So I can kind of imagine what this is, but just wanted to find out for sure what causes it and how I can prevent it. I've read about it in a number of posts, but just want to clarify. Thanks in advance.

 

It's a result of any combination of high RPM speed, inexperience, slow movement, friction and surface temperature of a rotary machine on a vehicle's paint.

 

Thanks. That's what I suspected. Does it look like swirl marks?

 

It looks like this. Fairly obvious on darker colored cars but I've seen it on white cars before.

 

Is it possible to fix it without repainting or water sanding?

 

You can fix what you see in the above picture, which are also referred to as rotary holograms. These typically appear when you use a rotary buffer improperly (too fast, too aggressive of a polish or too aggressive of a pad combo). It is usually repaired by following up with a finer polish and pad combination along with safer speeds.

Buffer burn, when you actually burn through the clear coat or paint, cannot often be repaired without the use of paint.

As a general rule of thumb, if there's still clear coat left, you can repair it or improve it.

Hope this helps,

George

 

Random orbits help to prevent this?

 

Yes, due to there dual axis rotation......Often times, RO's are used for the final polishing stage to avoid halograms.