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I'm having some grief color sanding wet with a DA, the paper is sucking down so hard on the panel it pulls off the DA. Given the condition my back is in I'm not a fan of doing the whole thing by hand. Doing it dry would alleviate this issue but I've never done it that way, have any of you tried that? I'd be starting with 1500 so nothing insanely coarse. Thanks for any feedback.

Dry will let you see your progress easier as well.
I use a 1/2" thick pad with hook and loop discs. You will need to exercise care around body lines and door edges.

Thanks, I'm happy to hear that it is done that way by others. It would definitely cut it down faster and what you see is right in front of you. I always tape edges before sanding or buffing initially, learned that the hard way a long time ago.

I do all my color sanding dry, I use the 3M purple discs, they seem to
last the longest but it does take more discs doing it dry instead of wet.
I usually start with 1500 then 2000.
Most times I like to follow with 3000 grit Abralon pads.
Those Abralon work real nice, wet or dry.

I've been trying the abralon pads, 2000, 3000 and just got a few 4000. I like them. Also tried the trizact ones, they're good as well. Trying to figure out what the best speed to set my DA. I think I have it too low. I'll post a separate thread.

I find that keeping the rpms down on the DA seems to work better for me. No pig tails.
Not super slow but just not too fast.

Yeah, another tip with dry is keep a close eye on inspecting your paper. You get more debris/crud build up with dry methods. I also keep pieces of used same grit papers handy to lightly clean off my paper that is on the machine. As said, you have to play around with speed to hit that sweet spot for best sanding. It's funny this comes up about the dry thing....I find myself doing more dry sanding now....

I start dry and go wet at 2000 and above. I think I need to bump up the speed of the DA closer to half speed perhaps. Really having a hard time getting the scratches out. I used to use DuPont Chroma Premier but they don't make it anymore. It was great stuff, flowed out great, no runs and easy to cut and buff. I use Valspar now, runs easy, trash sinks low into it and as mentioned getting sanding scratches out is brutal.

Sounds like you are describing a lower solids clear than what you were using. Might be worth some time shopping for a new clear. Is the Tamco line available in Canada? I've liked both their Universal and Euro Clears.

A random orbit works much better than a DA, and run it at
about half speed. Less heat, less pig tails and the paper lasts longer.
DA's spin to fast.