Some backstory on the matter, before I got my SSE it was severely abused for about 2 years, never ever washed... rammed into things, both my bumper covers are all but ruined deep scratches, dings and a few dents to go along with it.

what a great way to get into owning a black car.

Now that I have it I have been trying to keep it clean, and get it looking somewhat presentable again. Even when clean, the paint feels very rough all over the car, almost like sandpaper, I took some rubbing compound to a small area, and with some work i got a slightly shiny and smooth surface. outside of going over the entire car with rubbing compound to get all this caked on grime off, what would be the best way to get the paint smooth again and maybe nice looking. anything has to be better at this point since at its best the car is some sort of gray rather then black.

clay bar

Clay bar and buff.

Ditto. Clay bar and then compounding/polishing with a machine. Those beat up bumpers might not come all the way back, but the paint should look like new again.

x5 on that one, Clay bar will work wonders

personally I kinda think the car is a fair amount past a claybar, but I believe I still have one left from last summer, so weather permitting i'll try it out tomorrow and report back

The clay bar for anything above the paint, you will need a compound to go deeper and preferably a buffer.

If the claybar doesn't help much, consider re-clear coating the base paint. (i.e.sand off the damaged top coat and respray it.) Some of the peeled up cars are just that, the original top coat seperating off the base..giving the car the look of a bad case of acne.

If the clay bar doesn't make a dent, you probably need a rotary to get through the oxidation.

Well today was a decent day, I started on the paint about noon and finished at about 6:30. Completely ruined one clay bar in the process. I cannot believe how much dirt was in the paint just everywhere nasty brown junk came out. turned the car from a sick gray back to black, the paint is anything but perfect, way too many dings and scratches all over the car. but the paint is pretty smooth again, and now that it has a good coat of wax on it it actually shines!