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How long is a piece of string?
Too open ended a question. Depends entirely on what grit sandpaper you finished with, what the surface substrate is (polyester, epoxy, 2k polyurethane, etc.), how big the piece you are polishing is, whether you are machine polishing or hand polishing, how much experience you have with polishing, etc. In general, if you finished with 1200 grit paper on a small piece and you are hand polishing, it will probably take 2 or 3 applications with plenty of elbow grease to get up to a full gloss. If you finished with 4000 grit on the same piece and you're machine polishing, it will likely take 2 minutes and one application to bring it to a full gloss.
Realistically, there is no one answer. It takes as many applications as it needs until you are happy with the gloss level. If after one application you still have obvious scratch marks marring the surface then it's likely you didn't sand enough between grit levels to remove the previous grits scratches and you will be better off going back to sanding. If you do one application and you don't have any obvious sanding scratches but the area is still somewhat cloudy rather than glossy, then that's a good sign that you should do another application and just keep polishing. It's also important to not stop polishing too soon before the compound has broken down and had a chance to refine the surface. I generally use very very little compound, and keep working it until it is no longer spreading any residue around as I move the polisher.
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