Keep it moving! Biggest mistake with polishing I've seen in the auto painting industry is someone holding the polisher still working on an imperfection. You will burn right through. If you are wet sanding first, step it out to as high of grit as possible. 3m wet dry paper goes to 2500. They do have 3000 grit, but in the Trizact line. Meguires has 3000 grit in the Unigrit line. Probably easier to get ahold of. Norton makes great sandpaper as well. If you are wetsanding, put a small drop of soap in your water bucket, the sanpaper will slide much smoother and help with suspending the dust in the water. Put some water in a mist bottle and give your pad a squirt or two when starting. Dont get in a rush. You want to work the product completely. When polishing you are actually heating up the clear in that area and allowing it to "flow". Thats what gives you the smooth look. You can hit the area quickly with your compound and it might look alright and you end up wiping off the rest and moving to the next step. You will still have the the blemish in the clear with the compound masking it. Over time it will show back up. Some other tips are to tape off trim, jambs, etc to keep from a long cleanup. With most products, a little goes a long way. When you start, keep the rpms slow to avoid slinging half of the product off. If you get compound or wax on the plastic trim that is textured, a small detail brush should be used to get in all the tiny voids to keep from the tell tell white spots. A rag will simply wipe off only whats on top. I personally like the larger buffers. I use Makita, there are many others. I know the Dewalt ones are great but they go through the brushes often. I always open up the handle and take the factory short cord off. I get a 50' extension cord and cut the female end off and wire it in. That way you never have to worry about remembering an extension cord, or the connection comming undone.
