Wow jay that's really after opening my eyes. I'm almost Afraid to go on and put some light on mine it must be destroyed.
How naive I was to think I was actually removing the marks by hand :-/
Sent from my iPhone that has issues.. Reception issues...
You can remove scratches and swirls by hand but it's very hard work, and the finish is not as good because you can't get an even coverage and pressure as mentioned.
I'd stick with hand glazing using SRP etc. But these products do also work well via machine especially on softer paint, not that that really effects our Golfs.
You will get some improvement with a "hand polish" but personally not worth the time, just glaze it and wax/seal it until you can do it proper
Main point of having a light source is to see exactly what you're doing and what you're actually removing.
Just makes me laugh all the people who are like "just polished & waxed my car it looks SOOOO GOOD" and then take a side on shot with no direct light, that's just the detailer in me screaming out but at the same time people can take it the wrong way, not doing it to put people down but to hopefully show them and educate them to spot and work and improve on their paintwork :)
