What's a really good polish?

[Perfectlap]

Thats an excellent result for by hand Attention. But you shouldn't be afraid to attempt correction with an ORBITAL buffer. It is very difficult to damage the paint with one of those. It's a really good investment for any Porsche owner. The Flex polisher is the most popular these days. The Griots Garage mini polisher is probably the best value for ocassional use.

Your results with Meguiar rubbing compound are probably temporary in that the compound rounded out the sharp edges of the scratches so that light would not reflect. Then the compound's fillers errr...filled in the channel to leave the surface even. But with heat and moisture the fillers will go away and you'll see the scratches again. The only way to get rid of them for sure if to use the torque of the orbital buffer with a polishing pad and the least abbrasive polish. Its a very slow process because the orbital polisher by design is meant to do the job as safely as possible In novice hands. for a car the size of a 986 it will take you about an hour and half to be completely scratch free and the car will look like it just came back from a $5k painting. Just make sure you have a creeper seat so you are working with a straight back and neck as much as possible. A $30 halogen lamp from Sears will make the job quicker as you can see if you got the swirls out abd can move on to the next square of space. You do one square at a time not one panel at a time.