Mobile, Lighting, Halograms.

AMDin93103

AMDin93103

I like cheese.
On occasion I have to finish up my final step polish after dark. I have two tripods with two 1000W Halo lights on each (that's four lights :D ) but have noticed their inability to show buffer trails a lot of the time. Suggestions?
 
Finish with something, you know will finish hologram free. For example a 2000 grit leveler and finishing pad, or an orbital and 1500-2000 grit product. In my opinion flourescent lights do a good job of showing those types of defects.
 
Michael, you're saying this flashlight shows halograms better than multiple halogen lights? Not doubting you, just asking....



Ryan
 
The only way I can see light holograms is in natural sunlight, which is what Mike Phillips also determined when (with the funding of Meguiar's behind his research ;) ) he looked into this. So yeah, assume they're there and just do a light final polishing.



I never see light flaws under fluorescents (and I have literally dozens of 8' tubes in my 44'x44' shop), but Bill D says he can spot marring on *white* paint under them. Halogens are OK, but I do best with high-wattage incandescents (300W) in an otherwise dark room.
 
RAG said:
Michael, you're saying this flashlight shows halograms better than multiple halogen lights? Not doubting you, just asking....



Ryan
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In my shop I have 4 8' flourescent fixtures overhead, a 1000w halogen set-up, a 250 watt incandescent light and a 4' T-8 flourescent light fixture on a push cart. Honestly, the flashlight wins hands down for seeing the lightest halograms. It is as close to natural sunlight as i've seen. I have compared it to direct sunlight on every dark paint that i've had in my shop and it hasn't let me down yet.
 
Holograms are most visible under distant point source illumination** with high contrast.



The sun is an excellent point source illuminator. While not as "pointy" as say, stars, the sun's very high intensity combined with its visual angular diameter of about half a degree provides enough energy for very high contrast while very closely approximating a point source.



Swirls and holograms are visible under "parking lot lights" because the distance to a post mounted HID lamp gives a reasonable point source approximation and viewing at night gives high contrast. This is similar to the effect Accumulator sees "with high-wattage incandescents (300W) in an otherwise dark room."



Fluorescent tubes give very broadly distributed diffuse light (poor "pointiness") and lots of halogens would give somewhat distributed and highly saturated illumination (poor contrast).



Not that any of this crap actually gives you a practical guide to finding holograms. But if anybody around OC has a car with a lot of swirls and holograms of varying size, shape and severity and would be willing to get together for some experiments I think we'd find it "illuminating".





PC.





** for a technical explanation of why see this link.
 
I use both the brinkman dual zenon AND the 1000 watt halogens on stands, but nothing (IMO) beats full sun. I just finish with a light polish on the rotary and follow up with the PC, assuming the halograms are there. #80 with a polishing pad via PC @5 will knock out any hologram that I have ever left behind while leaving a ready to wax finish.
 
Accumulator said:
The only way I can see light holograms is in natural sunlight, which is what Mike Phillips also determined when (with the funding of Meguiar's behind his research ;) ) he looked into this. So yeah, assume they're there and just do a light final polishing.



I never see light flaws under fluorescents (and I have literally dozens of 8' tubes in my 44'x44' shop), but Bill D says he can spot marring on *white* paint under them. Halogens are OK, but I do best with high-wattage incandescents (300W) in an otherwise dark room.
Click to expand...





Accumulator,



Where can I get some high wattage incandescents? Which model do you have?
 
Tuan209 said:
Where can I get some high wattage incandescents? Which model do you have?
Click to expand...



I was also curious about this setup and was able to pick up the bulb and fixture at Lowes. The fixture is nothing special except that is rated for high wattage bulbs. Everything you need should be under twenty dollars. Swirls cannot hide from this light.
 
PelTTing said:
I was also curious about this setup and was able to pick up the bulb and fixture at Lowes. The fixture is nothing special except that is rated for high wattage bulbs. Everything you need should be under twenty dollars. Swirls cannot hide from this light.
Click to expand...





Exactly :xyxthumbs Heh heh, that light is a really cheap piece of [junk] but it does the job. I saw a similar one in the Northern Tools catalog but a) it was only rated to 250W and b) the shipping would've been more than the light.



PC- Good explanation, and that link seems awfully familiar (as does the term "distant point source"). Familiar enough that I recongized it, but not as familiar as it should've been had I actually *assimilated* the info :o Thanks for the proper explanation of why fluorescents and even halogens are often less than optimal for this job.



I think people get hung up over the way it's one thing to have good illumination for working, but it's another thing to have good lighting for marring-spotting ability. Guess it's just too counter-intuitive or something, because we sure do discuss lighting (in the marring-spotting context) a lot and what works works and what doesn't doesn't so some of us feel like broken records on the subject.
 
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