Splain something about swirls to me

[CroMag]

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]

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 O.]

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]

Wow i never thought of that.

Thats actually really cool.

[Accumulator]

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]

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]

Picture snippet....

http://autopia.org/gallery/data/500/Swirl-Lines.jpg

[coupe]

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]

One more pic even closer.



http://autopia.org/gallery/data/500/Swirl-Lines2.jpg

[gopedhead]

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]

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

[coupe]

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.

[I.A.S.]

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





exactly! :xyxthumbs



what many consider swirls are really only wash scratches that appear circular because of the sun...



a true swirl is only left by a high speed buffer on the leading edge of the backing palte that makes contact with the surface, and these are very distinct because it`ll actually be a straight line but within that line is a bunch of 1/4 circle scratches...

[gopedhead]

so the use of "swirl" to illustarte the bad car wash technique is indeed incorrect. but it`s an easy way for us to use this term adn understand it instantly.

[kompressornsc]

It`s been about 6 months since I last polished and I am now starting to see the beginnings of swirls. They`re just small, short,random scratches. I would say on average they`re about 2"-3" apart so they don`t have that characteristic `swirl` look yet, but I know if I don`t polish soon, the gaps between them will slowly fill in and I will have `swirls`.