From my experience and research, generally yellowish type lights (generally known as warm white) can show swirls better on lighter color cars (white, silver), and white lights (generally known as cool white) tend to show swirls better on dark/black cars. The difference in the light temperature (the yellowness or whiteness of light) will show swirls differently depending on your car color. Street lights are generally warm white category, and your phone torch light should be in the cool white category.

The overall ideal light for inspecting paint defects is neutral white color lights, which commonly is sunlight equivalent type of light. Sun guns are what some pro detailers like to use when doing such inspection because they use bulbs that somewhat emulate sun type of light temperature.

I have the same car color as u have, so I use a strong warm white torchlight (powered by 18650 battery) for defect inspection.

Fun facts on lighting when it comes to detailing:

1) The "safest" temperature to go with for detailing inspection is 4500k and 6500k. Scangrip uses this 2 temperatures to promote the so-called "cri+". Basically what it means is that the range of most automotive colors are from r1-r15 and these are the best temperature to go with to check on defects.

2) To tell if a detailing shop is good or bad i look at their lightings. If there is no yellowish (4500k) spot lights, and only fluorescence is present, tau la tu.

3) Street lights (yellowish type, not the latest white led kind) are the best kind of light to inspect your finish. LOL

Watched the video, understand the differences between spot light and flood light now, when to use it

But for my case its comparing between my phone LED (I think is "white") versus street lamp (yellow), so that is due to intensity or was it more on the color temperature?

The street light I refer to looks very yellow to me though, I think about 3000K type compared to 4200K of the warm white. What sort of torchlight are you using? Maybe I should grab a better torch... more powerful one that my phone's LED.

Street light, the old ones with bulb type... is 4200K? But 4200K appears white right.. while the street light is much warmer...

4200k quite yellowish.
higher temperature is whiter.

tried many years back. liquid still ok after more than 6 years. cant remember the experience

paint cleaning only

I wanna try that thing but seriously, only come in 1 gallon? Not sure when only can finish that thing haha

How many cars you have?

I have tried it on my friends car, long long time a go, he brought it in and asked for help in polishing.

If my memory serves me right, it produced good cut, manage to remove most of scratch and swirls, the shine was good as well. But the wax would not be a long lasting type.

Overall i would rate 4/5 for a AIO; quiet impressed

I would say its still due color temperature. Intensity wise your street lamp is far away even though strong light, your phone LED is very close even though much weaker light.

Here are my torchlight arsenal:


This is a comparison of the lights:


This is my version of Sun gun:



Sun gun uses Solux bulb (google DIY Sun gun to get the specs of the bulb), with 4x 18650, its too bright so cant really catch a right photo for comparison.

These are the links to the torchlights I bought and where I bought them:
https://www.fasttech.com/products/2139702
https://www.fasttech.com/products/4251200
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1319201
https://www.fasttech.com/products/1319303

The AA torchlights are only good to use if u have poorer lighting conditions or the day is generally cloudy. Else the 18650 versions work better.

Sorry if this is abit nerdy, I generally do post-polish inspection with few lights just to confirm removal was complete as sometimes one light can deceive.

If u dont mind, we could do a small group buy on this product. Lazada is selling RM320 (exclude shipping). Maybe can split 4 bottles (1 Gallon = 3.78L, divide 4 = 0.945L per bottle). Possibly each person pay RM90-95 per bottle (including rebottling and shipping fee).

If its a daily use car, its mission impossible to be 100% swirl free. My advice is 'accept' the x amount of swirl created by sand and dust while travelling + improve your washing and drying skill to minimize the worsen of swirl...

My take is , if you really swirl free freak and keep wanna polish after wax etc....your cc will be gone few years or its WORST if you think you a 'great' in machine polishing, your CC is going to gone even faster.

Personally after so many years into this hobby (hope am still passionate about it), my take is keep the surface clean/shine based on your preference but most importantly there is PROTECTION ...beading and sheeting is the goal.

Want really gloss - cut the CC and remove all the orange peel. With our climate, you are gonna repaint your car very soon...

IMHO la...

PS : Do agreed, yellow light have better reflection on swirl ...make your life and ease of maintenance easier...

you use it to clear the debris off the engine bay?

my sungun [2900K 50W 36 degree]



This post has been edited by slk: Feb 23 2018, 04:18 PM

Lol, think your reply is to another post, yes? I was just answering to the question regarding light temperature.

But I do agree with u, swirls are generally hard to avoid even with the best of care techniques. We must learn to close one eye and accept that so long as car is clean and regularly protected, we will have less work ahead of us when we do a full paint correction work.

In my case I am somewhat a defect collector. I let my car collect enough defects until one point where I have the time and drive to do a complete compound/polish/protect. I even have cat scratch marks on my bonnet that I have yet to do much about. Hehehe...


I actually tried 2 cordless drills to fit my Solux bulb, but so happen both had trouble screwing back together, so had to try other methods. Took me a few weeks to figure this build.

Sifu , u teach me before , learn to tackle the scratch , swirl and the paint , either soft , or hard paint rather than going to make whole car swirl free , once tackle then u are job done , now i also learn close 1 eyes , make sure car is clean and remove wash swirl then it will remain shining !!!



Anyway n33d , the HD SPEED AIO available in malaysia? i remember u share to me before , but the price quite expensive in here , seen like HD speed have very good review on remove wash swirl and leave nice finishing , but if after i AIO can i stil using my own wax like fusso coat 12? Or i need to IPA first before apply fusso coat

yes clear the debris and after my engine wash, to blow off the water.

Yup, cuz the only way to keep a car in flawless condition is not to drive it, and that is as good as not owning a car. As long as our cars are daily drivers, like it or not some defects will come eventually. We can only do our best to minimize creating defects when washing and all that, but it eventually accumulates anyway. Close 1 eye lor, as long as generally clean and protected, then its good enough.

On the flipside also, if u like to keep polishing your car, no worries also. If polish until end up clearcoat gone, worst case just respray. Not the end of the world. Most important is learn to experiment, learn what works best for u, and learn from experience.

Roger sifu , but also won;t have so much time to do full polish , now looking AIO first for cleaning ability

i was lucky the cordless drill was given by a friend and it fits perfectly. I find the sungun is best for colour matching inspection.

for hologram/swirl spotting, my 2 trusted torches are :
Eagletac TX25c2 with Neutral White LED, 1180 lumens (mostly for holograms and deep swirls)
Jetbeam Jet1Pro, 480 lumens, pure white
Surefire 6P Xenon Incan
Inova T2
Osren's Torch

get something which is available here

Osren paint restore?