I've got a few scratches and swirl marks on my paint so I was planning to machine polish it. It's in 2k paint and what's the best cutting compound to use?
It's a dark grey car. I have been looking at cutting compounds and there are so meny around so I was wondering what people would recommend?

Cheers

 

Don't cut it as an amateur, no offense.

Use a non abrasive like p21s

 

Oh ok, I was looking at the autoglym paint renovator maybe?

 

2000 sandpaper to take scratches out, g3 the whole car use a bit more pressure to bring the shine back up where you sanded out the scratches, then g10 the whole car then a finnesse if you wanted to, then give the car a good polish, that will sort out the scratches and swirl marks mate but as said above it's probably not a job for a novice, again no offence lol, cheers

 

I've done buffing/machine polishing before as I'm doing it as a apprentice, I just wanted to know what the best compound was to use and different opinions on different products.

 

Stop right there before someone strikes through or burns through their paint with that advice . No offence pal but its a dangerous approach , and anyway finnesing /compounding is a form of polishing . Polishing and compounding with no idea of paint levels/hardness can be costly and dangerous in the wrong hands .

OP- You may not need a compound especially if machine polishing to correct the defects , a meduim polish/compound and pad could be enough .
whats your polishing combo, da or rotary? What pads and polishes can you use?
Any pics mate?

 

I used a Clarke da sander before with a very soft foam pad I got from halfords I use with g3 on my car, but the other car is a 56 plate.
Ive recently bought a proper buffer/angle grinder/sander with a hook and loop foam pad on it. I've used the autoglym paint renovator I thought that was quite good but I used it on cellulose paint.

 

A DA with G3 and a soft cutting pad isnt ideal usually . The DA machine ossilates on its own axis therefore never rotating on the same point twice per revolution. This gives less cut and for a reason but when compounding (heavy cut polishes)generealy you want a meduim to heavy cut foam pad/wool pads with a rotary machine. They cut much faster making sure the compounds break down enough to fulfill their job instead pushing them around and not getting much if any improvement. You can make it worse in this scenario its known as micromarring , pigtails in the surface where a DA just pushes the particles around marking the surface.
Always start at the light cut end of combo,s working your way up until you find enough correction your happy with. 100% true full correction is extremely hard to achieve and can consist of various stages of refining .
Remember that compounding and polishing can and will leave its own marks until you get to jewling or refining same thing.
It can be a minefield put the kettle on goto DW polishing guides they are very good well worth a read.

Just noticed your very close to me , pop round one day i can take a look for you .