You just have to find what works with what you got. If you go to 1200 then some compound and a felt wheel with the Dremmel should take you home to chrome. If I sand by hand to 600 grit I can go with black compound , green, white , blue done, except a quick clean up with a polish. (now that's a felt wheel with Dremmel)

What you need to learn is at what grit do you stop and go to what polish. If I went to 2500 paper then I would start at white compound. Sounds like you just backed up a few grit levels from your finish paper.