polishing question

[riverbait]

My question: I washed and waxed my car last week. It is still in excellent condition. I thought I read some where that you can polish your car prior to waxing to get out dirt and other grime that washing didn`t. At this point my car does not require any claying. Can the polishing still be helpful? Or would it not be necessary unless I was claying? I don`t mind waxing again after polishing if needed.

[JaredPointer]

I suppose it depends. If you`ve got marring, spiderwebs, etc then I`d say polishing would help.

How long has it been since you last polished? Since you last clayed?

[tuscarora dave]

What color is the paint? Certain colors would benefit from a polishing with a chemical paint cleaner such as Poorboy`s World Pro Polish. It would surely brighten up some lighter colors and red too. I would want to clay before machine applying a paint cleaner unless it passes the plastic wrap test where you would place some plastic wrap or a baggie over your fingers and lightly glide your fingers over "clean paint", if there are contaminates that should be clayed off you will feel them using this technique.