Under car workshop lighting recommendations?

[GreenV8S]

My new car lift is working well but leaves me in the dark when I'm under the car. My workshop is extremely well lit, but that's all lighting the top of the car - underneath it's pitch black.

So far I've tried head torches, clip-on mag lights and a ground level flood light pointing up. The first two helped quite a bit - the flood light was useless and just kept dazzling me or leaving me in shadow.

One suggestion I was given was to shine spot lights at the floor and use that as a diffuse reflector. I'm going to give that a go, but haven't done it yet. I've already tried shining a batton light at the floor but it was too diffuse and just dazzled me again.

Any other approaches anyone can recommend?

For what it's worth the car is about four and a half feet off the ground in a twelve by sixteen garage, so quite convenient to stick work lights on the walls if necessary.

[Jakg]

I fitted a LED battens at floor level, nicked the idea off here with someone whose garage was much prettier than mine.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Mock-up

[GreenV8S]

I'm jealous of whoever's garage that was.

I've tried direct lighting at ground level, but I found that whenever the light is in my sightline it dazzles me. Don't you have any problem with that?

[Jakg]

Jakg said:

I fitted a LED battens at floor level, nicked the idea off here with someone whose garage was much prettier than mine.

GreenV8S said:

I've tried direct lighting at ground level, but I found that whenever the light is in my sightline it dazzles me. Don't you have any problem with that?

They are only 10w battens so it's not so bad - I use 2x20w flood lights sometimes and it's way worse. The trick is always to have a higher quantity of less-bright lights.

[GreenV8S]

Jakg said:

hey are only 10w battens so it's not so bad - I use 2x20w flood lights sometimes and it's way worse. The trick is always to have a higher quantity of less-bright lights.

That's interesting - maybe I should try some dimmable ones.

[Belle427]

Led floodlights maybe bolted to the wall or floor so you can angle them as required?

[cliffords]

Jakg said:

Jakg said:

I fitted a LED battens at floor level, nicked the idea off here with someone whose garage was much prettier than mine.

GreenV8S said:

I've tried direct lighting at ground level, but I found that whenever the light is in my sightline it dazzles me. Don't you have any problem with that?

They are only 10w battens so it's not so bad - I use 2x20w flood lights sometimes and it's way worse. The trick is always to have a higher quantity of less-bright lights.

I am derailing the thread a bit but how does the lift help in that garage.
Surely you are just three or four feet up but now on your back at arms length. Asking as I have a good sized garage, but with a flat roof it's not too tall.

[GreenV8S]

cliffords said:

I am derailing the thread a bit but how does the lift help in that garage.
Surely you are just three or four feet up but now on your back at arms length. Asking as I have a good sized garage, but with a flat roof it's not too tall.

That isn't my garage, but I had a similar concern. My own workshop is quite a lot smaller (16'x12') and only 8' high, which is nowhere near high or big enough for any of the convention hoists except a mid-rise scissor lift - but that does leave the scissor lift right in the way if you want to work on the middle of the car. My own solution is to pick the car up on a set of gantry hoists. That gets it high enough to touch the ceiling, which is slightly higher than comfortable working height when you're sitting in an armchair. It isn't as convenient as a full height hoist, but sitting down comfortably and studying the problem with all tools and parts conveniently within reach is a mahoosive upgrade from working on a creeper. The gantry hoist takes up no space at all when the car is up or down, so there's nothing to step around/over or bang the doors into. I've got a set of high rise trestle stands for safety when I'm working under the car, but I usually don't set the car down onto them, so I can move them around to get them out of the way.

I haven't seen anyone else do it like this, so it's probably dangerously illegal, but it works for me.

[rambo19]

For working under my landy, I use a 5ft led batten light from screwfix.