Man, I've been going back and forth on this exact thing. When you say paper all the way to the end, are you pulling it at some point to let the bark set back up, or leaving it wrapped right up until you rest it? I tried leaving it on once and the bottom got a little soggy on me, but that might have been my own fault for wrapping too tight. Curious what temp you're running after the stall passes, since that seems to be where mine goes wrong.

My burn through count on black cars used to be a point of pride for the wrong reasons, pretty sure I was single handedly keeping the paint supplier in business. Wet sanding with the soap trick is night and day though, that little bit of lube keeps the paper from loading up and biting too hard. For tri coat pearls I've had good luck sticking with 1500 but going lighter on pressure and letting the paper do the work, the pearl layer seems to hate any heat. Cheap way to check is hit a test panel first and look at it under a shop light before you commit to the whole blend.