Lighting
 

I just bought a new house and I want to set my garage up for optimal detailing bliss. In my old setup I had two workshop lights overhead they were Phillips t4 tubes that were supposed to be bright as the sun (lol) they do light the garage like its daytime but it does not show me the imperfections in the paint at all. The car looks great whether its flawed or not under these lights. Any suggestions from Phil from DD or anyone else

What type of bulb should I be using? Watts? Type? Size? etc etc

Thanks in advance

I can see plenty of imperfections with standard flourescent bulbs. I've got 4 two-bulb fixtures and two four-bulb fixtures in a two car garage. It's lit up like an operating room.

maybe my car is in better shape than I think and im just crazy:P My wife would agree wholeheartedly.

What stinks is no matter how perfect I get it inside, once the sun hits the car it always shows me something ive missed!

Maybe try a different color of flourescent? Mine are pretty much the "office building" color, not the soft white kitchen type. They're cheap enough to grab one or two of each type until you get something that works.

No one type of lighting is perfect. My smallish garage has 4 overhead fluorescent fixtures each with 2 T4 bulbs. I have 2 two-headed 1000 watt halogen tripod lights I pull around to the section i'm working on. I also have gel cell powered fluorescent fixture I can lay on the ground near the car to shine upwards on the panels. I have a few 900+ lumen flashlights in ranges from 4000-6500K. I find the overhead fixed garage lighting to be the worst type no matter what type of bulbs.