The patchyness is the aggressiveness of the compounds you used. You,ll never replicate a machine by hand ovbiously so the compounds aren't being broken down enough to cut at its optimum. Your just dragging the cutting particles across the surface adding to the hazey finish it will leave anyway.
It sounds like she needs a DA or rotary to get the job done, in an ideal world you would start with the least aggressive method and work your way up in pad/polish combination.
Without seeing the vehicle i,d still bet on a meduim compound/polish would correct it and get the full depth back and finish down the scale of refining. Be very careful if you use the rotary with your compounds.