Inspecting White Paint

[LDM]

My car is white, which is great most of the time because it hides any swirls really well. This becomes a problem though when polishing the car because it becomes hard to tell how effective my polishing is. Under most lighting it will look great, but then sometimes in the sun just right I can see some swirls. My question is, what kind of lighting do you use to show defects in white paint? I don`t want to resort to polishing in direct sunlight because a) it`s hard to control what part of the car the light falls on, and b) polishing in direct sun can have it`s own side effects on the products. Are the lights like the Brinkmann really that effective on white, or do you pros have some tips of your own for when you`re working on light-colored vehicles? Thanks in advance for any feedback.

[Nth Degree]

Sometimes lights like the Brinkman can put too much light onto the paint. Sometimes it is just trial and error to find the right amount of light and the right angle to reveal the swirls best. Try keeping the garage light low except for the focused light you are using. This will help create some contrast. Sometimes less light, like from one of those little LED flashlights can reveal more because they don`t cause the light to wash out the swirls. Halogens are probably the best bet for working, though. Try to set them back a ways from the paint and at different angles. There isn`t always a single best answer.

[smokinfastlegen]

I agree with Nth Degree. Up close an LED tactical flashlight like what Bryan and I use can actually hide some scratches. So we extend our arms as far from the paint as possible and look into the reflection. We can often find micromarring easier and sometimes uncover more faint rids.

[togwt]

Search ( yes I know its a bad word) "Dark Field Micro Inspection" as an extention to Nth Dehree`s post

[Accumulator]

Besides TOGWT`s advice (yeah, this really *is* worth the dreaded search as we`ve discussed it to death a few times, more info that will ever show up here/now), it`s often just a matter of trial-and-error.



I often have to use halogens, incandescents, the SunGun and yes even fluorescents in order to see everything. Sure not fun spending ten minutes getting the viewing/illumination angle just right for a given panel, and then doing that over and over again, but it takes what it takes and yeah, colors like white and silver (I have both) are challenging in this regard.



And despite what you read on the internet (including here ), not every car turns out perfect every time no matter what. Spend enough time/effort inspecting most any vehicle and you may well spot something that got missed. How much to care?!?



And if a vehicle *does* turn out perfect, well, inspect it again after lots of use and a dozen washes and reconsider whether all that effort was really worth it.



So...(warning, Autopian Heresy follows ) you might want to ask yourself just how much you really care. If you do the car with something like M105 until the bad RIDS are OK, and then do a good finish polishing, giving all areas uniform attention, you`re not likely to have much in the way of residual marring. And on a white car in the real world, that might be good enough. Just because some of us want some (all?) vehicles to be perfectly corrected, that doesn`t mean it`s the right approach for everybody else in every situation.

[Barry Theal]

Pull the car inside and turn out everylight you have. Then turn on flourecents and you will see everything. I always wanted a room painted all flat black to do my compounding in. A dream of mine. Have spot light metal halides all on there on switch

[Accumulator]

Pull the car inside and turn out everylight you have. Then turn on flourecents and you will see everything. I always wanted a room painted all flat black to do my compounding in. A dream of mine. Have spot light metal halides all on there on switch

Fluorescents seem to work better on white than on other colors, but *GENERALLY* they only show certain types of marring for me. Heh heh, seeing my "befores" under fluorescents they look OK, but when I try my other lights it`s a different story!



And yeah, coulda/woulda/shoulda on those metal halides. If I were building my shop today I`d do a few things differently

[LDM]

Well thanks for the replies and sorry if this had been beaten to death before. :deadhorse: I did do a search but maybe I just wasn`t using the right terms. With products always changing I didn`t know if there were some new lights that were better suited for highlighting defects on light-colored cars, or if there were just some old-school tricks for doing the same.

[sunshyne]

I used an LED light up close and at different angles on my white truck

[Accumulator]

LDM- Search on "dark environment" and/or "incandescent" (as in, incandescent lights).