Help with weird hologram problem?

[Mike Phillips]

Help with weird hologram problem?


Anytime I get questions via e-mail, a PM or a FB message I prefer to invest my typing time where

A: It's easier for me to share links, pictures and videos.

B: More people can read and thus benefit from the information. (no just one set of eyeballs)


The reality is, most people that contact me found me via an article I've written or a reply I've written on this forum. The thing is, instead of figuring out that the whole reason they are contacting me is because they found me via an article or answer I wrote on the forum that they to should bring their question to the forum because not only will that help them.... but it will help a future "them". If I answer everything in a private e-mail or other touch point, no one would find and contact me. It's a cycle or pattern that repeats as long as everything is shared in the public domain.

The above is kind of wordy but re-read it slowly and it will make sense.


So I get an e-mail asking,

Hello Mike!

I had a question maybe you could help me with. Yesterday I was working on a 2007 Porsche cayman. I had previously worked on this vehicle and he came back for a coating since he loved the coating I did on his 2017. The paint was still in great shape from the 2 step I did a few months back. So I began really trying to dial in perfection.

I began with an American global orange pad(giving them a shot since everyone loves them) and Griots perfection cream (big fan of the boss system). That really got zero results so I jumped up to sonax cut and finish with the orange pad. This was finishing nice.

So I pull the car out into the sunlight just for a final inspection and bam! Holograms only on the hood. So I wip out my red finishing pad and some more perfection cream ..... nothing. Slow arm speed and 3-4 passes on a speed of 3 on a shurhold 3500 pro 21mm throw polisher and it didnt phase it.

Finally stepping up to fast correction cream and orange again I was able to get 90% of it out. The customer was very happy.

However I was not. I can't for the life of me I cannot understand one, why it occurred

and 2 why it was so difficult to remove?

Whats the best way to get rid of them? How do I prevent creating extra work like this in the future?

Also, I was doing an alcohol whipe and cleaning my pads after each panel.

Thanks man!!

Great questions

From what you wrote, I took the key information and made it BOLD

If I'm understanding you correctly,

You buffed with SONAX Cut & Finish with an American Global Medium Cut Foam Pad on a Shurhold 21mm free spinning long stroke orbital polisher and this combo left what you're calling "holograms" in the paint on the hood, but not the rest of the car?

Then - you removed what you're calling holograms using the same tool, the same pad but switched over to Griot's Fast Correction Cream?


If I'm reading you correctly,

First - Assuming you buffed out other panels and did not see a problem then it sounds like the hood may have been repainted and this is why you're having issues with it and not the other body panels.

Second - If a medium cut foam pad and a long stroke orbital polisher with Griot's Fast Correction Cream is removing what you call holograms while leaving an acceptable finish - to me this indicates hard paint.


The SONAX products and the Griot's products use very different abrasive technology. Sounds like this paint reacts better to the abrasive technology used by Griot's?


Maybe someone else will chime in with their input...

[Mike Phillips]

Continued....


What you're describing as holograms I would call micro-marring left in a pattern that looks like shadows or patterns or even shadow patterns in the paint that mimic the direction you moved the polisher over the paint.


In all my books, that's 5 in print, I define holograms as a specific scratch pattern put into paint (or gel-coat on boats), from a rotary buffer also called a rotary polisher, sander/polisher or wheel if you're an old school guy.


Here's an article I wrote on the term holograms and I explain why it's important that everyone be on the same page when using any term in our industry.


The word holograms means a specific scratch pattern inflicted into paint using a rotary buffer



Just want to share the above with you. I know it's hard to change the world and with all the experts on Facebook we'll never come to agreement on anything but for me and my world, I type a lot and speak a lot in public, on TV an in videos and it's important that the words I use have specific meanings or definitions. I rarely find anyone else writing anything substantial any longer in the blogosphere but if anyone wants to "write" their own definitions for words, (like I have done), feel free to go for it. There's no law that says you cannot write an article.


Words mean things... I think it was Bill Clinton that said that sometime when he was in office....