Hi there,
I'm a little confused as to the order I am to do things for when it finally warms up in Southern Ontario (hopefully soon!)

This year, I'm planning on giving my car the full treatment:

I'm not sure what order I do things, but after I do some extensive repair work to my "New to Me" rear bumper, Here'* my guess:
1) Good wash
2) Claybar, including the rims
3) Rinse, dry
4) Touch up paint (Is it best to clear coat my touch ups, and only my touch ups?)
??? Where does scratch / swirl remover come into play?
6) Wax / polish, buff
7) Tire Brite
Lastly: Go

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

I've never Claybar'd before, so this will be a fun experience. Mothers sells a whole kit, that will hopefully give me all I need.

I've read the posts where people suggest to break the bar into thirds. Any other advice?

Thanks in advance,
Adam

Yeah, break the bar in thirds, that way if you drop one, you still have two more. Just be sure to use lots of lube ( quick detailer ) when claying, and remember that you don't have to press hard. Just slide the clay and let the clay do the work.

Wash
Clay
Wash and dry
touch up paint if needed, usually don't clear over it though
polish ( this is your scratch / swirl remover ) and buff
wash and dry
wax or seal it
tire shine.

I like to use the liquid tire shine instead of the spray so that you don't get any overspray anwhere.

Check out www.autopia.org or www.autogeek.net for some good info on this also. Much of it may go way further into detail then you want to go, but still a great source of information. I just picked up a bunch of stuff from autogeek and will be using it this weekend

Crash'* list looks good. One thing you should do that I even fail to do is do the tire shine before you work on polishing and waxing the paint. That way if you use a spray you won't have any overspray on the paint after you've prettied it up.

I wouldn't really worry about washing after polishing either. You could do a wipe down with alcohol/water solution to make sure the polish isn't filling in swirls.

Thanks for the advice, and the links!

I'm not clear about touch ups:
Should I avoid touch up areas with wax? I've had instances where I've waxed over a touched up area, and you see the wax imbedded into the repair.

Thanks,
Adam

I've read a little about proper touch ups, but haven't yet had the opportunity to try it. The method involves doing gradual touch ups with something small like a tooth pick until you build up the paint above the surface of the rest of the paint. So you would touch it up, then when it'* dry, do it again and again. Then once it'* built up, wet sand it very carefully until it'* the same level and blended with the rest of the paint. That sand paper part is what scares me though.

Ack!
Everything sounds great, right until you mentioned the sanding part.
That scares me a bit too!

What about using a small amount of spot puddy to build up lower areas?

Adam

I really wouldn't be all to worried about wet sanding. Just get a sanding block, wrap some 2500 - 3000 grit around it, get a spray bottle and soak it down. A small rubber squeege will help also so you can quickly get rid of the water to check your progress.

One thing about wetsanding though... I personally don't think I would do it unless you have a good buffer / polisher. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to polish out sanding scratches by hand

If you don't have a buffer, I would probably just build it up as close as I could get to the rest of the paint and call it good. A little dimple is MUCH harder to notice then a stone chip or large scratch.

I have done some wetsanding before and can say that as long as you are carefull and don't go overboard, you will be fine Just keep checking your progress so you don't go to far. You don't have to press hard either

2000-2500 grit will polish out with by hand, it just takes a bit of effort.