thanks amateur painter and ritualsin, I appreciate your feedback.Han suggested 800 , but I think for my skill level or lack thereof I should take a less aggressive approach and spend the extra time sanding. I could go less aggressive w/ 1500 and see where it leads . this is not a sprint but a marathon , dont want to burn through or ruin what I have done so far .I am going to let the machine do the work . I am going to do some test sanding on trunk deck and see what happens , but I am doing 1500 with a Mikita 9227 that just arrived today , so I have some learnin to do on it . When I am confident that I am ready to roll I will go for it . Ijust got the 3M system today at the local Paint World for 99.00 bucks and am ready to explore . I never thought this was going to be this much work OR this much fun Thanks