I was afraid of paint. Now I'm not! But still need help...

[bmwtmx]

My car has literally dozens of red touch-up marks all over from the previous owner. They annoy me to no end as they aren't the correct color of the car and they all sit on top of the paint as he just had no business doing this work.

The worst offending part is the hood and I had it looked at a few times and each guy said nobody would do the work to sand it down properly so I should repaint. Well I decided to it.

I bought 3M Microfine soft sponge sanding pads and wet sanded the hood. There were some areas of serious digging into the paint as I think the previous owner thought he could sand them out with maybe 500 grit paper.

Anyways, I did this, then used polishing compound, polish, wax and the difference is incredible. However, there are still some fine scratches here and there from sanding.

Is the best method to remove these to use rubbing compound, polishing compound, polish wax OR use 2000 or 3000 grit paper, wet sand, then polishing compound, polish, wax?

My concern is wet sanding with paper as I don't know what type of block to use that is as flexible as the 3M stuff.

Would love to troubleshoot this here rather than the car.

[carl135i]

Try the 3000 and follow up with some real fine polish to see if that gets it. Since you have already sanded some paint off I would be very conservative. Go to an autobody supply store and check out the selection of rubber blocks they have. You will want to use one of these to back up the paper. They have thin ones that will be plenty flexible but firm enough so that you will get even sanding. Actually better yet, bring your car and see if the supply store can provide some recommendations on correct process to remove the fine scratches. A professional should see the car so they can make the best recommendation. Alternately you can check with a detail supply house if there is one near you. They will recommend the correct sequence of products, including the correct foam/ wool pads to use to get the best results.

[bmwtmx]

Thanks. Strangely enough I used to detail cars for Porsche in 1986-1987. The head guy there was amazing but I don't remember much. I did a pretty respectable job so far but the fine scratches driving me nuts. And for some reason they not all over....just here and there.