Sprayed my first ever clearcoat today and it turned out really good, very minimal orange peel, nice reflective finish. I wet sanded with 2000 to remove a few bugs and alittle dust. Here is where things went wrong, I then used some Mequiars Fine Cut cleaner with the Porter Cable and a red cutting pad in hopes of removing some minor sanding scratches, a few scrathes still remain but even worse I now have a haze over most of the finish, I'm guessing I used the wrong compound. I'm open to any and all suggestions on the steps and products I should be using.

Did you say Porter Cable there??? Would that be as in a random orbit machine? You need a rotary machine for cut and buff work. I'm not saying it's impossible to bring up the sheen with a random orbit but it takes a lot more skill, knowledge, and just plain old trial and error with compounds and polishes. With a rotary it would be more like take a medium grit compound on a wool pad and up comes the shine. Finish up with a fine foam pad and finessesing compound and you'd be about done. Almost no one at this forum uses those type of machines for anything execpt light finish maintenance. Even most of the detail guys here use rotaries.

You shot it today and also sanded and buffed it ?

How long did you wait to start with the buffing? What was the temperature?

I shot it around noon, temp around 82. Let it sit in full sun for 8 hours, the clear was very hard at this point. The tech sheet says anywhere from 6 to 10 hours for air drying before final buff.

So I will try the buffer with a wool pad and see how that goes, thanks guys.

"the porter cable" is not something you should be cutting with. The $39 Harbor freight buffer is a piece of junk but it works pretty well if you don't have anything else (I have one). It gets really hot after running it for a while and you have no idea how many rpm's it is turning, but it has enough power to wing an 8.5" wool pad around

As pointed out you need the rotary.. Also worth mention.. Do not set your fresh clear in the sun until it has air dried inside your booth or garage for 8 hours.. That is a safe time for most all clears.. I know of some you can put out sooner, but it is really better to let the solvents come out as they are intended to do by the manufacture

Shoving your freshly cleared panel out in the sun can cause die back and solvent pop.. Its a good way to have to re do something.. Sounds like you got away with it this time, I would strongly suggest you not continue to do this in the future with things you spray

Yeah, BondoKing, I was wondering how he avoided solvent pop on that, too. One of my neighbors did the sun thing the same way and got solvent pop out the wazoo. Heat and UV push those deep solvents in the clear way too fast out of the curing film. I usually shoot at night and get some sun on the car later the next day, sooo.... yeah, that's about right I'm going into the sun with it at 8 to 12 hours after sitting in the garage.

Thanks for all the tips folks, I got some megs #4 and a wool pad and it gave me a beautiful finish, and thats with the porter cable. I'm sure it took a bit longer than the rotary would have but I am very pleased with the results. Will do the swirl remover tomorrow and it should be good to go. As for placing it in the sun I let it sit inside for about 2 hours first. I'm really impressed with the results of the Nason products as well, it gave this newbie some fantastic results!

PC with a wool pad. Interesting. Try wiping down the finish with straight alcohol to see if any of the marring was masked with Meg's oils.