I have painted a 30 year old BMW motorcycle with DuPont ChromaBase and ChromaClear. Color is the bright yellow found on a modern VW Beetle. I'm not getting the gloss I would like using 3M Finesse products (05928 and 06068) and Meguiar's 26 wax. The parts are OK but I think they could have more gloss. Today I sanded (1500) light orange peel and rubbed out the front fender by hand because there are just too many edges where I'm concerned the clear would break through. Do I need to use different compounds for hand work? A bigger question; would different compounds yield a better gloss on parts like the tank?

Use the same products for buffing by hand. Tough to answer that last question...if you are using professional body shop products versus cheap consumer stuff you should be ok.

Thanks. I only use products from an automotive paint supply like PPG or DuPont. The 3M products I mentioned are quart sizes of their professional grade stuff. It's expensive to try several brands. I've seen several recommendations here for Meguiar's 105 and 205 so I may try them when my current supply is gone. The money is not that much to me if I think another product will make the end result better.

I'm in the same boat. Motorcycle parts. How did the hand buffing come out? You were able to get rid of 1500 scratches?

Yes, they came out easily enough. I used little round pad applicators and swapped them out for the two different "grits" of polish. I'm not polishing the areas that are difficult to see. For example the front fender is front and center but only about 60% of it is behind the forks.

I sanded through a spot on each little side cover so those will need more base and clear. Motorcycle parts present a different set of problems due to small areas sandwiched between ridges or edges. I've painted a lot of bikes over the years but this is my first go with base/clear. I see the many pluses but lacquer was so simple.