Just when I was happy with my black... the dreaded holographic swirls return!

[neoprufrok]

In all my years of detailing (numbering 8 now) and with at least 6 different daily drivers, I haven`t had as tough of a time as with my new black Audi. I have had a black Civic that seemed to do better than this Audi. Now, I tend not to think that my ability is worse (could be), but its starting to get highly frustrating.



Today, while at the dealer in the dawn to drop off the car, all was nice looking until he opened the door. At which time the sun shined directly on the door, revealing tons and tons of holographic swirls, which may not bother most, but I`m an autopian, which means I`m a perfectionist.



I`m starting to think that the best routine maybe to go with what brought me success with my black Civic... Klasse AIO then a carnuaba like p21s or souveran.



If there are any bay area autopians who may want to help me out and take a look and see if they feel this is normal, I`d be glad to show it to them... cause I`m at a loss for how to fix this.

[Bill D]

This is very troubling, I`m not sure if you mentioned this before, but did your dealer prep your car when you first got it? Sounds like I really saved myself some trouble by requesting them not to touch mine. Im sure you used a PC if not a rotary already so I`m stumped as to what to suggest. I`m very interested though in what happens because I have the same exact paint.

[neoprufrok]

I did request for them not to touch it before i received it, but I`m not sure what happened when it was at the body shop for some minor scratch work.



I`m going to try GEPC and P21s this weekend to strip off the Klaasse and go with P21s, which I`ve used successfully in the past, never on this car though.

[Accumulator]

neoprufrok- I sympathize with your plight, Audis are sorta tricky, especially dark ones.



USUALLY, the holograms are just a sorta mild form or marring, like a specific type of swirl marks. They`re USUALLY not too deep, which is good news. They`re not noticeable except in direct sunlight, which is generally BAD news.



Since Audi clear is hard (which is both good and bad news), you need to be sorta aggressive to remove the holograms, or any other marring. If working by PC, *I* would use something like 3M PI-III RC (pn 05933) with a cutting pad, following up with something like PI-III MG (pn 05937) with a polishing pad. The 05933 is a lot milder than it sounds, BTW, and is popular with some VERY good shops that do a lot of Audis (they use it by rotary, pc, and hand). I`ll often use something even MORE aggressive on Audis, like 1Z`s Ultra Polish. Just breaking up the circular nature of the holograms will help a lot.



I`d be sorta surprised if the GEPC was aggressive enough to remove them. It took something pretty aggressive to put them IN, and it`ll take something sorta aggressive to get them OUT.



Holograms are one of those things that *IMO* are often more worrisome than they really need to be. When you use a rotary, sometimes you get them, sometimes (usually, you hope) you don`t. *I* always follow up my rotary work with some sorta aggressive PC work just to make sure I DON`T have them, as I can`t always pull the vehicle outside to check in the sun. It`s sorta like assuming your paint has shallow swirls that you can`t quite see but want to remove anyhow. I used that approach on my S8 and it worked fine.



If you`re gonna use a wax (instead of the K twins), maybe consider a next-to-last-step product with some fillers (more than the GEPC has). Such products are sorta out of favor here, but they do have their place. But I`d try to polish the holograms out first.

[neoprufrok]

Thanks accumulator. I`m toying with going back to the IHG regimen I used with my Acura which worked very well.



I`m thinking for now, I`ll probably just add a layer of P21s topper and then right before a car show I`m participating in early April, I`ll go over with IHG and Souveran. After that, I`ll think about going after it more aggressively.

[Accumulator]

neoprufrok- Glad to hear you`re not letting this really mess with you. If you have a PC handy, you might try doing a quick job with one of the polishes I mentioned. Might surprise you



Ever condiser Meg`s #16? It`ll look VERY similar to P21S but with more filling capability and a LOT better durability. Using THAT over something like IHG could be just the ticket.

[neoprufrok]

Thanks accumulator, I`ll be heading over to the auto paint supply store friday to see what I might try to pick up to help this situation out.