I'm pretty anal about keeping my car clean, but I'm also a cheapass and don't like spending tooooo much time on it. Weird combo, but it does work. I just bought an 07 RYP and took it on a 6000 mile road trip (3 weeks worth) with no washing, waxing, or anything at all. So when I got home, here's what I did.

1. I generally handwash with whatever brand name carwash is on sale at the time.
2. Claybar like mad to get rid of all the contaminants I picked up along the way. Yellow really shows contaminants up close!
3. The paint still had some stains and stuff, so I followed with some Meguiars cleaner wax to pull out the rest of it.
4. Applied some Meguiars NXT paste for long lasting synthetic protection (so I won't have to claybar like mad again!!!) I would have used something else, but I already had some of this Meguiars around.
5. Finished off with a layer of pure carnauba for the extra shine.
6. Fanagled a friend into taking some pictures for me:





7. See how badge worthy I am

 

clean!
nice pics too

pm me (remind me that you seek badging) and i can loosen the spare badge with your name on it thats in the attic...

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pm recd... badge found and glued on!

 

Nice job.