Todd I'd say just cut out 105 all together. Unless you really need it it's just possible to use 205 with 2, even 3 different pads to do everything from correction to polishing.
That being said, with soft paint 205 will NOT finish down without hazing/micro-marring quite often. Try Megs UP as it'll work longer and is a bit finer. And of course green, blue, even black pads if needed.
Along those lines, try switching to a DAT polishing compound. Menz products are one that a lot of guy go to because they want the diminishing abrasives. Keep in mind though that it's a totally different work cycle / work flow with non-diminishing versus diminishing. Megs M80 is a great diminishing product that will work down really nicely as will M83 (really old school that one).
For me, I've tried to (over the last few years) work with SMAT products as much as possible. I feel that (SMAT) non-diminishing abrasive products tend to produce more consistent results throughout the working period.
That doesn't mean that you can't get into trouble with them either. Probably easier to over do it in fact. But, there are risks with using diminishing abrasive (DAT) products, too. Polish too long with M105 and it cab take off an excessive amount of paint (with an aggressive pad) but moreover the paint and material that surrounds the abrasive particles fills your pad(s) and can cause even more marring.
Can you do the same thing with a diminishing abrasive product? You betcha'! The point being that you can have problems with any product pad combination that contains an abrasive and cutting properties.
I like SMAT because you can stop at any point in the buffing cycle. With a DAT product, you can stop too early in the cycle and the paint will not look as good as with SMAT would being worked the same amount of time, (as far as overall cutting goes) but because the abrasives have not properly broken down it (DAT products) hasn't started to show how they work yet. It just takes more working time, although they can (and often do) finish down better. Also, diminishing abrasives break down randomly. This means that you could be close to the end of the polishing cycle, yet some of the abrasive particles may not be at the same stage as others.
There is a place for both, even these days when we have literally hundreds of choices. The key is to work with one type of product and as many different pads as you can so you can get a better idea of what all it's capable of.
SMAT or DAT; both take their own time and work in totally different ways, but can both be used on the same job to attain your ultimate goal(s). Often if you're having hazing/marring problems when working with SMAT products for both compounding and polishing you can switch to DAT polishes and it'll help, just remember to work it down longer and change up the speed and pressure at the end from what you may have been doing with the SMAT product. (For instance, the last pass you can turn up the speed and really go light on the arm pressure to finish it down a bit better.)
What is so freaking confusing however is trying to switch from one to another. Just as confusing as working on one type of paint with one vehicle and the next one is totally different. It'd be great if everything was hard as it could be and there was only a hand full of products. If only we could be so lucky! :laughing:
Of course ymmv and most often does.
