Scangrip Minimatch, Sunmatch or Matchpen R

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MCA2011

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I am a home detailing hobbyist, only maintaining my wife's and my own cars. I am looking for a light for routine maintenance.. finding / correcting swirls, waterspots smudges etc.

From a practical standpoint which among the Minimatch, Sunmatch 3 and Matchpen R would best suit my needs?
 
My MatchPen R has been great, I use it often for the majority of polishing due to the size utility of it. My rear button did go out after a few years and ScanGrip warrantied it without issues and sent me a new unit. I recently picked up the Meguiar's MT103 Sunlight 3+ which is made by ScanGrip and is the direct alternative to the SunMatch 3, I've also been enjoying it. You can now find the Meguiar's MT103 for around $99, which makes it by far the best value ScanGrip at that pricepoint. Separate buttons for brightness and color temps, and the memory function means you can turn on/off/on with one button and it will save all your previous settings when you next turn it on. No more hunting through light modes/brightness every time you want to turn it on/off like some other lights.

The MatchPen R you can adjust color temp and how wide/narrow the band of light is, but no brightness adjustment. Out of the box I think the brightness level is pretty spot on. The MT103 has full adjustability with a range of color temps and brightness levels. I wanted the MT103 as soon as they released it until I saw the pricepoint was around $250 or so. When I saw them drop down to $99 recently I bought one instantly. Need some more time with it to see if I'll grab for it over the MatchPen R. I don't have any experience with the smaller MiniMatch.
 
Is the Multimatch R too expensive? That light is awesome.

Or better yet, the Gyeon branded one (PRISM Plus) because it comes with diffusers. It will be handy when you do a coating job.
 
Bruno Soares said:
Is the Multimatch R too expensive? That light is awesome.

Or better yet, the Gyeon branded one (PRISM Plus) because it comes with diffusers. It will be handy when you do a coating job.
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As it turns out I found a used (returned?) MiniMatch in Amazon Warehouse for only $49, so I will be trying that out first.

I will never do coatings

thanks
 
So question on lights, can you not use any decent led flashlight, does it make a difference between the lights catagorized as swirl finder lights??
 
Silly Rabbit said:
So question on lights, can you not use any decent led flashlight, does it make a difference between the lights catagorized as swirl finder lights??
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Depends on what you're looking for. A bright white (5000K+) light is better for finding swirl marks and scratches. A more diffuse, warm light (<4000K) is usually better for finding high spots when doing coatings. And indirect lighting is often better for finding high spots than shining a direct light.
 
Here is an excellent explanation of what works as far as lighting goes for paint correction

It gets technical but the takeaways on what color temperatures to use are worth the read

Auto Detailing Lighting Explained for Paint Polishing

I hope this doesn't violate any forum rules

If it does let me know and I will delete it
 
chilly said:
Here is an excellent explanation of what works as far as lighting goes for paint correction

It gets technical but the takeaways on what color temperatures to use are worth the read

Auto Detailing Lighting Explained for Paint Polishing

I hope this doesn't violate any forum rules

If it does let me know and I will delete it
Click to expand...

I think it's good information reading, it should almost be a sticky.
 
No issues with my Braun color match light.

I mount my Scangrip Multimatch R on a tripod for working in a garage.
 
I have a scangrip handheld knockoff from harbor frieght. Works for me.

I will say if i did this fulltime i would invest in one of tge big scangrip multimatch lights. I used my buddys in his shop b4 and it was awesome for lighting up a work area when ceiling lights arent cutting it.

Sent from my SM-G973U using Tapatalk
 
I use a 17W (100 watt equivalent), 5,000k LED bulb in a simple trouble light fixture. I also have access to a Flex Swirl Finder Light.

The only advantage to the Flex, or any of the lights mentioned in the OP, is the convenience of their portability and small size. The simple $5.00 LED bulb will show defects as well or better in most cases and that is what I use most often... almost exclusively.
 
I have the Sunmatch 3, impressive the amount of light something that small can put out.







Just last week I also added the Multimatch R and some diffusers for the Sunmatch to my arsenal. The Multimatch came in handy over the last couple of days.









These are pretty expensive, something that grates when you read on the back of the Sunmatch that it's made in China, but there's no denying the effectiveness of these units.
 
Silly Rabbit said:
I see Big Boi blowers came out with lighting options now too.
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I noticed that as well. They are rebranded items also sold under the Take Now brand. Both brands are copies of the Scangrip Sunmatch 3, Multimatch and I-Match 2.

If I wasn't such a brand snob, I would likely argue that the Big Boi and Take Now items are a good option for those not detailing professionally.
 
DFB said:
I noticed that as well. They are rebranded items also sold under the Take Now brand. Both brands are copies of the Scangrip Sunmatch 3, Multimatch and I-Match 2.

If I wasn't such a brand snob, I would likely argue that the Big Boi and Take Now items are a good option for those not detailing professionally.
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I have a Big Boi Blower mini plus model. It's nice. I figured the pressure washer and these lights would be decent quality as well. I like the black/green color scheme, that has to add to the power of the lights right??:laughing:
 
Silly Rabbit said:
I have a Big Boi Blower mini plus model. It's nice. I figured the pressure washer and these lights would be decent quality as well. I like the black/green color scheme, that has to add to the power of the lights right??:laughing:
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My Big Boi is definitely high quality and it reminds me of that other company with the green color scheme that I have woodworking tools from, which is Festool. Festool makes some expensive but high-quality and well thought out tools and systems of tools/accessories.
 
Silly Rabbit said:
I have a Big Boi Blower mini plus model. It's nice. I figured the pressure washer and these lights would be decent quality as well. I like the black/green color scheme, that has to add to the power of the lights right??:laughing:
Click to expand...

dgage said:
My Big Boi is definitely high quality and it reminds me of that other company with the green color scheme that I have woodworking tools from, which is Festool. Festool makes some expensive but high-quality and well thought out tools and systems of tools/accessories.
Click to expand...

I have a Big Boi Blower as well, it's a beast.

I probably should have worded my post a bit differently, I did not mean to say that Big Boi's entry into the lighting sector was low quality. I was merely pointing out that their offering is not exclusive to the brand, although Big Boi are not the first or last to do this sort of thing.

And I'm guilty of buying things skewed towards how they look too. As I said earlier, I'm a brand snob.
 
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