swirl finder lights

[fergnation]

Im the dork with the LED head band on. Incadescent lights show me all I need to see, infact they tend to show way to much. I usually have about 6000 watts of Halogens surrounding the car when I am doing a full paint correction. But honestly I think most of the pros here just know what they are looking for. I am very rarely surprised at what I see when I pull the car outside except in instances of doing a white car. It's just about seeing the paint at the right angle under the right lights.

 

[bill57]

I've seen flaws under incandescent light at night in my garage that I never saw in full sunlight during the day.

 

[Accumulator]

.. Incadescent lights show me all I need to see, infact they tend to show way to much..

-AND-

I've seen flaws under incandescent light at night in my garage that I never saw in full sunlight during the day.

Ah, I see I'm not the only person who finds the incandescents good for this sort of inspection.



Yeah, like the SunGun, in some cases they *can* be less forgiving than natural sunlight.

It's just about seeing the paint at the right angle under the right lights.

Yeah, no way to overemphasize the correct viewing angle. On metallics I really do think I spend more time inspecting than I do correcting.



And it seems that no matter *how* careful I am, it's still possible for some little flaw to slip past me. Last time it was a minor RIDS (well, more like a RI*shallow* S) under the roof rack of the Yukon; I somehow missed that until I was doing the third or fourth coat of FK1000P, just never got the viewing angle right until then despite having spent over half an hour (!) on just the final pre-LSP inspection of the roof :nixweiss



Yeah, I'm admitting that. I know that everyone here is all about "nothing but perfection when *I* do a car!", but if somebody were to spend a few hours looking, with four or five different light sources.....

 

[imported_Time2Shine1]

On the incandescent bulbs say for a droplight, what wattage would I be looking for? I'm currently using two 250watt halogens on a tripod and they hardly show any major defects/swiriling/rids, so I'm going to pick up some incandescent bulbs tomorrow to try in the drop light. It might just also be my paint thats making it hard to see (acura anthracite metallic)

 

[Legacy]

Next step for you and Mike P is a magnifying glass or maybe a microscope. LOL

I seem to be the only guy in the world who doesn't like the Brinkman all that well Don't get me wrong, it's a good light and for what it costs I'd say people might as well have one.



But I generally do a lot better with my incandescent lights (ceiling-mounted and hand-held).



Some stuff still shows up better/*differently* under halogens, but the incandescents are my overall faves.



And even the fluorescents that I always disparage can be great for checking gloss levels and certain types of texture issues.



I've been using the 3M SunGun more and more ever since I *FINALLY* got the hang of it. It's still the only thing besides natural sunlight that will show holograms and *VERY* light micromarring. I oughta credit Dave KG here, as I had initially thought the SunGun didn't work all that well, but his insistence motivated me to keep working with it until I learned just how to use it correctly.



IMO the *BIG* thing is to turn out all the other lights. Whatever light you're using for a given task should be the only light that's on.



The halogens will usually give me a good idea about how severe the marring is and make for decent in-progress inspections. Then, once I think I have things pretty well corrected, I turn out all the other lights and inspect with the incandescents. Once everything passes muster under those, I turn *them* out too, and start inspecting with the SunGun (which can be such a big long job that I'll have to stop and recharge it), which shows stuff I simply can't see under any other lighting (e.g., think M105 finishes out OK? So did I until I got the hang of the SunGun, then it was "yikes!").



Heh heh, Mike Phillips and I sorta have a running joke between us regarding my over-the-top approach to inspection lighting. He's pointed out, quite sensibly, that nobody's walking around in real life inspecting cars with special lights, looking for flaws that would never bother a normal person in real life situations.



Mike and I have both found that under some conditions, the SunGun (used properly) is even more demanding than natural sunlight. Guess it's a question of what you're aiming for. There's a lot to be said for not looking for problems that you don't know you have

 

[Accumulator]

Next step for you and Mike P is a magnifying glass or maybe a microscope. LOL

Actually, I have two lighted magnifiers and a set of magnifying goggles. Very useful at times, but you don't need 'em until you need 'em (and I need 'em more post-LASIK than I did when I was younger).



Note that IMO most lighted maginfiers are too powerful for most detailing tasks. But a good 15X one can be great for all sorts of stuff and I'd hate to be without it. Link: http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?c=&cat=1,43456,43351,51092&p=51092