Clarification About Detailing

[92ES300Girl]

I just wanted to make sure that I jotted my notes down correctly (im off of work tomorrow and plan to get started on a day-long adventure... Waxing and detailing my car! :D )

1). Correct me if im wrong, but your are supposed to Clay the car (if needed) BEFORE you apply any cleaners, polishes or waxes right? And if so, the body panel that you're claying should be soapy while you clay it, or lubed with the lubricant that comes with the clay (ive read both ways in other posts)??? After the part of the clay bar that your using gets full of dirt, should you cut that piece off with a knife since ive read a few posts saying it sticks to the bar and could scratch the paint??? Or do you just continually flip the bar over to the clean side???

2). The proper order to correctly detail your car should be (judging by other posts, but just making sure), Clay (if needed), Paint Cleaner, Paint Polish, Paint Sealant & wax???

3). I was told by SW03ES that it is extremely difficult to remove swirls by hand... But would doing a COMPLETE exterior detail (with alot of elbow grease) have ANY effect on minimizing the appearance of swirls what-so-ever??? I really want my paint (which is black) to look deep and have that "wet look", but I also want to hide as many of the many swirls that I have :D .

Sorry about all the questions guys, I just want to be completely sure before I get started. Ive never had a car that I actually made me want to get on the ground and have an all-day affair detailing it :P .

[David_Ostroff]

Here is a an article that answers your questions on using clay. EnjoyClay for Detailing

[SW03ES]

Read that article and you'll have it down!

You can certainly hide the swirls by hand with some sort of glaze , but they'll come back.