Mike: Am I correct in my thinking that I should be first going for gloss enhancement and not so much correction? That is how I feel.
Gloss enhancement is a positive byproduct from bring life back to the paint, that is gorging it with the oils which restores the vibrant color and removing some of the dead, oxidized paint which smooths the surface over as well as clarifies it.
The paint has cracking and also some scratches that I do not feel would be beneficial to go after.
Lacquer Cracking or Crows Feet.
Leave it alone. The cracks run throughout the layer of paint, abrading the surface just reveals more of the crack, it won't remove it so just polish the surface and that's the safe route.
I think a really good polish and a good coat of high end wax will be more than sufficient to make the customer happy. I do have some chrome to polish as well.
HUMP
That's what I would do. After the #7 machine polish with a light or fine cut polish and a foam pad. Be careful to avoid instilling Tiger Stripes.
There are two kinds of Tiger Stripes, the kind that a painter puts in and the kind a detailer puts in.
With single stage paint, if you abrade the paint unevenly, you can actually leave trails or stripes in the paint that mimic where you ran a buffer more in some areas than other areas.
Metallic single stage paints are very easy to tiger stripe with rotary buffer but you can also do it with single stage paints.
Just keep the buffer moving and overlap your passes and it should be an issue.
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