advice for really bad etching

[larrymichii]

as you can see in the picture it's bad. this is after decontamination. I used d300. it looked on for a day or two and then looked like that again after whatever fillers wore out. you could still see little pits and some outlines of the water marks after d300 with mf pads on a da. tried m300 still see little dots/pits afterwards. word with ipa to try and see the true state of the paint. I'm not optimistic what it will kook like in a day. question should I try something like m105 or move straight to a foam block and trizact 3000

any advice greatly appreciated

[Old Bear]

My thoughts are it would be ideal to use the least aggressive method to get to the desired results.
So I would next do a test spot with M105, M100 or M110 (a bit more user friendly).
My clear on the 1970 El Camino (11 year old paint) is very hard and we created test spots with one of that set.
We then moved a bit more aggressive by using 3 inch backing pad, 3 " Extra Cut Microfiber Pad, and added a bit slower arm speed.

Try those test pads before moving up to sanding.

[Old Bear]

I should expand a little bit more.
My thoughts would be to do multiple test spots.
Possibly start as you suggest with a more aggressive compound, on the first test spot.
If we are not yet getting the results, possibly move to the 3 inch backing and stay with the same mix of tools (arm speed, passes, compound, tool speed etc) for that next test spot.
If still not getting the results, for the next test spot might, we might choose to use the thinner microfiber ultracut pads on the 3 inch backing plate.

Michael Stoops does a great job in this video, explaining the value of test spots.

[Brenan Jiran]

For severe etching like that, moving to a more aggressive approach might be necessary if you've already tried D300 and M300 without satisfactory results. M105 paired with a cutting pad can sometimes reduce the appearance of deeper imperfections, but it sounds like you may need to consider wet sanding with Trizact 3000 if the etching is particularly severe. Make sure to test in a small, inconspicuous area first to gauge how much material you're removing and how the paint reacts.