Need help with a LONG SCRATCH!!

By the way, I have plenty of fluorescent lights on the side walls of my garage, plus a double halogen on a tripod, along with a mini fluorescent work light. It seems that the mini fluorescent light works better than the halogen and makes much less heat.



Any suggestions?
 
spumoni said:
By the way, I have plenty of fluorescent lights on the side walls of my garage, plus a double halogen on a tripod, along with a mini fluorescent work light. It seems that the mini fluorescent light works better than the halogen and makes much less heat.



Any suggestions?
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IMO fluorescents are utterly *terrible* for spotting marring. Around my place, we often joke that if you can see a scratch under the fluorescents it must not be one of my vehicles :D I have dozens of 8' tubes, both ceiling and wall-mounted, so it's not a matter of things being bright enough but rather that fluorescents don't give the specific *contrast* of "point-source illumination" which is what you need for this.



Halogens are OK, at least if used in an otherwise dark shop.



I wasn't impressed with the Brinkman Dual Xenon that others love.



My 3M SunGun is *great* for certain types of marring, especially very light stuff (holograms, pseuod-holograms, other such micromarring) and can sometimes highlight fine "normal" scratches too. But IMO it's a specialty tool for the specific types of issues mentioned. Here it's a substitute for/variation on natural sunlight.



But for spotting scratches/swirls/regular marring, IMO *nothing* beats incandescent light in an othewise dark shop. Nothing.



Not that having the right light magically makes it an easy task. You still have to get the illumination/viewing angles/distances just right and "learn how to see" such stuff. But having the right light is a fundamental must IMO.



I have both ceiling-mounted and hand-held incandescents, the latter can be clamped onto things so I can direct the light just where, and how, I want it.
 
It's amazing how mislead some of us are. I was always told that fluorescent was the best way - had I known this I would've taken a different approach with my garage lighting. Oh well...



I checked out the 3M sun gun and I'm very tempted to get it, but I'm afraid of opening a can of worms if I have the ability to see what's really going on with my paint. I think this would be the start of my insanity.



By the way, I ordered the airblade - I'm anxious for that thing to arrive. Can you easily remove the blade part to more directly blow out nooks and crannies?
 
There are worse things that could happen ;)





I wouldn't be astounded if it needed some follow-up with a milder combo. I'm never 100% satsified with the finish from orange pads (Griot's orange pads excepted).



If that happens, *DON'T PANIC*, it's not a big deal to finish-polish.



At some point you might want to invest in some specialize lighting to help you evaluate the paint inside the garage. It's easy for me to spend your money, but hey, those of us who buy expensive toys kinda have to pony up for the equipment/etc. that it takes to do them justice, huh?





What suggestions would you make aside from the sun gun? I already have a twin halogen tripod set up, but it's like turning on an OVEN!



Thanks.
 
Accumulator said:
You could even get some improvement using the M105/M205 by hand and that would be a very safe way to approach this. (FWIW, I removed a similar scratch from the A8's hard clear by hand using M105 just to see how it would go; it took a while but it wasn't all that bad.)
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I have had really good look removing some isolated scratches by hand using M105 with foam applicator. It often takes a number of passes but I have seen the scratches disappear. As Accumulator mentions, it's a safe way to proceed, and you have nothing to lose. Even if you can't get the scratches completely out, you may well make them less noticeable.
 
spumoni said:
There are worse things that could happen ;)





I wouldn't be astounded if it needed some follow-up with a milder combo. I'm never 100% satsified with the finish from orange pads (Griot's orange pads excepted).



If that happens, *DON'T PANIC*, it's not a big deal to finish-polish.



At some point you might want to invest in some specialize lighting to help you evaluate the paint inside the garage. It's easy for me to spend your money, but hey, those of us who buy expensive toys kinda have to pony up for the equipment/etc. that it takes to do them justice, huh?





What suggestions would you make aside from the sun gun? I already have a twin halogen tripod set up, but it's like turning on an OVEN!

Thanks.
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Accumulator doesn't care too much for them, but one of my favorite defect finders is the Brinkman Dual Xenon flashlights. A lot of us detailing nuts use them. They do take some practice; you gotta teach your eyes to focus at different ranges and not right *at* the paint in order to really see all the defects. It's kind of like learning how to see those 3D stereogram images that were so popular a while back.



I use incandescents, a Brinkman, halogens and the sun for defect spotting, and fluorescents for gloss/shine levels.



The Sun Gun and the sun are the best light sources for spotting holograms.
 
Spumoni- The halogens do get hot, no question about that. Moving it back a bit can help a lot as the heat doesn't seem to radiate all that far.



The Brinkman (I tell ya I simply can't see much of anything with mine, maybe it's just not right for faint marring on metallics :nixweiss ) is so inexpensive that it's worth trying. Hey...$30 or so. I did use mine the other day when working under the Yukon (it showed the contrast between black factory paint and black Eastwood Rust Encapsulator on the rear control arms, so I could see where to topcoat the latter). If nothing else it's a handy flashlight.



The fairly pricey 3M SunGun really is *THE* ticket for holograms and "pseudo-hologram" issues, which seem especially prevalent with the M105/M205 products. I really couldn't have done my Yukon without it; I credit that SunGun as much as anything for how well it turned out.



The incandescents are also cheap enough ($25) that hey, why not. I have two of the handheld ones and I clamp them onto various things in the shop to illuminate panels while I work on them.



But SuperBee364 brings up a crucial point- you have to learn how to do the inspection. It isn't *nearly* as intuitively obvious as one might think!
 
rlarsen462- Gee, I'm starting to wonder if it's just me! I too have LED-equipped SurFires and while they're not *bad* for this they're still not my light of choice. That's leaving aside that I already go through CR123 batteries by the dozen :o



The G2 *is* a nice light, certainly not the worst SureFire for holding between your teeth but I wouldn't want to do much polishing while biting down on it ;)
 
Yeah the size leaves a lot to be desired, but in my darkish garage I was shocked at how much worse the S4 looked under it compared to even in the sunlight. I have a 2x500W Halogen tripod setup I plan to use when I'm getting the bulk of the correction done next week, though. Figured since I've got the Surefires anyway (I have the regular non-LED version of that light too but it eats 2 CR123's in about 15 minutes) I would see if I could find another use for them aside from blinding my dogs and wife.
 
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