The number 1 step in all this, is after throughly washing the car with a good car washing soap(not dish washing) is to take a high quality 'detail clay' product with a good final finish like lubricator and to go over the whole car.. This will remove the many years of abusive atmospheric fall out and much of the residual dead and deteriorated paint. I happen to use Pinnacle's clay along with a product like Griot's Speed Shine as a lubricator. There are many excellent products and some not as good.

An option to claying that I forgot to mention when I posted this earlier, is the so called autoscrub products from companies such as Nanoskin. They work very well, are somewhat faster than claying and do an excellent job, albeit more expensive initially than clay but can save money in the long haul and are washable, whereas clay if you drop it on the floor you can kiss it goodby. The products come as towels, wash mitts and other formats. I've experimented with for over a year and suspect will replace clay for many of its fans.


Only when the rub of your hand(some recommend putting a wrap of Saran Rap around it ) and drag your hand across the body and it feels completely smooth, only then go to the next step using a foam pad on a quality orbital buffer,,,the best that you can afford. There are also microfiber buffing pad that are gaining popularity.

Wool pads are still used by many professionals but more in the body shop painting industry and more than likely for heavy duty post painting polishing and with rotary buffers. Not for rookies.

It is a lifetime investment,,,I use a Flex 3401 at over 300 bucks,,,also have quality high speed rotary buffers,,,but not for rookies or the faint of heart. There are ok, get the job done orbitals that sell for 150 bucks or so. Somewhat as Snap On verses Harbor Freight. You will never regret buying the best however,,,put it on your Xmas wish list.

Then you must choose the correct polish(s) to do the job. This gets complicated, but what it comes down to is how bad is the finish, how much paint is left, and what you want your final effort to look like.

Somewhat as with the IRS and the government in their efforts to extort your monies and call it collecting taxes. Gaining the most amount of feathers from the goose with the least amount of squawking.

Autogeek.net and others have numerous videos on polishing, as well as uncountable u tube's.

However I again emphasize you must start with the claying,,,one of the great discoveries in car detailing. For 25 years I have never polished or waxed my cars without this critical first step.

By the way,,,30 and 40 year old paint factory paint jobs are pretty miserable,,,don't expect a first rate custom 2 stage modern finish no matter what you do to bring it back,,but often you can bring them back to their original glory.