That’s exactly what I did with my first da - got a scabby panel and tried to damage the paint
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Sent Max and Minty my idiots guide, any questions on it just tag me here and I’ll do my best to answer.
With a dual action machine, so long as you always have it slowly on the move and you’re not using stupidly harsh products you should be fine without a scrap test panel - maybe watch some videos first from someone like Forensic Detailing on YouTube he’ll give you a feel for it?
When you’re polishing in to corners like the number plate surround ensure the backing plate edges don’t contact the body at all because that will cause damage. The other thing to watch for is heat buildup in the pad and panel, particularly on sunny days, but it’s more likely to damage your pads than the paint (I know this from experience 
a bit of heat in the paint is no bad thing since it can help the paint kinda “flow” but if you go stupid in one place there’s a small risk you could burn the paint). Oh and mask up your plastic trim first because polished rammed into the grain is a pig to get out!
I second Benji’s recommendation the DAS 6 Pro has a very good reputation as an beginners machine, although they’re not as cheap as a Katsu 850w. Just be wary they’re all bloody noisy (like a mains powered drill) so you might annoy the neighbours and you’ll want some headphones in. Oh and a stool too, if you want any back and knees left after doing the lower areas!
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A combination of a low car and paint made of Lurpak. Modern water based paint is generally not as hardy, but Japanese paint is known for being very soft and Soul Red even more so; some of my chips are almost “smudges”. I swear if I look at the car too hard it gets scratches. My sills are well past saving, they’d need a full respray now. Decent mudflaps will help a lot with the cills but for the front the only answer is expensive paint protection film (PPF).
My Ibiza had issues with stone chips too, German paint is rather hard so that tended to come in big clean chips when it let go.
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I actually find the v2 to be faaaar quieter than the v1, but then again I work as an engineer in a manufacturing plant so constant deafening noise isn’t anything new to me 
The chemical guys detailing lessons on yt are what I initially poured myself over - that and their cleaning order diagram are definitely worth following
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I love washing and attempting to detail my cars. Yes please to the big idiots guide.
From
a big idiot
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Yes please to the idiots guide, I’m always up for more learning 
A quick thank you for the guide. I don’t feel like such a big idiot anymore.
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+1 For The Big Idiots Guide please
Please may I have a copy of your idiots guide.
Regards
chickster
I’d also love a copy of the big idiots guide please. It’ll be a couple of years before I get to put it to serious use though as I expect the renovation of my mx5 to take that long 
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Petition to make the idiots guide public since everyone wants it
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I had no idea it would prove so popular, I thought it’d just be a big boring wall of my ramblings that’d clutter the forums! Until now I’ve only ever e-mailed it to a handful of friends who wanted detailing advice. I’ll need to spend some time when I get a moment to make the formatting suit these forums and and find reputable replacements for some of the discontinued products it mentions. The killer is polishing by hand (proper polishing, not AIO fillers!), my go to P1 Nano is about empty and GTechniq don’t make it any more.
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“I thought it’d just be a big boring wall of my ramblings that’d clutter the forums!” - laughs in ridiculously long build thread.
All information is good information I’m sure it’d be well appreciated!
I agree, ever since I got a machine polisher I would never bother with hand polishing!
I still hand wax though
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+1 for the big idiot’s guide please!
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