Hello, Thank you for reading my message. I have a question. I have purchased a porter cable DA (7424). I have purchased a backing plate and several cutting pads (orange for compounding, white for polishing, black for wax). My question is about potential dangers. Is there any danger of burning through the clear coat? If I do need to compound, Am I supposed to steer clear of sides etc, since I have heard that apparently the paint is thinner in these locations? I just want to make sure I get the job done safely. I heard the DA is pretty safe. My compound, polish and wax are all mcguiar's (ultimate compound, ultimate polish and wax). My pads are the hex kind which I ordered from Chemical guys. In all honesty, I would like to be clay, sand with 2000, 2500 and then 3000, compound, polish and wax but at this point, since I am a biginner, I don't want to risk any damage to the clear coat or even the paint. If you have any advice, please get back to me as soon as possible as I have a few cars I have to start working on right away. Thanks, Amir
I suggest staying away from sanding all together since you are so worried about burning through the clear. Maybe someone else could answer your question on compounding and polishing the paint.
I wouldn't wet sand unless you really have too. If you are only using a porter cable you will be fine with the compound and polishes you have. One rule of thumb is to do a test spot using the least aggressive method first and see how it looks and go from there. If you can get the paint looking good with a finer pad/polish combo then there is no point doing a multi step process. Plus the porter cable is great, but it would take you a couple days to do a multi step process with it. I wouldn't worry about burning the paint with a porter cable, and you will be fine using compound on the sides as well
