Paint scratch damage with repeating pattern. What caused this?

[Jinko]

Hi All,
I have a daily driver in for body repairs, after being rear ended. There are multiple deep scratches in the clear coat with "tails, on the back of a side mirror cover, that were CLEARLY not there when I took the vehicle in. In fact, the side mirror is not near the crash damage. I believe the tail patterns were caused by some sort of buffer with a bad pad or backing plate that skipped along the mirror cover. Look closely at the repeating patterns in the scratches. Please see the photo with scratches magnified. The body shop did send the car out for a wash and detail. The work was not done by any forum vendor or member. Please give me your opinion as to what may have caused this. Thanks. nd

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Those are called Pigtails:

„ Pigtails
When an abrasive particle gets trapped
between the paint and the face of your
oscillating sanding disc, it abrades the
paint in a curly pattern that represents
a pigtail, hence the name



Source: The Complete Guide To A Show Car Shine ~ Mike Phillips, Page 35


If I were you I would go back to the body shop.

[Jinko]

Hi Paul, the car is still at the shop. I told them this was caused by a circular machine. They are "deciding" if they would like to fix the damage. You mentioned a sanding disc. Are you referring to a pad that had an abrasive particle trapped in it? Thanks for all your help.

[Goonie75]

I agree with LSN.... but if its not pigtails... what about when the polisher "slips" and you might get the metal.guard quickly tap tap tap on the mirror before they regained control of polisher...

Either way they should make it right...

Ryan

Sent from my SM-G965U using Autogeekonline mobile app

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Hi Paul, the car is still at the shop. I told them this was caused by a circular machine. They are "deciding" if they would like to fix the damage. You mentioned a sanding disc. Are you referring to a pad that had an abrasive particle trapped in it? Thanks for all your help.

That’s what Mike wrote in his book, but pigtails can be caused by any FO (foreign object) that is on the pad.


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[Paul A.]

Yup, looks like classic ROB pigtails to me too.

[rlmccarty2000]

On the good side they should be easily polished out.