Fixing Paint Scratches and Trail Pin-striping

Give the car a proper two-bucket wash. You need to get every bit of dirt and dust off. If you leave one grain of red dust on there and hit it with a polisher, you're basically using a rock to sand your car.

Use an iron fallout remover if you've got one, then use your clay bar. Run your hand over the paint (inside a plastic baggie is a pro trick), if it feels like sandpaper, keep claying until it's smooth as glass.

Use a big microfibre drying towel. Water hiding in window seals will drip out and mess with your polish, so use a leaf blower if you've got one to get it out of the cracks.

Cover every bit of black plastic trim, rubber weatherstripping, and badges near the working area. Trust me, getting dried polish off textured plastic is a nightmare you don't want.

Pull the car into the garage or under a decent carport. Never do this in direct sunlight. Use your LED light to mark out the areas that need the most work.

Put 4-5 pea-sized dots of cutting compound on your foam cutting pad. Smear it around with your finger so the whole surface has a tiny bit of product.

Before turning the machine on, dab the pad across a 50cm x 50cm section of the panel. This prevents 'sling' (polish flying everywhere).

Start the DA polisher on a low setting (speed 1 or 2) to spread the product evenly over the work area.

Turn the speed up to 4 or 5. Apply moderate downward pressure, enough to slow the pad rotation slightly, but not stop it.

Move the polisher in slow, overlapping passes. Go horizontally, then vertically. Move at a rate of about 2-3cm per second.

Touch the panel occasionally. In Aussie summers, the metal can get hot fast. If it's too hot to keep your hand on, stop and let it cool.

After 4-6 passes, stop the machine. Use a clean microfibre towel to wipe away the residue.

Spray your IPA mix on the area and wipe. This removes the 'fillers' in the polish that might be hiding the scratch instead of actually removing it.

Use your LED light. Is the scratch gone? If not, repeat the cutting process. If it's gone but the paint looks a bit hazy, that's normal, that's 'micromarring'.

Swap to your softer finishing pad and the fine polish. This is where the magic happens and that deep gloss comes back.

Use the same overlapping pass technique with the fine polish, but with less downward pressure and maybe a slightly lower speed.

Wipe off the polish with a fresh towel. The paint should now look like a pool of ink.

If you're moving to another section, use a brush or compressed air to clean the spent polish and dead paint out of your pad.

Carefully pull off your masking tape at a 45-degree angle to ensure no adhesive stays behind.

Take the car out into the sun (briefly!) to check for any spots you missed from different angles.