Well, I plan on taking my next day off to fully detail my car. Here are the steps I plan on doing to get my car's paint back to looking nice. My friend just bought a PC for us to use, so i bought all the necesarry pads and compounds.

1)Wash the car with car shampoo and alcohol to get rid of the old wax.
2)Clay the car while drying.
3)Wash the car again.
4)PC w/ Sonus orange/green pad and 1z Ultra Paint Polish
5)PC w/ white pad and 1z Metalic Polish
or
5)PC w/ white pad and 1z Paint Polish
6)PC w/ white pad and Menzerna Final polish
7)PC w/ white pad and Klasse All in one
8)PC w/ white pad and Klasse Sealant Glaze
9)One week later add another coat of Klasse Sealant Glaze

Now my questions are...
1)Do i need to claybar the car even though i'm going to be polishing? And what kind of alcohol do i use to strip the old wax [zaino]?
2)On step 5 which compound should i use, the metalic polish or paint polish?
3)I plan on using a orange pad to start, but i will post pictures of my swirls to see if i should use a green pad instead
4)Should i apply/remove the Klasse AIO and SG with the PC or should i do it by hand?

 

lotsa questions...
missing a step:
9.5 photo the car for posting back here!!!

some answers:
1. i would not do all those polishing steps unless i had a problem car-
but, to answer your question- you dont really need to clay if you will be doing that much polishing. polish is what we did before clay!!
claying and polishing together is a perfectionists way of detailing though- and i have done this before. clay will pick out some stuff that polish might not get.

2. you didnt say what color your car is- on my black car i have used the paint polish.

3. you can go either way with the klasse... i would use the machine, but know lotsa guys who do that by hand (i have done both)

 

woops- forgot to answer your alcohol question:

1. watered down denatured alcohol will remove zaino... but so will polish!!
you dont need to worry about the alcholol step- your first polish step will get the zaino off, and just about everything else too...

 

Ok, I did some more research and this is what i came up with.

1)Use distilled white vinegar to get off all the old wax
2)Apply the Klasse SG by hand instead of the machine
3)Remove both AIO and SG by hand with a detailing towel
4)Skip the claybar because i hate extra work.

Wanabe,
What do you consider a problem car? I have a '00 Black with about 63,000 miles. I have swirls on the hood and trunk like crazy and moderate swirls on the fenders and side of the car. I don't have any oxidation just a lot of really bad swirls and a couple hard water spots. I'll try to take a picture today to capture how bad it is.

I know you can't really tell me what polishes and pads to use from not seeing my paint. But, from what i kind of explained do you think an orange pad with the 1z ultra paint polish is too abrasive?

 

For what it's worth, I would wash, clay then start with the Menzerna's final polish. If this didn't remove all the swirls then I would use their Intensive polish followed by the Final polish. I used this combination on a very badly swirled dark blue suburban and it turned out great. Then apply the Klasse. If you want you can finish with a coat of P21S carnauba.
Here's a kit with the polishes and recommended pads: Menzerna polish kit.

 

Here are some pictures of my car.







Do you those look bad enough to use an orange pad and 1z Ultra paint polish or should i start with a less abrassive polish like 1z paint polish or 1z metalic polish?

 

from your pics they look like pretty normal swirls-
i would prob go with a white pad and a normal swirl remover...

 

 

Well, I took half the day on Monday to detail the car. I used an orange pad with 1z PP, then a white pad with 1z MP, Menzerna FP, and Klasse AIO. I put the Klasse SG on by hand...i think i used too much because it was kind of difficult to get off.

I got rid of the majority of the swirls, but i can still see some swirls [very little] and scratches. I think next time [6 months] i will try an orange pad with the ultra PP and go back to zaino. I'm not a fan of the Klasse SG, and zaino Z5 will actually help reduce some light scratches and swirl marks.

Here are a couple pictures i snapped....







And here is my reflection picture off my door...