Better lighting

[cek]

My first post here. I'm an "enthusiast" detailer who is excited to find this forum and grow my skills.

But my first query to the group has to do with my garage. As you can see from the pics it's a great setup. When my wife got me the "upgrades" to the new cabinets and floors 2 years ago I painted the walls white-white (they were a light grey before) and also added 4 additional 4 tube fluorescent fixtures hoping I'd get a really "bright" work area that would make it easier to see what I was doing (especially paintwork).

However, I'm really not happy with the results. A few weeks ago I detailed my Porsche and for the 11 hours I spent I was continually frustrated with how hard it was to see swril marks, excess polish, etc...

Quesitons:

1. Will upgrading/chaning my bulbs make a dramatic difference? The bulbs in there now are 3000K "F032/830/ECO".
2. Should I bite the bullet and add a a few halogens?

This shot shows the layout pretty well. In these photos the cabinets are still not fully installed and the lift is not in place (it's still not :-(). Notice the 7 fixtures over the work area.

Also notice the 4 single bulb fixtures facing the bay where the lift goes.


From these pics, you can pretty clearly see how "dark" it is. With the # of fixtures I have I was sure I'd have an obnoxious amount of light!




Oh, and what she looked like after my last detail.... 1988 Porsche 911 Carrera, 100% stock and unmolested, ~31K miles.

[trusteddetail]

Go to Home Depot and buy about 12 T8 Fixtures and 2900 Lumen bulbs.

You can even buy the T8 two bulb fixtures for $18 each and put them on the walls for the side lighting.

If you get 12 T8's and 8 T8 fixtures for the walls you'll be over 185,000 lumens and this is
more then an operating room !

The total cost for all this is about $700 not including installation costs.

[jimmie jam]

i just replaced my bulbs with "daylight" flo. . its a pure white light (like halogens). i love it. much brighter

p.s. nice german boy!

[Holden_C04]

Originally Posted by trusteddetail

Go to Home Depot and buy about 12 T8 Fixtures and 2900 Lumen bulbs.

You can even buy the T8 two bulb fixtures for $18 each and put them on the walls for the side lighting.

If you get 12 T8's and 8 T8 fixtures for the walls you'll be over 185,000 lumens and this is
more then an operating room !

The total cost for all this is about $700 not including installation costs.

Best to edit your sig before you get a rude introduction to Tort.

[Accumulator]

I've checked out a lot of different fluorescent lights (e.g., the ones used in art galleries) and I simply cannot see light marring under *any* fluorescents (I have literally dozens of 6' tubes in my shop). Even halogens are only so-so (but they work kinda OK in an otherwise dark shop).

Halogens do work OK for general illumination when polishing, so yeah, any shop oughta have some. But you'll need something much more demanding for the real inspection.

My 3M SunGun isn't very good for this either (bought it just to see what others were so impressed with..and it simply doesn't show light marring for me).

Unless you're gonna spring for Sodium/Metal Halide lights, I'd go with incandescents. I can inspect silver 100% (zero surprises under any conditions) with my incandescents, but yeah, it's still a long, hard process; I probably spend more time inspecting than I do correcting.

Look for the other PC's post about "point source illumination" and the specific type of contrast that's required.

[Grouse]

Well Having seen your garage i would first remove the screens we talked about.

I would buy 6500K daylight 4' Bulbs. Lowes has them
SYLVANIA
10-Pack 40-Watt T12 Fluorescent Light Bulbs
10-Pack 40-Watt T12 Fluorescent Light Bulbs

3000k is similar to halogens. It will show deeper marring but not light, it will also be quite yellow. 6500K is about as close to daylight as you can get in flourescents. They are also a bit higher wattage.

I would then take out the skylight lights (single bulb units) and put in some Metal Halide floods. 2 on each side will produce alot of bright daylight for you. they will also show nearly all marring.
400 Watt Flood Lights

[Accumulator]

Grouse- Hey, that site you linked has some good stuff

[John Henry]

CEK,

Beautiful garage and 911! Any chance we can see some FJ pics?

John Henry

[cek]

Originally Posted by John Henry

CEK,

Beautiful garage and 911! Any chance we can see some FJ pics?

John Henry

Photos: FJ40 - a set on Flickr

My "fix up thread" on IH8MUD: Uglina's (78 FJ40) Fix-up Thread - IH8MUD™ Forums

[John Henry]

Nice work and so well documented! Thanks for posting.

John Henry