lighting

J

jwgarrison

New member
Hello all! New member hear. I am new to the detailing world and i'm about to do my black expedition. I have limited space in my garage and poor lighting. Does anyone know what kind of lighting is best for bringing out any flaws in my paint so I can buff effectively? Also, are there any portable lights I can use as I make my way around the vehicle? Any advice on this matter will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.:buffing: :buffing: :buffing:
 
Halogen lights are the most commonly used for this purpose.



As for hand lighting, the Brinkman Dual Halogen (not the LED) works very well. Do a google search and it will yield on-line vendors or you can try your local tueday morning store - they had them for $15.. do a google search using "tuesday morning store finder" to see if you have a store local to you.
 
jwgarrison- Welcome to Autopia!



Halogens are the usual answer, and as MotorCity pointed out the Brinkman and similar lights (e.g., the 3M Sun Gun) are popular with some people. I myself find incandescent light to be the best for final inspections; while I use halogens and other lights, I find the most flaws with incandescents in an otherwise dark shop. Stuff that's invisible to me under halogens, the Sun Gun, and natural sunlight is visible under the incandescents- no more surprises at night under weird lighting conditions!



This topic is truly worth the dreaded search, as we've gone over it in (excruciaing ;) ) detail on a few occasions. the other PC has explained about the benefits of "point source illumination" and he and others have explained why it's not just brightness that helps you see flaws. I hate to do a "go search" to somebody after their first post, but this time it's not a blow-off, there's more good info already out there than I could ever type in now.
 
Which ones are incandescent?

I have halogen, fluro's and sodium vapours in the roof of the workshop
 
BigJimZ28- Do you mean "shot light" or "shop light"? You and I both know what we're referring to though :xyxthumbs



For my portable incandescent I got a cheap hand held (what I'd call a ) trouble light at Lowe's. The kind with a conical metal shade. It's a really hassle to use but has advantages over the ceiling mounted ones I have.



None of these things work miracles; you still gotta vary the inspection/illumination distance/angle and otherwise [mess] around until you see what you need to see. On silver I truly spend at least as much time inspecting as I do correcting, maybe more; I can spend five minutes inspecting a panel one time...and five minutes is an eternity to spend looking at *one* panel, *one* time. Imagine doing that over and over after every go-around with the polisher :eek:



SVR- How do your sodium vapor lights work? I always wonder if those are what our local gas stations have...those lights show all sorts of flaws at night and are what prompted me to figure out the incandescents so I'd quit having those nasty surprises when I gas up.
 
Mate, they are sensation for showing scratches, holograms and most swirls

I turn them on when doing the roof, boot and bonnet as I have fluro's for the doors and guards plus the halogens



Since twin 500w halogens dont show everything what would twin 1000w work like
 
SVR- I gotta say that I just can't see any marring under fluorescents....well, I can see really *nasty* scratches but none of my vehicles ever get that bad.



With the halogens, I have one that gets *bright* but it doesn't show very faint marring any better than the dimmer one. As the other PC explained in that long-ago post, it's not so much a matter of brightness as it is a matter of a specific type of *contrast*. I can really only achieve that contrast via incandescents.



Note that I'm talking primarily about the kind of *extremely* mild marring, *on metallics* that most people simply cannot see even when I point right at it...stuff you'd never see in sunlight/etc. (Heh heh, the kind of stuff I shouldn't worry about perhaps :D )



Glad to hear the sodium lights are working for you. I know that some of the "special lights" that sould like they'd work great simply don't; IIRC Mike Phillips tested some metal halide lights at Meguiar's and was disappointed with their swirl-showing performance. Yeah, trying to use ceiling-mounted lights to inspect the sides is tough, gotta keep moving the vehicle and that's not always possible.
 
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