I don't know how polished the skins were but I will bet that they were done to the best of the ground crew's ability.
I often thought that when my current Bearcat is gone that I might do the Beetle Bomb finish. For now I will stick with the Orange and white Gulfhawk IV color scheme.
If you look at the flight picture on my gallery page the benefits of a high contrast paint scheme show quite well.
ORIGINAL: Chad Veich
Doesn't look polished to me, silver paint possibly or just natural aluminum. I've never seen the leading edges called out as yellow either and all the early jets had silver so why not the Bearcats as well?