OK. So I am getting hard of seeing. Car is Spa yellow. Looks OK in bright light. On cloudy days and when I park near Mercury Vapor lights, I can see the scratches and swirls.

Has anyone tried using a blacklight for showing the swirls when they polish?

A few years ago I watched some paint/body repair people being trained in the use of paintless repair tools. They used blacklight to make the dents show up. Under the blacklight you could even see the impression of the repair spoons as they moved them across the back of a panel!

I have been wondering how this would work for seeing the blemishes in the paint. Daylight in my carport is too bright to see things very well. My flourescent lights make it too bright at night, too.

 

I've never heard of using a black light to see paint imperfections. An interesting idea. Most people I know use fluorescent lights or a hand held xenon light to see imperfections. Nothing really seems to beat good old sunlight though IMO. Give that black light a try though and let us know how it works!!

 

i thought they used blacklights at strip clubs to HIDE imperfections.

 

Hmmm . . . you have a good point there. Black light may be too soft to be effective for this purpose. For me the best swirl detector is to pull the car out in the sun, put on some high quality polarized sunglasses and look at the sun's reflection in the paint.

 

Yellow car with Zaino on it. I can't see $#!t in direct sunlight. So far having it in the carport on a really cloudy day shows the blemishes best.

Maybe I'll have to get some polarized glasses.

 

Halogen for swirls and fluorescent for dents



The dent guy I use is a storm chaser 10 months a year. He does $30k a month by himself. He has a few big fluorescent lights on wheels with a bendable arm. They work great.

 

Different lights probably work differently for different cars. For dark cars like black, the sun is the real test to see how well your polishing job is

 

My thoughts exactly!

 

I have not had time to experiment with the halogen or blacklight ideas. Too busy getting MR2 ready for Topeka.

I did discover that black is much easier to see the flaws. They show up pretty good in sunlight, but Flourescent lighting makes every little mark show.

I still have to figure out how to see anything on yellow and white.

 

we drive an s2000. I wouldn't want to put a blacklight up to it. I don't want to know what people do to my sexy car when i'm not looking. wink wink.