Holograms
Holograms are fine, curved buffer trails left in car paint by poor machine-polishing technique, showing as a faint swirled glow in bright light.
What it means
Holograms, sometimes called buffer trails or buffer marks, are a pattern of very fine curved scratches left in the clear coat by careless machine polishing. They usually come from a rotary polisher run with a coarse pad, too much speed, or uneven movement that the polisher cuts faster than the technician refines. Unlike random swirl marks from washing, holograms follow the path of the machine, so they form a regular swirled or feathered pattern. They are hard to see in flat light but become obvious in direct sunlight or under a bright inspection lamp, where the paint takes on a faint shimmering glow that seems to move as you walk past it. Holograms sit in the very top of the clear coat, so they are shallow. A refining pass with a soft finishing pad and a fine polish removes them and brings back a clean, deep shine.
Why it matters in Singapore
Singapore's strong, direct sunlight is exactly the light that exposes holograms. A car that looks flawless in a covered carpark can show a swirled haze the moment it rolls into the open. On dark colours, which are popular here, the effect is even more visible. A correction job is only finished when the paint stays clean under the harshest light the island can throw at it, not just under workshop shade.
How Revol Carz handles this
Revol Carz finishes every correction with a dedicated refining or jewelling pass, using a soft pad and a fine polish to clear any holograms the cutting stage left behind. Our detailers inspect each panel under bright, raking light before the car moves on, so buffer trails are caught and removed rather than sealed under a coating or wax.