Best way to find swirls for beige metallic car?

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imported_mrecktid

New member
Hey guys, I've been trying to figure out what the best lighting to use to find the swirls during the daytime when I'm doing some swirl removal. Here's the car I'm having trouble with (mine).



02_22_3.jpg




I work in the shade, but the sun comes in some areas and it's real hard to notice the swirls. My halogen 500watt isn't too bright, should I buy another one to add more light?.....any other ideas?



-Mark
 
Yep. I bought a set of 1500w stand-mounted lights @ Home Depot. I actually wanted to return them because they highlighted too many swirl marks. :)



Seriously - great investment. Not just for detailing - I've found myself using these things for dozens of tasks.
 
i just picked up a 600w portable halogen lamp from home depot. do you think that's bright enough or should i exchange it for something a little brighter?
 
Personally, when working on light colored metallics (or even a darker metallic like my silverstone S2000) I find a high-wattage incandescent to be the best. If you're going to use the halogens to spot swirls and scratches, it helps to have some distance from the lights and to keep the lights at a bit of an obtuse angle.
 
Interesting you should post this. I worked on defect removal this weekend and my coupe is Desert Platinum as well.



I had a real hard time picking out the spots that I wanted to concentrate on. The halogen light I had didn't show anything. I found the best lights were the two incandescent bulbs on the garage door opener above me. Luckily I had an idea of where the scratches I was concerned about were and I could see them if I got down at an angle.



I became confused for a bit because I hadn't used a halogen before to find the spots on my car and expected to see swirls like most of the pictures people post.... BUT I didn't. So I did the best I could with the light I had and took it to the gas station at night. I know this is normally when I see the scratches the most but the paint was smooth as glass. I probably removed about 95% of the defects that bothered me. I will post pics in C&B when I have the daylight to take them. Unfortunately though I didn't end up with good before pictures because of the whole lighting issue but oh well.



:)
 
Incandescent light is the white lights at like big parking spaces at the mall right?



Yeah there are two major trouble spots I have (the rear fenders) that is so hard for me to find the right lighting, especially in the shade during the daytime. At night under the parking lights it's ok, but I still wish I could see swirls like some of the nasty car posted on here. Those seem so obvious.



I guess we're a bit at a disadvantage twitch with our color ^_^



It's ironic, when I got the car I got the color mainly because it looked good but also because it would hide dirt/swirls.



Now that I'm an Autopian (not really but I'm working on it!) I wish I could see all the dirt and swirls :(
 
Incandescent lights are regular light bulbs, best used bare (no shade of any sort) and probably clear glass, too.



I think the best lighting setup would be a combination of fluorescent, incandescent spots and halogen work lights.
 
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