Background:

Hi everyone! This is my first time attempting to correct / polish a vehicle. The vehicle is a 2018 RDX and the paint is black. I did some test panels and I'm not sure how to proceed. I'm wanting to tap into the wisdom on this board before proceeding.

Here is the paint condition BEFORE: Imgur: The magic of the Internet


Tools:

* Griots G9
* Griots black finishing pad
* Griots Perfecting cream

Process:

The car was first washed, iron x-ed, and clayed.

I started with the least aggressive combination in a test spot:

* Perfecting cream
* black pad
* speed 3
* 3 passes - slow speed and trying to keep as even of pressure as possible.
* IPA wipe.

The result in the garage looked great: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

I roll the car outside and it looks amazing...at first :Imgur: The magic of the Internet

Then I start bobbing my head around to reflect sun light at various angles and see TONS of micro marring. It almost looks like wax applied too thick. Re-IPA wipe. No Change. I pulled it back into the garage and did a couple more passes. Same result - micro marring everywhere.

Micro Marring: Imgur: The magic of the Internet

My question(s):

What does this look like to you all?

1. Could it be deeper preexisting scratches and I need to go more aggressive? I'm doubting it since they are so fine and the second round of passes did nothing.

2) Could the Acura black paint be SO SOFT that the black pad and perfecting cream are marring up the paint as a I go? The scratches are not visible with an inspection light straight on and did not improve with another round of passes. What could I try that is even less aggressive to see if it cleans this up?

3) If 2) is true - could my panel wipe technique be marring the paint? I'm spraying down with a 10-15% IPA solution and wiping. Is there a more gentle way to do this? Can anyone suggest towels for delicate paint (assuming this is the issue)?

Looking for some wisdom on steps to troubleshoot! Thanks!