[posneg]

Thanks for the reply.

It's hard to say. As far as I can tell, in my limited experience, I've done a lot of sanding. A friend suggested the same thing; that a clear coat had not been removed. How thick is a clear coat and does it actually penetrate into the metal? I think it's gone but I don't know how to be sure.

When I'm sanding I see a medium gray dust. That could be from the black material of the sand paper and from the metal of the wheel itself. Should I be seeing a different color? Or rather, if a clear coat is present will it look different?

It seems pretty clear that something is going wrong. I just hope I can figure it out before I invest any more money.

Regarding the heat of the wheel, I've never felt anything more than a slight warmth from the wheel even after polishing for over a minute. Should it be hot or really warm? And this brings up another question, how long should I be polishing on each stage? I generally stop once I stop seeing any kind of improvement.


Let me describe a little bit more what I'm observing.

I use the sisal wheel* with the black compound and I can see that the surface gets roughed up pretty good (but obviously it's still smooth to the touch). Then I use some paint thinner and a paper towel to wipe the surface down. I wipe it several times (is that necessary?) until the paper towel is relatively free of residue. Then I used the sewn cotton wheel with the brown compound. I can see that the majority of the scratches from the sisal wheel go away but the improvement comes to a halt and there are still many scratches left. Even if I buff for a few minutes it does not make any difference. I'm assuming that by the time I get to the brown compound I should not be seeing ANY scratches. Is that correct?


* That's another thing, I don't have any clean wheels or any means to clean the wheel (does soap and water work?) so I had to stick with my sisal wheel with the black compound instead of using a clean sewn cotton wheel for the black compound.