What are swirl marks, and how can I get rid of them?
Swirl marks (also known as holograms) are a normal result of rotary buffing. They are most noticeable on darker color cars, especially on sunny days-they appear as swirly, crescent shaped circular patterns in the paint that reflect the sunlight in a different way as you move your vantage point around the car. You can’t feel them, but you can see them. (You may have also seen swirl marks on polished stone floors as they bend and scatter the light reflections while you walk past.) On lighter cars and/or on cloudy days, you probably won’t see them at all. New, un-buffed paint will reflect normally without the circular reflection patterns. The reason you can see swirl marks is due to an optical effect called “backlighting”. When light passes through the clearcoat and reflects off of the basecoat and back to your eyes, it is backlighting the clearcoat. The easiest way to describe this is to compare it to your windshield-when driving into the setting sun all of the imperfections, dirt, strea
