Holographic marks

[swampydrill]

I have had an issue with my 2014 metallic jet black Porsche Panamera. I purchased secondhand from main dealer, after 3-4 months and on a warm sunny day, i noticed some sort of juddering / holographic marks. I took to Porsche and they polished the whole car twice, unfortunately it was not a sunny day when i picked it up and so car looked fine, once sunny i could see that the same marks were there. I put a couple of questions on here and advise was it needed MOP. Porsche mopped it but still looked the same, they seem to get some out and put some new marks in. I told them they not touching it anymore.
I got a local guy who has been doing it a long time, he did a 3 stage MOP followed by polish and a sealing wax. Once again it was not too sunny when he finished but now i can see he has improved it but also some new ones in there i did not see before. When he started mopping the car it looked a mess, he said to me that these marks are through not polishing it correctly during the process he went through (that statement raised my eyebrows because i have always put the marks down to poor MOP technique). Anyway, i saw a couple of holographic type marks and so i decided to try Meguiars ultimate compound, the mark disappeared. I plan to try this on all the marks on the car and see what results i get but i got a couple of questions.
To my knowledge the car has now bee mopped 3 times, what sort of damage is this doing to the paintwork, lacquer, assuming that the guy doing it is quite experienced.
What sort of damage will ultimate compound do ? i put a video on you tube, you will see some small juddering marks, this is still replicated all over car

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHT2jgqLGBI

[Top Gear]

Re: Holographic marks

Those are a combination of what we call "spiderwebs" or "swirls", with what we call "buffer trails". At some point, someone used a rotary buffer on the paint, but as usual, it leaves holograms behind, very fine micro-scratches in patterns that seem to move. Also, there are a lot of spiderwebs from the dealer work, as well as your washing and so on.

I doubt seriously that any damage has been done. Those various marks would have to come off before abrasion made it any deeper, you see, and since these very superficial webs and trails haven't gone anywhere, you're not even scratching the surface, so to speak. It's all fixable, but will take some careful pro-level work from a detailer who knows what they're doing, especially if the paint is very hard. Do NOT let dealers or their detailers touch the car, because they are almost assured to be the ones causing these spiderwebs and buffer trails. It also depends on how you are washing and waxing the car.

[briarpatch]

Re: Holographic marks

Never heard the term 'mopped'...what exactly does that mean?

[swampydrill]

Re: Holographic marks

Maybe it's just a term we use in the UK, it is when machine polishing your car.

[Nick Winn]

Re: Holographic marks

Sorry to hear about your situation! Happy to hear you are having some success our Ultimate Compound by hand. We would like to mention that we are seeing all types of defects within the paint, swirls, scratches, as well as the holograms or "buffer trails" inflicted from a rotary machine. Don't worry! This is unfortunately very normal. Paints are scratch sensitive especially during the washing step, and the improper use of a rotary polisher can easily inflict a hologram.

Now, removing these defects in our opinion is not all that difficult, it is just going to take the right tools for the job and some good technique. You have seen some success using Ultimate Compound by hand, but to be honest, to complete the entire car by hand it going to be quite the task, and we also imagine you will run into certain defects which just wont want to come out by hand. A dual action polisher like our MT300 (or MT320 internationally) can be used to make this task much easier, maximizes the results of any product be used, and is a machine which can be used by safely by a user who is a novice, with a little bit of research on technique & product selection. We would suggest our Ultimate Compound on our DFC5 Foam Cutting Disc to start.

With that being said, another option would be to find a professional detailer who can meet your expectations. Some things to look for when searching for a professional to perform this service or "paint correction" would be to find someone with examples of their previous work, specifically with up close before & after pictures or "50/50 pictures."

A compound does work to remove defects by removing a microscopic amount of paint. It is not ideal to compound a vehicle's paint several times, but the correct use of a compound is generally very non-invasive. Overall follow directions and don't compound your car ever week, but we wouldn't be too worried about any permanent damage.

Below is a link to pictures from our Saturday Detailing Classes. This shows many examples of using a dual action polisher to remove the same types of defects you have.

Pictures from our Saturday Detailing 101 Classes

Again, we just want to be honest, for the severity of defects your car has, we think it would be quite difficult to get the results you are looking for. You can certainly still work by hand, but just wanted to point this out.

Hope this is helpful! Feel free to post further questions.

[amblin83]

Re: Holographic marks

German CC is generally harder and thicker. Very easy to haze up which require extra finishing steps to cure.

Simply get yourself a tube of sonax profiline nano polish 3/6 Ar. 208 141-150 , a very slightly damp medium pile MF towel OR a P-ball with 3" finishing pad.

This one is the easiest polish to work by hand in my opinion . Even better if you have a rotary or DA, simply follow the very detailed instructions on the back. Meguiars ultra finishing polish is very good aswell.

[amblin83]

Re: Holographic marks

Regarding the 'damage' , your dealer most likely used a heavy cut compound and skipped finishing steps.

Or worse, they ran a pressure powered hand sander all over the car instead of using proper finishing polish and pads . Those little buggers can leave a ton of micro scratches on a hard CC.

Car dealers are not detailers, I've even seen cars 'pre scratched' directly off the production line. You'd think it's impossible, but the truth is that during assembly some scratches will occur and some little man , usually novice workers just out of school will come and buff the car very casually and very badly.