Umm.... gents..... he said he wanted the make the paint look "better". I didn't read that to be "perfect" by any stretch so suggesting wet sanding is a bit much. I'm not complaining nor trying to be a pain; just trying to bring us back to the original poster's center and focus on what he wants.
Like I said before:
"I would be hesitant to try to remove all of the defects with it unless I knew the paint was thick enough, though. I would shoot for big improvement when in doubt."
The only way to get that severe texture out is to level the paint, and the quickest way to do that is to wet sand. Using 3000 grit paper carefully really isn't that big of a deal. You also don't need to sand the defects out COMPLETELY to make a big improvement. Sanding out half the texture down would be a huge improvement, without going for perfection, in a short amount of time.
Shooting for perfection by trying to sand ALL of the defects out is a totally different situation. As long as the deepest cut that the paper makes does not cut the deepest valleys of the paint, any particularly deep cuts by the paper will be smoothed out by the polishing, and I contend that the overall look will be improved, without causing excessive damage. I believe a partial sanding combined with a buffing will yield better results in a shorter time than by attempting to smooth it down by buffing alone.
Besides, the buffing pad is flexible and conforms to the overall shape of the panel. That means that while using the buffer to try to subdue those high spots, the surrounding area will be made unnecessarily thin. If you sand, you can carefully control the area you areworking on to only eliminate the really bad spots in a certain area without unduly thinning the surrounding paint.
It's sort of like putting a lot of pressure on a buffer to get the flatter area and inadvertently buffing through an edge, when you use a buffer alone to take down high spots. I would rather control how much material I need to remove, where I want to remove it as much as possible, and that means working by hand, with some wet and dry.
Would you use a buffer to remove a nib in the paint, or would you take a piece of sandpaper and sand JUST that little nib down, to match the level of the surrounding paint?
If you still disagree with me, that's ok. If someone isn't totally comfortable wet sanding, they shouldn't.
Just to reiterate though, always use the least aggressive methods first.
