Is a mysterious, yet a common sight
We often get asked what "Holograms" are in paintwork and why they are there. My specialty is paint correction which usually involves removing paint defects such as swirl marks and holograms so let me explain what holograms are.
Holograms have a number of names including buffer marks, zebra stripes, buffer trails, and so on. Basically, these are caused by someone using a rotary machine polisher either in the incorrect way, not using an appropriate machine/setup (ie. 9" angle grinder with a sheepskin pad and some "cut and polish" set to the highest speed.....) or perhaps not using the correct combination of pads/compounds for that particular paint type. These scenarios will cause the paintwork to get damaged in a similar way that your paintwork gets scratched.
Unfortunately, most of these imperfections are caused by bad detailers and body shops, and why machine polishing has a bit of a bad reputation. You might even hear of a detailer saying "they only polish by hand". The reason for them saying this will differ from one detailer to another, but most of the time it is simply a lack of understanding. A lot of professionals after putting holograms into your vehicle may try to hide them with a product known as a "glaze".
This type of polish acts as a very good filler that can completely mask the holograms so when you pick the vehicle up it looks perfect. Unfortunately, the glazes wash off very easily, and eventually the holograms will appear.
This causes a lot of customers to never realize where these holograms came from as the car may look fine for weeks.
So what do these marks look like? Well have a look through the photos below and you will probably recognize seeing these marks on dark vehicles as they are extremely common (on your drive to work tomorrow try to look at dark-colored cars in the sunlight and I guarantee you will see dozens of cars like this).
Luckily these marks are reversible and can be fully repaired. So if you know of someone with a car like this, let them know it can be fixed
Коментарі