Based on a recommendation from someone at Meguiar's, I was originally planning on using a different wax but I was not able to find these locally so I picked up #26 instead based on some quick, last minute research. Worst case, I figured that I would have to find a new wax if this one didn't work out.

Time Check: 0 hrs, 0 min <-- This is a time check of how long the job was taking

Part of the preparation that I do before waxing is to remove the front and rear license plate holders. Not only does this make it easier to wax in these areas, but there's also less chance of getting wax on the black frames.

My normal car wash routine involves using two buckets and two wash mitts. I use the chenille cotton mitt (in the grey bucket) for the lower half of the car and the sheepskin mitt is for the top half of the car. The separate buckets keep the dirtier water from the lower half of the car from potentially causing scratches on the top (more visible) half.

This following shows the details of my custom made hose adapter.

This is my car wash hose all assembled. The whole thing is basically a 2ft length of garden hose attached to a brass fitting which would normally attach to the end of your garden hose. To make things more convenient, I have added a shut-off valve so I can shut the flow off (or regulate it) at the end of the hose.

Now, back to the car

After washing the car, I rinse the whole car once again with water to ensure that there were no stray pieces of dirt on the paint before going to the next stage.

After the car was washed with Dawn, the paint had completely lost any "slickness" and my finger squeaked at the slightest touch over the paint . I have hand rinsed the sheepskin mitt under cold water and the cotton mitt was thrown into the washing machine with a small amount of detergent. I was now prepared to start with the claying.

Time Check: 1 hour, 0 min

After taking the clay out of the plastic wrapper, I kneaded it into a small flat pancake shape. I found that wetting it slightly made this first step a bit easier.

The purpose of using a clay product on the paint is to remove any surface contaminants that get embedded into the paint over time and is a perfect priming step before polishing and waxing.

Never having clayed a car before, I did a lot of reading to try and learn as much as possible before starting. The most important thing that I learned was that the paint surface must be kept extremely well lubricated at all times to avoid scratching. During the claying process, I was spraying the car around where I was claying about once every 5 seconds. Considering that I only had about 25 cents worth of car wash in the entire 32 oz. sprayer, I saw no down side to over spraying with the lubricating solution.

Claying is a very tactile process. What I mean is that you are using your fingers to feel your way along. As you rub the paint with the clay, you feel the little "bits" in the paint under the clay and these gradually go away as the clay removes them. As soon as you stop feeling these bits in the paint and there are no more visible blemishes on the surface of the paint, you should move onto the next section. I am usually working on a small section at a time (about 2ft x 2ft). About every two sections, I take the clay and fold it in on itself a few times into a ball then flatten it out. This process takes the dirt that gets embedded into the clay (removed from the paint) and moves it into the centre of the clay so a fresh section is made.

After I complete a whole body panel, I would stop and rinse the panel thoroughly with water before going onto the next section.

One of the things that I noticed about using the clay bar was that if I stopped the clay on the surface of the paint, it would often leave a small "smudge" the colour of the clay bar on the paint. This smudge would come out with further claying but it taught me to always keep the clay bar in motion when touching the paint.

One of the things that was going though my mind as I was claying was that if I ever dropped the clay bar on the ground, that I would probably be throwing it in the garbage and driving to the store to buy a new one (dropping it onto the ground would embed many pmembers of dirt which would then easily scratch the paint if the clay was used again). Since I wasn't going to be doing the claying non-stop on the whole car without a break, I got a small, clean plastic margarine container ready to put the bar in when I needed to. This is also where I now store the clay bar after the job was finished.

Claying is a very tactile process. What I mean is that you are using your fingers to feel your way along. As you rub the paint with the clay, you feel the little "bits" in the paint under the clay and these gradually go away as the clay removes them. As soon as you stop feeling these bits in the paint and there are no more visible blemishes on the surface of the paint, you should move onto the next section. I am usually working on a small section at a time (about 2ft x 2ft). About every two sections, I take the clay and fold it in on itself a few times into a ball then flatten it out. This process takes the dirt that gets embedded into the clay (removed from the paint) and moves it into the centre of the clay so a fresh section is made.

When you're claying on the vertical surfaces like the doors, the chances of dropping the clay bar are considerably greater. Considering that you're dealing with a slippery product and spraying more wet soapy water onto it every few seconds, I'm surprised that I didn't drop the thing several times. To reduce the chance of this happening when working on the sides of the car, hold the clay bar with your fingers over the top so that your fingers are touching the paint as well.

After the claying is completed, I washed the car again with my regular car wash to remove any residue left over from the claying process. The car was then dried with my synthetic chamois and is ready to start polishing.

It is important to completely dry the car before proceeding with the polishing and waxing. This means opening the trunk, hood and doors and getting into all of the crevices with a cloth to dry everything.

Time Check: 2 hrs, 55 min

Before I start polishing, I tape over the door handles and wiper nozzles with green painter's tape. Without covering these up, with one swipe of the polisher I'll be spending time later on removing a white hazy coating from these spots.

This chair is what I use when washing the wheels on my Z3. This has to be by far, the most useful tool to own when waxing a car (by hand or machine). With this chair, I can wax from end to end of the car in one uninterrupted pass. It also makes a huge difference on my back when waxing the lower sections.

If you are working on your car on a flat surface, this kind of chair is a must buy.

Important tip: Before using the Porter Cable buffer with a velcro backing plate like the one I purchased, you'll need to attach the foam buffer pad correctly. The most important thing is to get the foam pad centred onto the backing plate. This is pretty much a manual process and you'll have to eyeball the position of the backing plate before pressing the two halves of the velcro sides together.

You'll know how centred it is by just manually spinning the foam pad and see how much it "wobbles". If it's off centre, just remove it and adjust again. The more centred you get it, the less vibration you'll feel when buffing.

Since I have washed this polishing pad since the last use, it has to be "primed" again. This basically involves putting more than the usual amount of the Meguiar's #3 Machine Glaze polish on the pad and pressing in onto the car once or twice to press it in. This picture shows how much polish I used to prime.

For all polishing, I set the Porter Cable speed to about 4.5

After the pad is primed, much less polish is needed. This amount of polish will cover about 1/3 of my hood.

The polishing is now completed.

Time Check: 4 hrs, 10 min

I am now moving onto the waxing stage using Meguiar's #26 Hi-Tech Yellow Wax. I have replaced the polishing foam pad with the finishing pad. Again, this pad needs to be primed before starting as it was washed last time when I used P21S wax on Barb's Topaz.

For all waxing, I set the Porter Cable speed to about 4.5

The round blue wax applicator is a prerequisite when using any polisher like the Porter Cable. It is simply impossible to wax the entire car (like a Z3) with a polisher as there too many places where the polisher cannot get to (example: around the side mirrors). If you're intention is to wax the entire car, you'll have to get into these places with a hand applicator.

I found that I was using about 2-3 times as much of the #26 wax as I was of #3 polish for the same area as the paint just seemed to "drink" the #26 up. After about 60 seconds of buffing one section with the Porter Cable, the wax seemed to be close to disappearing. At this stage, it took just a few seconds of light hand buffing with the cotton cloth to see my handiwork appear before my eyes. Not only did this outstanding shine start to come alive, but I started seeing this "wet look" in the paint that I had never seen before. Without a doubt, this wax is an excellent product and was able to produce results better than any wax that I had used before (see conclusions on page 5).

After finishing the rest of the car in this manner, the waxing is almost complete. I finish up by applying a second coat of wax by hand to the areas of the car behind the front and rear tires. On most cars, these areas usually see a lot of dirt from water splashing off the tires during the rain.

After finishing, I store the pads in a plastic Ziploc bags. I do not remove the polish/wax from the pads. Doing so requires that I will have to prime the pad again next time which basically wastes product. The only reason why I washed the pads in the past was because I planned on using a different polish or wax the next time. You never want to mix products onto a pad without washing it first.

Washing a foam pad is done easily by washing it in a small amount of Dawn dishwashing liquid and then rinsing it well with water. Dry on a towel.

Time Check: 5 hrs, 35 min

Now that the waxing was complete, it was time to put things back together again. The green masking tape came off easily and the front and rear license plates were put back. During the polishing/waxing stages, the wires for the side marker lights had fallen into the fender. By using a small flashlight and a bent coat hanger, the wire is easy to fish out.

TIP: Don't put the license plate holders on with a power screwdriver or drill (screw in by hand only). Because the screws are going into plastic, they strip very easily. Doing it by hand takes about 90 seconds longer but will prevent stripping the mounting holes.

Before I remount the side marker lights, I take the rubber edging out and clean it in the Mother's Back to Black solution. This stuff not only makes it a nice black colour again but revitalizes the rubber. The stuff also has the most pleasing cherry smell!

During the process of cleaning up my car for this project, I utilized many of the products in my cleaning kit. Here a rundown of just about everything that I own that gets hauled out every week.

I picked up this white plastic caddy soon after I started purchasing detailing supplies to help carry them and keep them organized.