Who knows, maybe the paint was in worse condition than the pictures show. Maybe the OP won't need that sort of treatment. He did say only light swirls. Either way, he probably needs to get something stronger than 80.

Only thing local I can think of, though I haven't used it, would be Meg's Ultimate Compound from Walmart. It's supposed to be less abrasive than 105, right? Does it finish the same?

 

I haven't used it yet but you're correct in it being less aggressive. I Can't say for how it finishes.

 

Corvette clear is hard, but it's not THAT hard.
I'd like to know more about this guys process

I'd go with 105 on a da with the kb method of 105

80 isn't going to touch it though.. 83 might put a dent in it but not much imo.

I have ultimate compound too, it's supposed to finish decent as well. I haven't used it yet

 

Thanks for the help guys... #80 did a LITTLE after I worked it in, and added some water about half way through... I am going to order #105 and #205 though...

Is the #105 good for our Ford Paint as well when finished up with #205?

 

80 uses diminishing abrasives. Adding water really shouldn't do anything for it because the abrasives are already broken down by the time you need water. Either that or you're doing too large of an area and it's drying on you before you're finished working it.

105 is fine on Ford paint. Sometimes you can get it to finish down to LSP ready. Sometimes you need to follow it up with a finishing polish like 205. Just keep in mind that 105 is a compound and you should treat it as such. It's very abrasive so you only want to use it when it's needed. Anytime you are using an abrasive polish you are removing/leveling the clear. There is only so much clear. You don't want to remove more than necessary. Hence using the least aggressive method to achieve the desired results.

 

Should i try #80 with a differnt pad with a little more bite? I used a Meguiars Yellow pad...should I try it with say a LC Orange 6" pad?

 

You can try it on a test spot and see if you notice a difference. I've never used any Meg's pads so I can't begin to compare them to LC pads. Sorry. If you don't have anything stronger to go to right now like 83 or stronger, then I would definitely give the orange pad a shot. Even if the more aggressive pad leaves some hazing behind, you could always go back over that with the polishing pad again to remove those.

 

The unfortunate thing that is going to happen though is that #83 on a higher cut pad will likely lightly haze the clear as it doesn't finish out all that well on a hard clear coat... you will likely have to step back to your original process to remove a bit of the problems that using the more aggressive combo will cause...

I worked on a black Firebird last summer than almost drove me to drink using #80... a step over to #105 solved my problems (and the paint on this thing was nearly impossible to work on -- I didn't get it A++ but, I did get it to a solid A -- there were just a few problems that I absolutely couldn't seem to correct or, if I corrected it, I introduced a light haze or another problem that caused me to go another route to correct it -- and then it happened again)...

My point... perfection is achievable but, it may be a beast to get... Be patient.