For the very lucky few, or those with the use of a professional spray booth with filtered air input, all that may be required after spraying will be a quick once round with a fine hand-glaze polish to bring out that deep, dazzling gloss.
For the rest of us, here's what comes next.
Compounding can be carried out by hand, but the use of an air or electric powered buffing machine will save hours of hard work. Avoid prolonged rubbing in one spot, or along edges or pressed creases in panels, as it is surprisingly easy to take all the paint off. Users with a power polisher will also need to take care that the machine is kept moving constantly, otherwise heat generated can melt, damage or change the colour of the paint. Judicious use of a hand-spray containing water helps to keep polishing heads cool and damp.
Compound, as it is generally known by the trade, is an abrasive paste available in various grades, from very coarse (flatting paste) through medium, to fine and ultra fine. All work by removing a very thin layer of paint, coarser grades work faster but leave visible scour marks, whereas fine grades remove very little but leave the surface glossy. Depending on make, they can be water or solvent based, liquid or paste. For use on new or recent paintwork, only medium grades upwards would be used. Coarse grades are more appropriate for rapid paint or surface restoration in skilled hands.
Polish is more generally used to describe final surface treatments such as wax or silicone, but the term becomes interchangeable, with `polishing' and `compounding' tending to mean the same thing to bodyshop staff
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