How do you stay away from holograms?

[Midnight1700]

First, to stay away from holograms, follow Mike's advice to the "T". Second, the next best method to stay away from holograms is not to visit any used car dealerships. They're the worst!

[Flash Gordon]

I'm taking the Fifth on this one.

I'm drinking a fifth to this one

[Mike Phillips]

Well thanks for all the input. I did wipe down a black BMW and drive it out side and looked at it in the light and saw slight holograms along the door.

A good practice is to do your finish passes with each rotary buffer step in a known direction and change to a different direction when you change pads and products. Then when you inspect for holograms you'll be able to determine which step left the holograms.

I was a bit bummed Wont lie. But the hologram was an up and down vertical hologram and I only went that way was with a finishing 3m polish and pad.

I figured I didn't work it enough, so I drove it back in and tried it again and got it right.

Checking on a vertical panel like a door makes inspecting harder than a horizontal surface like a trunk lid, roof or hood. But if the sun is right, or you position your artificial lights just right you can use a vertical panel.

Just got a little lazy and rushed I guess guess the upper half of the car looked good and hologram free Thanks for the advice everyone

Good to hear it's working out for you.

[Jimmie]

I'm glad that I read this. I always thought that holograms/buffer trails were simply a product of too much speed. Anyway that is what I always suspected of the DISO's. Guess not that simple.

[marsomthing]

so in regards to the vertical holograms on the door, They are a result of incorrect product application?

Meaning I worked it to little or not enough using a DA?(griots polisher)


or


bad form? ( pushing to much, to little not using the same pattern all the time?)


what exactly is a hologram, I know swirls are mirco scratches on the wax clear coat from dust, wiping etc.....so what IS a hologram?

[RaskyR1]

Just to chime in...

The best way to see if you are in fact leaving behind a rotary buffer swirl or hologram free finish is you have to chemically strip the paint and then inspect the paint under bright light like overhead sun.

Also, this is best done on black paint as black shows everything. It's easy to buff on a white, or silver metallic, or any light color and not see faint swirls left by the rotating action of the pad on a rotary buffer.

Because 'fine' or shallow swirls can be hard to see, the ultimate way to inspect would be to test yourself on a large flat panel like the hood of a car, (a car hood that's large and flat, harder to find with modern, small cars), and then after your last step, wipe the paint down with IPA, or MS or do a Dawn wash.

Next, move the car into full on sun when the sun is bright and directly over head.

Now move around the car placing the sun into different locations on the hood and inspect for a 100% swirl free finish.

• Inspecting without chemically stripping will not prove you left a swirl free finish.
• Inspecting without using really good light, like bright overhead sunlight won't prove you've left a 100% swirl free finish.

I never see people doing this step or even talking about it let alone proving it and in the process of proving, sharing the proving process and results process.

I never see people proving their work with this step and posting real pictures of the swirl free finish in full sun after chemically stripping. This step means taking longer to buff out any car and during the chemical stripping process you risk marring the paint and if you wash with Dawn, then you get the car all wet again, this means water in the cracks and crevices that won't dry like a flat panel so when you bring the car back inside to finish buffing it out, now the air current a rotating buffing pad creates will draw the water in the cracks and crevices into the buffing cycle.

It's a lot more complicated to 100% prove to yourself or anyone else that you are in fact leaving a 100% swirl free finish. I see people make the claim all the time but that's just their claim. As someone that has done a lot of testing on black paint and buffed thousands of cars with a rotary buffer, it's a lot harder to do than most people think and the ONLY way to know that you have IN FACT left behind a 100% swirl-free finish is to chemically strip a dark or black finish after your last rotary buffer step, move the car into bright sunlight and then inspect.

Other than that... how would you really know?

Instead of doing all of the above, simply finishing out by "Changing the Action of the Tool", in other words, by changing over to a DA Polisher and re-polishing every square inch of the car, you "ensure" that you've left a 100% swirl free finish and you've never worked backwards in the process.

Good post Mike!



Lets not forget that some of the carrier oils (fillers) in polishes today, whether intended or not, are very resistant to some chemical wipe-downs. It's usually a few months down the road before the holograms really start popping out IMO.

If you're going to use a rotary you better make darn sure you are doing enough polishing steps to properly refine the paint. I've seen far to many threads where people go right from an aggressive step to a jeweling step and I cringe when I see them.

This is also the reason I finish with a DA most of the time now. One angry customer with a swirled up car can trash your reputation real quick...especially if they post on forums...seen it happen to several people over the years and it's not pretty to watch....


Rasky

[5.4 Shelby]

so in regards to the vertical holograms on the door, They are a result of incorrect product application?

Meaning I worked it to little or not enough using a DA?(griots polisher)


or


bad form? ( pushing to much, to little not using the same pattern all the time?)


what exactly is a hologram, I know swirls are mirco scratches on the wax clear coat from dust, wiping etc.....so what IS a hologram?

holograms are from using a rotary polisher. Not a DA. If you have ever seen one of those poorly polished black cars that lok like they have comet trails all over the paint, those are holograms. Once you have seen them, there is no mistaking what they are. Start looking at the paint on every car you see on the road (all geeks do that anyway).

[Jeffk]

I had my car hologram free until I used an LC Red pad and my rotary to apply the second coat of Poorboys EX last night..

[Flash Gordon]

I had my car hologram free until I used an LC Red pad and my rotary to apply the second coat of Poorboys EX last night..

Back to the drawing board

[5.4 Shelby]

I had my car hologram free until I used an LC Red pad and my rotary to apply the second coat of Poorboys EX last night..

I dont use a rotary, but, I would think using one for wax application is kinda like using a chainsaw to trim the grass on your sidewalk.