careful with a buffer, you could do more damage than good. Ive seen people actually take the paint completely off and i'd rather have swirls than bare spots.
Actually, that's not entirely true. The buffer suggested here is a Porter Cable 7424 random orbital buffer, which will NOT harm your paint (unless you deliberatly try to by holding the pad in the same place for 20 minutes, even then it's extremely hard). They don't generate the heat that a rotory buffer does. Rotarys are the ones your probably talking about and need to be a lot more careful with, and if you've never used a rotary, you shouldn't be practicing on your car, rather a junk hood or something. I've been using the 7424 with Lake Country CCS pads for quite a while now and it's been working unbelievably. You should see what an orange pad with Poorboy's SSR 2 (super swirl remover) did to my dad's swirl-ridden red Audi TT. It did a great job on mine as well. I have a few deeper scratches that I need to go over again, but it got rid of all of the smaller ones on the first pass. Here's a not so great pic of mine after a pass of Polish W/Carnauba with a white foam pad then a coat of Optimum Opti-Seal...
Again, it's not the best pic, but it shines like you wouldn't believe.
To the original poster, I think it has to do with the product used and possibly the type of buffer. What type of pad is on the buffer? Are the speeds adjustable? Is the product strictly a polish? Like everyone's said, there is tons of great information out there. Another good place to look would be
www.autopia.org, but can be a little daunting trying to sort through all of the posts.
On a side note, I've been using Poorboys' products for a while now and love them. I have been wanting to branch out and try some others though just to see what all everything is capable of. I can tell you that I'm in love with Poorboy's Natty's Paste Wax "Blue", that stuff is literally the easiest to apply and remove wax I've ever used in my life, and I've tried a ton of them (IMO)!
