I'm a moron, please help me (I think I ruined my paint)

[jmead]

How should I go about sanding? The way I tried first is by following a path (say all the way from the top of the hood to the bottom, and then back up) overlapping a little each time so I made sure to take the same amount of paint off of each section. This seemed to work ok, but after some polishing with the 3m compound there seem to be some vertical streaks left behind. Should I use a circular motion? Just random movements? Or should I invest in a nice compressor and dual action sander and go that route? (if I were to do that, where could I get 1500 and 2000 grit paper to fit the disc?).

 

It looks a little better, but I didn't take enough paint off when I tried the first time. I was being carefull not to take too much, looks like I was too cautious. There are still some pretty deep scratches. I'm going to give it another shot with some fresh paper. I also think I need to use something inbetween the sand paper and 3m polishing compound, I'll try some rubbing compound this time.

 

And it also seems I've got some swirls left after the polishing. What can I do to avoid this? The poloshing compound is supposed to be applied in an overlapping, circular motion.

[Guest bigjim240z]

no way..do not use a da sander or any sander, use your hand, and a thin rubber block. dont sand to much on the edges either, you could go through the paint. sand it lightly with alot of water till the paint looks dull and smooth. then hit it with your buffer, buff in left to right or right to left motion. after buffing with a cutting compound, move and and do the whole car again with a glazing compund. if you are not too good at this you might want to have it done by a body shop..i would help ya, but im 3k miles away. good luck.