Polishing with sandpaper

I personally never go below 3000 grit before polishing. Auto rubbing compound or toothpaste seem to be aggresive enough to skip the finer sandpaper and move to polishing compounds.  There are various grits of these but that is never shown on product.  You just need to find out by experience.

Polishing of full size cars seems to be something from a bygone era.  Modern clearcoats are so good the shine lasts for life of car.

In general the polishing procedure is to dip a clean cotton T-shirt in the compound, spread it over the area to be polished and rub till it appears to be shiny.  Wait about two or three minutes for it to dry a bit, and them wipe it off with a clean area of cloth, or a second cloth.  Be aware that many polishing and rubbing compounds may include wax, so I only do polishing after the final paint coat.

NO Dremel.

Bill

I'll second what Bill said, DEFINITELY NO DREMEL.

For polishing, I have each of the different MicroMesh sets, along with a Novus kit (3 progressively finer polishing compounds).  For application and removal of the Novus polishing compounds, I use cotton gloves...one finger to apply and rub...the next finger to remove it and do the final polish.  When you're done with a polishing session, you can throw the gloves in with your laundry and they're good to go for next time (albeit a little smaller).

Hi;

 To be honest with you.I have NEVER heard ,until the last few decqades of Clearcoating a car and then polishing it. The only reason I did it on the TR07 monogram model was the Metallic paint  was not glossy enough to be believeable. Other than that,I let them sit for a week or more and just relax and gas out at their own pace.

   Then when I take a fingernail in a place that will be covered I see if the paint is real hard. If so I polish with a soft cotton cloth and then wax. Set aside and  admire. Many are always Foil chromed BEFORE the wax coat.