I just picked up a new shop lite from Costco. It's a pretty bright, flat, 1 foot square flourescent light with a handle and a base. The reason I bought it is that I do almost all my detailing in the garage which has and overhead flourescent in addition to the garage opener light on the ceiling. I have detailed a few cars, and with the current lighting settup, I can't see swirls or even light scratches until I take it outside. Once I spent a couple of days doing the whole routine on a car, only to find that the prep was not as good as it could have been!
The new flouescent seems to give me a much better view of the defects. I don't know if a regular incandescent light would be better, but the flourescent gives off no heat, which is a good thing when the garage temp is 105 deg's. I am still experimenting on which direction to hold the light to pick up the defects..
Just curious what others are using and doing to catch and mark the locations of the problem areas so when you take it back into the garage you know where the swirls or scratches are. I have seen wax type markers for the windshield but don't know if these are safe on paint.
H
New flourescent portable light for the garage... 
Linear Mode
