Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 7
Three ways a swirls finder light can make you money and save you time
A swirl finder light is an essential tool for consistent quality results.
Why?
Because it enables you to light-up the paint to see what's really taking place at the surface level. Whether you're inspecting the paint BEFORE you start detailing or DURING the process to check your work or AFTER the project is done to show your customer and/or document your work for marketing purposes.
A quality swirl finder light;
1. Shows you and/or enables you to show your customer what's wrong with their paint when bright sunlight is not available.
2. Enables you to inspect your work as you progress through a detailing project to make sure you're turning out the quality of work you think you're creating.
3. Helps you to showcase your skills and ability as well as document before and after results for marketing your business.
Here's my buddy and forum member Frank inspecting the condition of the paint on this 1969 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible right after we washed the car to prepare it for machine compounding and polishing.
Note how Frank is holding the light about a foot and a half away from the surface. This is the correct technique.
Here's how the paint looks when lit up by the FLEX Swirl Finder Light
This is a close-up shot I took by zooming in with my camera lens. The clearcoat paint on this classic convertible is completely filled with swirls which diffuse light and makes the paint look ugly.
Depending upon where you live you may not have bright overhead sunlight to reveal paint defects like swirls and scratches, that's where a swirl finder light comes in handy. If if you do have seasonal sunlight the only time you can use it is if the car is outside at the right time of the day and hopefully it's not cloudy outside. Instead of putting yourself at the mercy of the weather or the time of day or the time of the year, get yourself a FLEX Swirl Finder Light. Once you start using a swirl finder light for detailing your own cars or customer cars you'll find it's just as valuable of a tool as your favorite polisher.
Ceramic and Quartz Paint Coatings
Applying a paint coating requires and extra step you normally don't perform when applying a car wax or a synthetic paint sealant. This extra step is chemically stripping the paint in order to create an oil and residue free surface for proper bonding of the coating.
Wiping down paint you've already polished risks instilling toweling marks, (toweling marks is a nice, fluffy word for toweling scratches), if you're not careful or if any kind of debris gets trapped between the towel and the paint while your chemically stripping the paint. You want and need to inspect the paint AFTER you chemically strip it to be sure no damage was created in the chemical stripping process.
You can't move the car outside into sunlight as this would contaminate the paint with air-borne dust so you need a swirl finder light to inspect the paint while the car is inside your garage or shop. If any toweling marks are inflicted into the paint during the chemical stripping step and you DON'T catch it when you apply the coating you will have sealed in the scratches and the only way to undo the problem will be to start over with the polishing and/or compounding and polishing step to remove the coating and undo the damage. It's a LOT faster to simply re-inspect your work.
Remember - clearcoat paints are scratch-sensitive this means while they tend to be harder than traditional single stage paint like lacquers and enamels they still scratch easily.
On Autogeek.com
FLEX Swirl Finder Light
By checking your work as you progress around any detailing project you can insure high quality, consistent professional results that make any car look like a show car!
A swirl finder light is an essential tool for consistent quality results.
Why?
Because it enables you to light-up the paint to see what's really taking place at the surface level. Whether you're inspecting the paint BEFORE you start detailing or DURING the process to check your work or AFTER the project is done to show your customer and/or document your work for marketing purposes.
A quality swirl finder light;
1. Shows you and/or enables you to show your customer what's wrong with their paint when bright sunlight is not available.
2. Enables you to inspect your work as you progress through a detailing project to make sure you're turning out the quality of work you think you're creating.
3. Helps you to showcase your skills and ability as well as document before and after results for marketing your business.
Here's my buddy and forum member Frank inspecting the condition of the paint on this 1969 Oldsmobile 442 Convertible right after we washed the car to prepare it for machine compounding and polishing.
Note how Frank is holding the light about a foot and a half away from the surface. This is the correct technique.
Here's how the paint looks when lit up by the FLEX Swirl Finder Light
This is a close-up shot I took by zooming in with my camera lens. The clearcoat paint on this classic convertible is completely filled with swirls which diffuse light and makes the paint look ugly.
Depending upon where you live you may not have bright overhead sunlight to reveal paint defects like swirls and scratches, that's where a swirl finder light comes in handy. If if you do have seasonal sunlight the only time you can use it is if the car is outside at the right time of the day and hopefully it's not cloudy outside. Instead of putting yourself at the mercy of the weather or the time of day or the time of the year, get yourself a FLEX Swirl Finder Light. Once you start using a swirl finder light for detailing your own cars or customer cars you'll find it's just as valuable of a tool as your favorite polisher.
Ceramic and Quartz Paint Coatings
Applying a paint coating requires and extra step you normally don't perform when applying a car wax or a synthetic paint sealant. This extra step is chemically stripping the paint in order to create an oil and residue free surface for proper bonding of the coating.
Wiping down paint you've already polished risks instilling toweling marks, (toweling marks is a nice, fluffy word for toweling scratches), if you're not careful or if any kind of debris gets trapped between the towel and the paint while your chemically stripping the paint. You want and need to inspect the paint AFTER you chemically strip it to be sure no damage was created in the chemical stripping process.
You can't move the car outside into sunlight as this would contaminate the paint with air-borne dust so you need a swirl finder light to inspect the paint while the car is inside your garage or shop. If any toweling marks are inflicted into the paint during the chemical stripping step and you DON'T catch it when you apply the coating you will have sealed in the scratches and the only way to undo the problem will be to start over with the polishing and/or compounding and polishing step to remove the coating and undo the damage. It's a LOT faster to simply re-inspect your work.
Remember - clearcoat paints are scratch-sensitive this means while they tend to be harder than traditional single stage paint like lacquers and enamels they still scratch easily.
On Autogeek.com
FLEX Swirl Finder Light
By checking your work as you progress around any detailing project you can insure high quality, consistent professional results that make any car look like a show car!