There won't be a single bloke doing the painting at MMC, so it will vary. No robots remember, and a lot depends on how good it is straight from the gun, or whether it nees fixing 'later'.
Black is the worst paint to polish, and circular polishing won't work well. It has to be in straight lines and then in different directions. Black can be cut back very well though, and even blown in - I can say that with 25 years experience of black cars (why oh why....). Too much cloth pressure on black will mark it. Treat it like a soft layer, and resist the temptation to press too hard. You're right Paul that if you cut through the lacquer it will present an edge which can't easily be fixed. My Corsa Red paint comes off on the cloth, so it's not lacquered, and I'm quite happy with that.
