Inspection lights in car detailing: Brinkmann vs Sun Gun vs other sources

addysdaddy- Huh... :think: :confused: I'm feeling less than useful here, wish I could help you more.



Under what conditions *do* you see the flaws.



Ya know...I'm gonna risk some Autopian Heresy here and say that maybe it's simply goofy to work so hard to see something to worry about. IF you can enjoy the vehicles with them looking just the way they do now, then you could always just not care about this "marring stuff". Wash 'em, wax 'em, drive 'em...and have a nice life whether they're Autopian Perfect or not.
 
To answer ur first question, I can see a couple (not many) swirl marks on the white car on a cloudless day with the sun virtually overhead. I need to get low and they reveal themselves. Again I've worked hard on the paint so it's not riddled with holograms or swirl marks. That seems to be the only time I can really spot them.



And I'm lol on your second comment as I've sorta came to that conclusion this weekend. If I have to work that hard to see the imperfections, I guess I'm going to give myself an "atta boy" and enjoy the car. Clay and polish the beast 2x-3x a year and otherwise simply enjoy. My car(s) all look beautiful and I do this for enjoyment as my hobby & passion. Having a strong photographic background I understand lighting and find the entire evaluation process to be especially frustrating, if not impossible. Guess that frustration with getting this aspect of the detailing process is coming through in my posts -sorry but thanks for helping. I'm not quite ready to give up but I'm going to drop it back a notch or two. Thanks Accumulator and everyone else, REALLY appreciate the assist!!

:thx
 
Well Accumulator's last remarks about when the imperfections were visible got me to rethink my approach in a more photographic context. Since the noon day sun is the best light source, I brought home a light stand and clamp and attached my 1200 Lumens LED flashlight and "flew" it directly over the hood of the car-shining directly down onto the paint. Played with the height and the imperfections revealed themselves. It's still a challenge to get both the light source and viewing angles correct and I'm not sure about the side panels yet, but we're making progress. I'll report back with more information as I continue to experiment. Please feel free to shout out any suggestions - could use all the help I can get.
 
Knowing what you need to do in order to spot defects is half of the battle. You can't remove defects you can't see. I do agree with much of what Accumulator said referring to how us Autopians view our cars, and at the end of the day we always need to appreciate and enjoy them.



...of course guys like us find them easier to enjoy when they're CLEAN :D
 
addysdaddy- Hey, that sounds like progress! Really something, isn't it, the way marring is obvious enough to bug ya right up until you *want* to see it?!?



Your good results with the LED flashlight have me thinking I oughta revisit my LED ones for this sort of thing. Gee, just what I need...yet another type of lighting for my inspections :o
 
Accumulator said:
addysdaddy- Hey, that sounds like progress! Really something, isn't it, the way marring is obvious enough to bug ya right up until you *want* to see it?!?



Your good results with the LED flashlight have me thinking I oughta revisit my LED ones for this sort of thing. Gee, just what I need...yet another type of lighting for my inspections :o
Click to expand...



I remember doing something very similar with various light sources to ‘chase’ down surface imperfections when my six year old daughter asked me what I was looking for.



I started to explain that I was looking for imperfections that could only be seen under certain light conditions so that I could remove them.



Her retort was “now I know why Mummy says you’re crazy” It put it in a whole new perspective (unfortunately it didn't do a thing to change my obsessive compulsive behaviour) ;)
 
TOGWT- Heh heh, I got a kick out of that :chuckle:



I grew up around people who "treated their stuff correctly" and I know it influenced me (in a positive way). I suspect the same is happening with your daughter, despite the seemingly dismissive quips.
 
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