So I finally managed to free enough time to take the plunge and thoroughly clean the car. I ended up doing it in two stages wash then claybar drop off wife and kids and then race to get the polish and wax done before dark. not ideal but you need to take the time you can get. I have to say that the $25 I spent on the 1/2 price Orbital I got from Canadian tire was well worth the money. While hand wax may look just as good if not better using the orbital cut my time probably in half. Probably took me 4 hours in total.

I used a Simonize 10 inch polisher, Mother's Claybar system, and Meguiar's Deep Crystal polish and Carnauba Wax.

The clay bar was much easier than I thought but the car was kept in a garage so the surface wasn't as contaminated as I thought.

by the time I was done the sun was setting and those pictures didn't truly show the effects and I was really expecting a bit more. So this AM I took some more and with the sun shining I was much more impressed with the results of my efforts. I didn't realize the paint hd so much metallic flake in it until after all the polishing.

The paint still has some swirls and a couple of spots where door dings have left chips or color but this is my daily driver so I won't spend too much more effort.

Here are the pics

 

That looks really good man...I clay barred my car a couple months back and attempted to polish it but never got around to the final waxing stage. I've been thinking about getting an orbital buffer but I've heard if you don't know what you're doing you can really screw up the paint...how true is this?

Good job on the detailing!

 

I think low powered ORBITAL polishers like the one i have are very safe. The random orbit oscilations keep you from buring thimgs like a BUFFER would. This is the one I used http://www.canadiantire.ca/browse/pr...=1188266301108

 

car looks super clean!

 

Looks clean.

Is that another Concord Mist?

 

Your car is very clean, I like it a lot.

 

Very clean man.Good job.

 

no it's not concord mist, it's neptune blue i think

 

great job.

 

That color is sweet!

 

Ben wanting to do the clay bar thing but didnt make time to do it.
Maybe next Spring
BTW How u like those tires Kumho ASX I see

 

car needs to be lower....

 

Which has nothing to do with his paint detailing efforts but hey...

Car looks great, I've always wanted to get an orbital but haven't for a few reasons up until now, 1. I didn't have a paintjob worthy of doing more than washing and 2. I was afraid of potentially burning the paint, but now I think I will give it a try.

 

Car looks good. I'm just picked up the claybar kit, here goes 4+ hours

 

Car looks very nice. Now just keeping it clean is the hard part.