Pat, Have you tried scuff gel? We used to sand for blending but we started using scuff gel and the gold scuff pads and we'll never go back. We've been using it 4-5 years now I think. I remember at a paint school once a dupont rep said to soak the yellow backed paper in water a while before using it which would soften it up a bit, you ever heard that? I tried it and it seems to help a bit. I've had problems with metallics standing up in the sand scratches, silver to name one, when I used to prepare the panel with paper before blending. The scuff gel helped that problem.