Cleaning procedure help

[DIGITAL39]

My car (95 BMW 325i) needs a really good cleaning and I would appreciate help in coming up with a list of steps on restoring some of the lost beauty in my car. A little background to help, after I got my car I used Zymol's Cleaner wax, not knowing that it didnt provide a decent coat of wax on the car, so it has not been properly waxed in a couple years, only with that wax and a few washes with the wash-n-wax type products. I lived in Florida for about a year and did not live in an area that made it easy to clean the carpets and leather due to the dust in the air (I hate sandy roads). That also caused some a slight rough feeling to the paint. The paint is not in bad shape really, there are a few swirl marks and only a few scratches that resemble swirl marks, I dont know much about clay but shouldnt it remove those as long as they are not too bad?



I ordered some of the things I have seen others on this board recommend. This is my current list of products to use:



Natural Wool Wash Mitt

303 Carpet & Upholstery Cleaner

303 Aerospace Protectant

Autoglym Glass Polish & Cleaner

ClayMagic Clay

Lexol Cleaner and Conditioner



P21S Auto Care Kit:

Wheel Cleaner

Concours-look Paste Wax

Bodywork Conditioning Shampoo

Gloss-enhancing Paintwork Cleanser





From what I have read I should do the following



1. Clean Wheels

2. Wash with Dawn

3. Clay

4. Wash with Shampoo

5. Paint Cleanser

6. Wax





I would very much like to give my car back what it used to have and more, so any advice on reversing what the lack of a good waxing and lack of regular cleaning would be greatly appreciated. One last question regarding the carpet, would using one of those carpet cleaners/shampooers be good or bad?



Thank you for any help you can offer me



- Pete

 

[Accumulator]

Digital39- Welcome to Autopia. What Ejant said :xyxthumbs



The clay will NOT remove any swirls/scratches, in fact, claying should be a NONabrasive process if done correctly. To remove swirls/scratches (AKA "marring"), you need to use an abrasive- it's actually a process of REMOVING paint, lowering the paint down to the level of the "crevice" of the scratch.



This abrasive polish step would go in between your Clay and Paint Cleanser steps. One suggestion for a polish is 3M's Perfect-It III Machine Glaze (it also works well by hand ), PN 05937.



Oh, and I dunno if *I* would use Dawn to wash a nine-year-old car. It can be sorta tough on SOME cars' rubber seals, etc. And Dawn really isn't the greatest thing to use on automotive paint (popular as it is in some circles). I use it on certain cars upon occasion, but again, I dunno about using it on your Bimmer. If you're gonna clay and polish anyhow, a VERY STRONG solution of regular car soap would probably suffice.