Splain something about swirls to me

CroMag · 09-13-06, 05:55

As one who is naturally compulsive about swirls on my own vehicles, I of course notice a lot of cars that have them as well. However, something about these cars always jumps out at me that I have not been able to come up with an answer to and is frustrating the h#ll out of me.

Swirls always seem to develop in the same pattern regardless of where they are located on the vehicle - a bunch of tight, symmetrical, convex swirls - kind of like ripples in a pond. Now given that swirls are largely due to poor washing technique that rubs abrasives into the paint, why don't they develop in a more random pattern?

People don't always wash in a symmetrical, circular pattern on every panel - you would think that swirls would look more like a pile of spaghetti, or that you would see vertical or horizontal scratches, but they never look like that. Maybe I am missing the obvious, but why do swirls look the way they do?

Please help so that I can move on with my life and contemplate other mindless things....

Setec Astronomy · 09-13-06, 06:10

I think the swirls are actually random, but because the light source is usually a point, rather than diffuse, it reflects in a specific way.

Anthony Orosco · 09-13-06, 06:49

Pretty much what Mike stated above.

I call these halo-scratches because as the light catches the edges of these random scratches they appear to be circular patterns but in reality they are just thousands of random scratches.

Anthony

Coupe · 09-13-06, 06:53

Wow i never thought of that.
Thats actually really cool.

Accumulator · 09-14-06, 10:05

Playing around with the lighting can help illustrate this. A friend of mine gets linear marring from washing, but in many lighting conditions it looks anything *but* linear. Get the light right and sure enough, it's a bunch of straight scratches.

gopedhead · 09-14-06, 10:38

mine are a little random too if i move the light or look at it at a diferent angle. however, on the streets the swirls on other cars show up in circular patterns.

SpoiledMan · 09-14-06, 10:42

Picture snippet....

Coupe · 09-14-06, 11:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by gopedhead

mine are a little random too if i move the light or look at it at a diferent angle. however, on the streets the swirls on other cars show up in circular patterns.

Swirls arent circular, on your car or any other car.

SpoiledMan · 09-14-06, 03:15

One more pic even closer.

gopedhead · 09-14-06, 05:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coupe

Swirls arent circular, on your car or any other car.

shoudl they be called swirls? swirls illustrate a circular pattern? dont they?

it's kinda contradictory how we all use teh term in that way.

Accumulator · 09-14-06, 05:20

"Swirls" gets used in all sorts of ways...to a purist, a "swirlmark" is something caused by a rotary buffer.

Coupe · 09-14-06, 07:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by gopedhead

shoudl they be called swirls? swirls illustrate a circular pattern? dont they?

it's kinda contradictory how we all use teh term in that way.

Not really becuase the way our eyes see the scratches, they appear to be circular.