Obviously most of us know what a swirl mark is, besides a mortal enemy, but what exactly is it? I've heard talk of not using an abrasive product in a circular method, such as some like to wax this way, because it will introduce swirl marks to the finish. My understanding of these marks, from a couple different sources (none of which I can remember:shakehead were just regular linear scratch marks, and it was the reflection of the light that makes the blemish look like it was in a circular pattern. Anyone agree or disagree? Any other input?
You are correct... all light scratches appear to be swirls when a radial light source is shone on them. They can be made up of lots of interlocking straight scratches. The 'straight line' rather than 'circular' application techniques really have little to do with swirl introduction (as both methods will cause swirls if done with a gritty sponge) but more to do with product. A polish will need to be radially applied to break it down into the same concentrated area. A wax just needs consistent coverage, so straight lines will be better. Hope that helps and others may have comments too
Yes we can lump all scratches into the same category of "swirls" but technically we have two camps of scratches because of the two different ways they are introduced into the paint. We have "halo-scratches" which, when the light reflects off the raised edges of the scratches, appear as circular scratches but in reality they are made up of numerous random scratches which are caused by washing, drying and everyday wear and tear. Some are surface marring and others can be rather deep into the clear or top coat. Then we have "swirls" or holograms (also called wheel marks, buffer marks & buffer trails) which again are scratches but these scratches are fine patterned scratches which are caused by a high speed polisher and an operator who doesn't know how to properly finish down his or her work. They take on a 3D effect and if the car is moving or if the looker moves around the car these swirls seem to "flow" through the paint. Now many times a random orbital can remove many buffer swirls BUT to level down halo-scratches one almost always needs a rotary....which in turn introduces buffer swirls:shead: Buffer swirls though should not be seen as the enemy but rather a "telling point" of your progress. In other words when I perform paint correction I am seeking to have uniform, light swirls instead of random halo's everywhere. I know that the paint has then been leveled down. So the first step in paint correction (besides the paint prep step) is to level the paint. Scratches are never removed but rather the paint which surrounds those scratches is removed....down to the "level" of the scratch (hence the term "leveling") which makes it appear that the scratch has been removed. Paint is being abraded away. Now after the cutting and leveling steps whether it be one step or several we may notice the halo's have been removed but now we have buffer swirls but if we continue down the scale to our finest polish and pad combo these swirls, if any, should be very light, almost "wispy" (for lack of a better word). Now this is where a random orbital comes into play, such as a PC, Cyclo or Flex. Using a finishing pad and a fine polish we can now fully close the paint and we *should* be left with near perfect paint. I have always stated, "The finer the pad and product the fewer the swirls". So yes we can label them all "swirls" but not all swirls are created equal nor are they all corrected in the same manner. Anthony Note: Paint correction is much more involved than my simple post puts forth. We have areas of product selection, pad selection, rotary rpm's, etc. I've been jacking paint up for 20 years and I still haven't gotten it right:doh: So be patient in your learning.
Thanks for sharing Anthony, This has been a very interesting thread to say the least. now I know even less...:shrug:
Cheers for adding more detail Anthony It is true that there are a huge number of paint defects. I mostly tend to lump them into basic categories such as 'swirl marks' which are the light halo-scratches you talk of, 'hologramming' which I tend to have to remove after some action with a wool pad on my rotary ('swirls' in your terminology) and RDS or 'random deep scratches' which haven't been inflicted through simple poor wash routines and often need to be wet sanded or heavily compounded out. But people do refer to them in their own terms (e.g. 'cobwebbing' ) and then you get into some technical descriptions like micro-marring... And that doesn't even cover other forms of paint damage like acid etching by bird lime etc. Fascinating subject but the nice thing is we all know the paint defects are a common enemy and need to go... when I was little I used to think the light cobweb style scratches were standard on all cars But then people were paying me a pound a time to inflict them
