[Buster]

Some good tips, It's Keiths Uncle. I've been doing this since Blue Coral was the best on the market, That's a long time ago.

Some of you may want to consider the first approach to getting the car clean. Separate buckets for wheels and tires, lower panels and one for the top. Wheels and tires always first, Open all jambs use a light cleaner like a fine mix of simple green to get the door jamb oils and grime out, plus the trunk and if you decide a quick clean under the hood that should be all that's needed cause most of you are touching up the engine alot. Sponge out all the jambs including underneath the bottoms of the doors, close hose them down, move to the lower of the car. Rinsing isn't enough, a sponge is needed to get rid of loose particles that you don't want to drag to the top of the car. front and rear lowers get the same. All the lips of the wheel wells get a good wipe as you're going along too. Resoak the car and with a fresh bucket, begin from the top down. "NEVER IN THE SUN" Some of the points in the above post are very good, but Dawn is wayyy too strong and will remove the wax as said but also it will etch the clear and remove needed solvents in the paint that keep it shining with normal care. Step down to a standard wash, you're going to be doing the polishing or clay bar which does the same but without the harsh detergents.

Since you now have the car clean and soaking wet, time to dry, but there are a couple of things you may want to do before running a towel or shammy over it. A spray is going to still leave a ton of water so rinse with a stream, more water less spots. At this point you grab your can of pledge yes pledge once the car is dried and the jambs are slightly wet, spray well and wipe out the jambs of the pledge. It will protect and keep the grime from setting back with each wash. You'll go back to this later.

You're ready to polish. Don't be afraid to mask off rubber trim or sharp edges, with a rotary polisher, orbitals are less strain on edges. Polishing / waxing techniques have been covered above.

Your car is now smooth and waxed with whatever you plan to use. I prefer to stay away from "white" waxes, and use the liquids more. Zymol is expensive but leaves no white residue on black trim. I also don't let the wax dry, you can rub it in and rub it off, drying wax does nothing to make it last longer. The average life of wax is 3% loss per day outside.

Assuming the tires were dressed well before you began polishing you'll be left with some residual dust in the jambs or the edges of the trunk and hood. You already prepped them so they just need a quick wipe. A good test to see how well you did when done, but you're not so you'll have to wait till the next paragraph is to run the clear plastic covering from a cigarette pack over your finished work. It should not grab or cling to a small spot on the car. A before and after meaning after the wash will show you the major difference in how smooth it is now.

Glass, Glass, Glass !! Nothing is clean until the windows are sparkling. During the wash you have the option of running steel wool #0000 over all your glass with soap, or doing it now with window cleaner no heavy presure is needed, use a razor blade to scrape excess grime from the edges of the glass.

Finish off the glass properly and the car will now have a full gleam to every part.

I saw this thread and just wanted to add. My nephew is pretty darn good at this stuff and I was at one time. Too old and tired to do this again, thanks for listening