Originally Posted by Ricky Bobby

Junger,

you will NOT burn the paint with a random orbital, its impossible to do. The pad will stop rotating before you have a chance to, that is the beauty of orbitals is that they have the power to correct but since they are not forced rotation they will not burn paint if left in the spot too long or too much pressure is on the pad (with enough downward force the pad will stop, unlike a rotary)

For light swirls and a deep shine I would pick up either the Sonax 4/6 or the SF4000 and both the Orange and Green pad, start with green and make a pass and if you don't get your desired results then go to Orange.

However, FG400 although its a compound will not "take off too much paint" but is sometimes needed to get more effective cutting action. To take off enough clearcoat you'd have to be doing some heavy duty compounding with a wool pad on an orbital, and since Menzerna polishes use SMAT abrasives, the abrasives break down and won't cut any further when broken down. Which is why I recommend Menzerna polishes for a beginner/intermediate as opposed to the Pro line Meguiar's polishes like M105 and M101/100, because Meg's uses DAT abrasives, which don't break down, so you could be continually abrading paint as long as your machine it on.

For example I had some really stubborn water spots in the paint from winter, I made a pass with Sonax 4/6 and an Orange pad and they were about 50% better, but still there. I made one pass with MF cutting pad and FG400 and they were GONE.

You may want to pick up a bottle of FG400 and some MF cutting pads in case you have some heavier isolated defect areas to correct which might not come out with a medium finishing polish. However without seeing your car I couldn't say. In my example above, the one pass I made with FG400 and an MF cutting pad would have taken me 4-5 passes or more with Sonax 4/6 and an Orange pad. Same results just less time.


Point is always start with the least aggressive method regardless to tackle defects, but I like to have the option of going more aggressive if needed.