Help compounding/polishing my rv

[JLinder]

I have a few year old travel trailer with painted aluminum siding (the ribbed type) that is oxidized and stained. I just bought a PC and some pads and was thinking cleaning up my rv would be a good way to get familiar with the PC. I dont have a whole lot of products available to me locally and would like to get this done before the weekend- so no time to order online. I purchased some Meguiars 67 locally to try and take off the staining and oxidation and started a section this afternoon. I started with a white pad and the machine set on 4, and it didn't do much. I turned the machine all the way up and still didn't do much so I tried an orange pad. With the machine on 3 it works pretty good, but I made a thin spot on the paint so I stopped and went back to the white pad. Am I on the right track here? Do I continue with the white pad and make multiple passes?

[Premium]

Go to Walmart and pick up some Meguiars Swirl X and Ultimate compound. Try the swirl X on white and if that doesnt work go to the UC. If both fail try UC on orange. That should yield some decent results.

Where are you located?

[JLinder]

I'm in Oregon. I'll see what I can find tomorrow, we don't have anything like a walmart but the local NAPA might have something. How do you tell how abrasive a product is before trying it? For example, meguiars (any most others) have several products that are similar and the packaging never says what the difference is.

[JLinder]

Another question:

It's hard to tell on my trailer because it's white and so it the product, but how do you tell when it's starting to dry and you need to stop?