Spotting Holograms with Brinkmann & Sun Gun

Critical to ensuring you have the best possible finish when rotary polishing is assessing that the finish is hologram free - however, this is not always easy as many will know especially for light holorgrams... So I have compiled a few little tips and videos for how to make the best of your light source when finding holograms...


Brinkman

First off, the classic detailer's light! On the finish below, shining the light straight at the panel, we see the fine machine hologramming left in the finish from a heavy compounding stage:





The marks are there, but not obvious... to make the marring more obvious however, sweep the light source as shown in the video below and look at the clouds which move as you move the light, like moving it across a pool of water waves:



Light hologramming can be very hard to see, especially when in the small intense region of the Brinkman but moving the light as shown above highlights the marring more clearly...

Using the brighter camera flash also highlights the marring a little more:






Now, after the marring is removed, and the finish is hologram free you can see this from the pictures and there's no evidence of the hologramming when moving the light source as shown in the video:











3M Sun Gun

You might think hologramming would be easier to spot with the Sun Gun, but its still not obvious - the trick though here is not to look at the intense section of the light but instead look at the surrounding area to give you better contrast:





As above, moving the Brinkman we can see the waves like effect which highlights the hologramming clearly:



However, better still is tilting the Sun Gun, now note the clearer hologramming, a much better view:



Adding the camera flash:






Now, on the hologram free finish we can see that in the photographs, there is not evidence of marring:





The videos below show both direct light and tilted light source and both show the finish is hologram free:







Just a couple of little tricks for spotting holograms in a finish when you're working

 

Wow, thanks for these tips Dave!

 

Nice tips Dave. The best tool I've found for spotting holograms is the Infratech CM5300. I think it does a much better job than the Sun Gun or the Brinkmann in spotting holograms.

 

Well done Dave :applause: a lovely write up and great illustration with the videos and the pictures :worship2: :worship2:

Thank you for taking the time to share those tips, very much appreciated.