imported_Dave KG
New member
A little test here of three light sources for spotting swilrs and other defects in paint work, to show a comparison of the different lights.
The contenders:
> Brinkmann Dual Xenon: infamous in detailing, widely considered to be *the* light for swilrs!
> 3M Sun Gun: less well known in detailing, but used widely in bodushops for checking colour match.
> Toureag Torch: little cigarette lighter torch
So we take out test panel with medium swirls and general marring. A pic of the swirls before machine polishing was taken, after machine polishing and a 50/50 pic for each of the light sources to get a fair idea of the performance of each light. Here we go...
Brinkmann Dual Xenon
First up was the trusty Brinkmann. A pic of the swirls:
The bright light of the Brinkmann ideally pics up all of ther deeper looking and light swirls. Works best when held quite far from paintwork to get a more general picture of the condition of the paintwork. The spread of the light is also quite good, so you can view the paint over a large area.
Now, a pic of the corrected paint:
The Brinkmann here shows the paint to be near flawless after correction, wioth no evidence of hologramming or swirls... The finish is actually free from holograms but there are a few light swilrs remaining in the finish which the Brinkmann has failed to pick up, even when sweeping the light around looking for them. It shows a good approximation of the paint condition, but misses out light marks that can hide from you.
A 50/50 pic:
There is good definition between the treated and untreated areas, a bid difference is shown to have been made by the polishing stage.
Overall, the Brinkmann performs very well and gives a fiarly accurate representaiton of the condition of the paintwork, but does miss out in lighter marks that would become evident when the car is rolled out into the sunlight. A good light though.
3M Sun Gun
Used by bodyshops to cheack out colour mathcing, this tool springs to mind as being ideal for spotting swirls.
First up, a pic of the area before polishing:
The Sun Gun produces a very bright and large area of light. In the centre, where the light is at its most intense it is hard to make out much about the condition of the paint but in the far spreading wings of the light, the condition of the paintwork is made fantastically clear by the sheer brightness of the light, which made the Brinkmann before it seem like a night light.
A pic of the corrected paint:
This clearly shows the paint finsih to be well corrected but is also highlighting the odd lighter marks that has remained. Only the camera flash was able to pick this mark out also. The brighter light of the Sun Gun has also proved itself through use now to show up more light imperfections and is ideal in my eyes for getting an absolutely spot on finish as far as removing light marring and very faint hologramming goes.
A 50/50 shot:
The 50/50 pic shows huge difference between polished and unpolished sections, the difference being clearer than any of the other light cources owing to ther brightness of the bulb.
In summary, this for me is the ultimate light for detailing thanks to its ability to pick up the lightest of marks which is ideal when you cannot rely on what is the worlds best light source - the sun! Gives the truest representation of the finish from all of the lights tested.
Toureag Torch
Bit of an odd ball this - a bright light that charges in your cigarrette lighter, but a very neat design.
Pic of the swilrs:
The light is bright enough to pick put the swirl marks there with ease but the spreadnof the light is far too small for this top be practival for me to thorougholy check a car. Ideal for little spot checks, but for me, not good for getting the bigger picture - you'd have to scan the light backwards and forwards far too laboriously compared to the other two lights.
Pic of the corrected paint:
Shows the corrected finish well, but even thoroghly scanning the light it failed to pick up any of the very light marring left that the Sun Gun picked up.
The 50/50 pic:
There is a clear difference here but less obvious than the other two lights and again the small beam size is a bit of a pest for getting the bigger picture... but does show the difference nicely.
All in all, the little torch is a very neat design and does show the majority of the swirls but misses out on the lighter ones... Ad a detailing tool though, its certainly not for me, the light beam being far too small to sensibily get the big picture on paintwork, required for checking to see if there are any faint holograms.
The contenders:
> Brinkmann Dual Xenon: infamous in detailing, widely considered to be *the* light for swilrs!
> 3M Sun Gun: less well known in detailing, but used widely in bodushops for checking colour match.
> Toureag Torch: little cigarette lighter torch
So we take out test panel with medium swirls and general marring. A pic of the swirls before machine polishing was taken, after machine polishing and a 50/50 pic for each of the light sources to get a fair idea of the performance of each light. Here we go...
Brinkmann Dual Xenon
First up was the trusty Brinkmann. A pic of the swirls:
The bright light of the Brinkmann ideally pics up all of ther deeper looking and light swirls. Works best when held quite far from paintwork to get a more general picture of the condition of the paintwork. The spread of the light is also quite good, so you can view the paint over a large area.
Now, a pic of the corrected paint:
The Brinkmann here shows the paint to be near flawless after correction, wioth no evidence of hologramming or swirls... The finish is actually free from holograms but there are a few light swilrs remaining in the finish which the Brinkmann has failed to pick up, even when sweeping the light around looking for them. It shows a good approximation of the paint condition, but misses out light marks that can hide from you.
A 50/50 pic:
There is good definition between the treated and untreated areas, a bid difference is shown to have been made by the polishing stage.
Overall, the Brinkmann performs very well and gives a fiarly accurate representaiton of the condition of the paintwork, but does miss out in lighter marks that would become evident when the car is rolled out into the sunlight. A good light though.
3M Sun Gun
Used by bodyshops to cheack out colour mathcing, this tool springs to mind as being ideal for spotting swirls.
First up, a pic of the area before polishing:
The Sun Gun produces a very bright and large area of light. In the centre, where the light is at its most intense it is hard to make out much about the condition of the paint but in the far spreading wings of the light, the condition of the paintwork is made fantastically clear by the sheer brightness of the light, which made the Brinkmann before it seem like a night light.
A pic of the corrected paint:
This clearly shows the paint finsih to be well corrected but is also highlighting the odd lighter marks that has remained. Only the camera flash was able to pick this mark out also. The brighter light of the Sun Gun has also proved itself through use now to show up more light imperfections and is ideal in my eyes for getting an absolutely spot on finish as far as removing light marring and very faint hologramming goes.
A 50/50 shot:
The 50/50 pic shows huge difference between polished and unpolished sections, the difference being clearer than any of the other light cources owing to ther brightness of the bulb.
In summary, this for me is the ultimate light for detailing thanks to its ability to pick up the lightest of marks which is ideal when you cannot rely on what is the worlds best light source - the sun! Gives the truest representation of the finish from all of the lights tested.
Toureag Torch
Bit of an odd ball this - a bright light that charges in your cigarrette lighter, but a very neat design.
Pic of the swilrs:
The light is bright enough to pick put the swirl marks there with ease but the spreadnof the light is far too small for this top be practival for me to thorougholy check a car. Ideal for little spot checks, but for me, not good for getting the bigger picture - you'd have to scan the light backwards and forwards far too laboriously compared to the other two lights.
Pic of the corrected paint:
Shows the corrected finish well, but even thoroghly scanning the light it failed to pick up any of the very light marring left that the Sun Gun picked up.
The 50/50 pic:
There is a clear difference here but less obvious than the other two lights and again the small beam size is a bit of a pest for getting the bigger picture... but does show the difference nicely.
All in all, the little torch is a very neat design and does show the majority of the swirls but misses out on the lighter ones... Ad a detailing tool though, its certainly not for me, the light beam being far too small to sensibily get the big picture on paintwork, required for checking to see if there are any faint holograms.
Barely showed *any* of the marring that's on my gray metallic/silver Jag. Note that the same light worked great for Dave KG on *his* paint. IMO it's simply impossible to generalize about this stuff.