What polish/compound to restore black paint?

[ps2cho]

I am prepping my paint to put a ceramic coating on it. It is non-metallic 040 black and after 150k miles, it has quite a lot of water marks, swirls, scratches etc as shown below:

I currently only have Scratch X, however a couple passes with my DA polisher did not seem to get much of the light scratches out, so prior to buying anything else, I wanted to ask for recommendations on what compound to recommend?

I'm not expecting show car condition, but I'd like to get it as good as one can expect. How aggressive would you recommend I go on this?

I had M83 in my amazon cart, but questioning if I need something heavier.

[The Guz]

Re: What polish/compound to restore black paint?

What pads were you using? Foam or microfiber?

[ps2cho]

Re: What polish/compound to restore black paint?

What pads were you using? Foam or microfiber?

I used foam pad.

Upon closer inspection, the top of the paint has tons of tiny dots, I can't tell if its clear coat, or its just 12 years and 150k miles worth of road debris chipping the paint.

[The Guz]

Re: What polish/compound to restore black paint?

It is hard to tell without actually seeing the paint in person. If it is those little white dots, it could be chips.

If you want more cut then step up to a microfiber pad. In terms of products you have the option of getting ultimate compound and ultimate polish or M205 locally. If you want to order products online then the new M110 and M210 are nice.

[tomsteve]

Re: What polish/compound to restore black paint?

start with a clay bar. M100 is another option. ive used it with orange lake country pads on a DA. prefer rotary and twisted wool pad for it as thats quicker but the m100 and orange pad works real good-just takes a bit longer.

[ps2cho]

Re: What polish/compound to restore black paint?

So I found my local autozone carried the M105 compound so I stopped by and picked it up. With my orange hex CG foam pad it took out the remaining swirls that the UC didn't seem to be able to.

The little dots were also on the trunk lid as well, but even after running with the M105, they still remained. Its already 50x better than it was, so I may decide to leave it at that. May just be the Phoenix sun taking its toll on the clear coat and I don't want to risk burning through it.

Its only noticeable from 12" away...