it looks so boring we all already forgot it.

UG11:

Maybe the doors are a little darker? Again, This would have to be from the ultraviolet side. It can’t be from infrared BECAUSE WE JUST LOOKED AT IT AND IT WAS VERY BORING. REMEMBER? YOU MIGHT HAVE FORGOTTEN BECAUSE IT WAS SO BORING.

Short Pass:

Yeah, it’s a little darker, isn’t it. Both doors, this time, not just the front door. Don’t worry if you can’t see it; it’s faint even with the full quality photo, and once I compress it for posting online, it gets even harder to see. As we get deeper into the UV range, the difference becomes more obvious.

Kolari UV:

See? told you! It’s also clear that three parts are replaced: back door, front door, and the panel in front of the front door. They’re all darker and purple(well, they’re a colour that doesn’t exist to the human eye and we don’t have a word for it, but the camera white balance thinks it’s purple. That’s a little too long to write, so I’ll just call it purple too). Yes, this car had a side-on collision too, and these parts were replaced.

Dual-stacked UG11+BG40:

I’m not going to post any triple-staked photos here; the light wasn’t in a great place to get the photos, and even the double-stacked ones are washed out and needed some fiddling with the contrast. I did take some triple-stacked photos, but the extra filter made the exposure much longer and the quality was pretty bad. It’s pretty much the same anyways.

The three replaced parts of the car can be seen here too. They don’t seem as obvious as in the Kolari photo, but I think the shades and contrast are about the same in both photos. However, the Kolari gives more colour variation; double-stacked is close to being monochromatic. The purple colour makes the panels stand out more, and that’s missing from this photo.

One thing that seems to be missing altogether is the imprint from the decals. The cars had a uniform design, so the decals were all in the same place. The darker shade of the car might have meant that the paint faded less, but I think the easiest explanation is that this car is two years newer than the others. The solar radiation had two years less to break down the paint, so the paint faded much less.

So that’s my new car. It has the right number of wheels, a few new parts, and it does not seem to be engulfed in flames often, so I’m satisfied. It might be seen now and again in the background of my pictures, but I’m not going to be writing about it again. Now, I’m off to drive my shiny new car.

… I really hope it has an engine.

The above photos were taken with a modified Canon T3i Rebel camera.