Best lighting for a detailing area?

LEDs are bright but I've found that nothing shows finish flaws more than flourescent lighting.

 

Great question. I'd love to hear what the experts chime in with. Based on my experience, I agree with Kevin above, fluorescent lighting is the best I've found to highlight flaws, its pretty unforgiving.

 

I installed T5 fixtures in my garage - I really like them - very bright.
Image Unavailable, Please Login
Image Unavailable, Please Login

 

The T5's are considered hi bay light but I even use them in our shop at benches and such. In my garage they are mounted to the ceiling - no need to hang them.

 

Our COSTCO had these for a while at like 29 bucks! I grabbed 6 of them and they really brightened up my garage. Easy to mount flush to so they look good.

https://www.amazon.com/Feit-917972-Electric-Utility-Light/dp/B00LFAY5SM

 

I put cool temp LEDs in my garage replacing existing fluorescents. I tried the warm LEDs and found the cools were better for detailing. That said, fluorescents show certain flaws well (especially waviness in panels) and LEDs show certain flaws well (like scratches) Both types of lights seem to require different angles to show the same flaws and neither one shows everything - for that you need the full sun. It's a matter of getting good, full, bright lighting and then getting to know what you're seeing and missing and adjusting your sight angle as well as knowing what might be missed regardless. Move the car outside periodically until you're confident in your setup.

 

Sunlight and fluorescent. The former highlights surface scratches and spider webbing, the latter deeper scratches and marring.

Click on My Garage, click on 1993.5 Supra Turbo, look at the first four photos. If it's flawless in the sun.. then you're done.

Edit: A sodium outdoor light may actually provide the right type of light but I haven't experimented with one.

 

I have Lithonia ZL1N led fixtures, 4000 color temperature. They are perfect to me. Nice white light.

Also have the same fixtures but 3500 color temperature over the tool box and benches, the color is noticeably more yellow. (I prefer the look of the 4000)

 

Tube light will show you some flaws if it's bright enough but not all the flaws very well.

Lights that spread out light such as tube lights are good for lighting up the area but if you really want to see all the swirls and flaws best you need focused light such as you'd find with an LED flashlight.

Personally I'd use tube lights to light up the garage and then to find flaws turn all the lights off and use a bright LED flashlight and look up and down side to side on each panel to see it all. This is exactly what I do when I'm working on clients cars to polish out swirls.

Josh

 

I'm with Josh on this one.

Fluorescents are not ideal for paint correction. You cant see the small stuff that you would see outside in the sun.

And the sun is not the end all checker. LED flashlights are the way to go when doing correction work. We typically turn off all the shop lights and correct the car with LED on a stand, and LED flashlight in hand! Sometimes, I think it makes us overproduce and blow past the desired end result for the client (I guess that's a good thing). Many times its not good enough for me with the LED, but looks 100% perfect outside under the sun.

 

I suppose its a matter of their primary purpose.
Florescent is fine for general lighting & you can buy a hand held halogen or a couple tripod halogen for those few times you will be detailing

 

How many 355's does one need?!

 

I can think of 5
GTS, GTB, Spyder, Fiorano & Challenge. Variety is the spice of life

 

I had 3 but I'm down to 2 now. One is a full restoration project. I could easily hit 3 again if a deal comes my way

 

Thats awesome. Enjoy!