[rasilverbird]

I'm at my whit's end. I painted my car two Septembers ago. I left it in orange peel in case I scratched it in reassembley. Well, the last six months have been a nightmare trying to cut and buff this paint. I hand-sanded the entire car in 1k grit to cut the orange peel. I've spent the last 4 months trying to figure out how to finish the paint properly.

I've tried to hand sand out panels, I've tried to DA out panels, I've tried combinations of the two. I have both swirls and deep scratches no matter what I do. I'm fed up. I need help.

I tried to only take the 1k to 80% of the orange peel, knowing that I can use the next stages to complete the finish. Obviously I failed at that task. After hand sanding some panels and buffing to a miserable finish, I've gone back over with (admitably) Amazon (Chinese) brand DA pads to finish with 3M Trizac 3k grit pads....to still a miserable finish.

Today I took a fender from 2k chinesium DA finish to 2k/2.5k/3k hand finish....and it STILL had DA pigtails and long 1k scratches in it. And I took off a LOT of finish with each pass. A whole lot. Like I don't know how there's still clear coat left on the thing, I sanded that much.

I'm at a loss. I have no idea how to move forward with this paint.

Can anyone recommend a DA hook and loop pad that comes in 2k and 2.5k that actually works well? The chinesium ones I have obviously are terrible, and the expensive Trizac 3k ones I have don't actually cut paint at all.

I'm fed up, and I'm ready to drive this car