Brian - hard to know without seeing your paint - but I suspect the foam pad didn't damage the paint, but that you had trouble (as most everyone does) getting the SG on thinly and evenly - and you may have had trouble (as most everyone has) buffing it out.
Try this: making sure the surface is clean and dust-free, apply another coat of SG - but before starting spritz the fpam pad with one spray of some non-carnauba detail spray like
Meguiars'
Final Inspection. This removes the "dry" feeling of the pad and makes it MUCH easier to spread the SG. You should only need a few drops per surface, maybe four drops for the whole hood.
Let it cure for at least an hour. Buff it out using the "2 mf wipe" method, where the 1st wipe is wet (with water) and wrung out - it removes the excess residue easily, leaving a few fine wet streaks behind. Pass right over that with the dry MF wipe. Then see if it is still "scuffed." If it is, we need to get a better description of how it looks to diagnose and help. Photos perhaps?
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