Compound is an abrasive. Your not spreading paint around but rather "sanding" down fine scratches with it.
You can get them in different grits depending on how bad the imperfection is. I used a Fine-cut abrasive on my Intrigue. I always start with the finest abrasive first before moving to something stronger.
After the compound is used you need to follow it with swirl remover as there will be a lot of tiny scratches left.
To do this you will need a rotary buffer. By hand just won't work.
You also have to know when to stop as you can burn right through the paint if your not careful. Take a look at the scratch and if it is down to primer then you have no choice to paint the car or just live with the touch up paint.
85cieraholiday wrote:
Compound takes the paint around the scratch and makes it almost wet again so that you can spred it a little into the scratch. Im sure that another member could explain it better.