OK. After a long, hard (but very enjoyable) day. I've given my Zed her first good clean under my ownership.
Following advice (and about £200 of detailing goodies), I did the following:
1. Hose down the car
2. Wash with Chemical Guys Wash and Gloss and bilberry wheel cleaner
3. Dry with MF towel
4. Apply Poorboys SSR, Poorboys Wheel Sealant and buff
5. Wash with Chemical Guys Wash and Gloss
6. Dry with MF towel
7. Apply Dodo Juice Ranforest Rub and buff
8. Wash with Chemical Guys Wash and Gloss
9. Dry with MF towel
10. Vacuum interior
11. Clean interior with Poorboys Natural Dressing, Megs Leather Wax and Megs Glass Cleaner
12. Apply Megs X Metal Polish to exhaust and buff
13. Apply Megs Tyre Shine
Comments:
a. Great smell on all the products!
b. Poorboys SSR was a sod to buff out (not sure whether I left it on the car too long though).
c. Amazed by how little Wash and Gloss I needed to use.
d. Probably applied far too much wheel sealant and, consequently, was difficult to buff out.
e. Failed to get the exhausts and the wheel crevices particularly clean (tips?).
f. Large microfibre drying towel was astonishing - beat chammy hands down.
g. Used bare hands to apply Dodo Juice - found this easier than using the pad.
h. Dodo Juice was fab - easy to buff, smelled lovely and left the car really shiny.
i. Poorboys Natural Dressing is fantastic stuff - great smell and superb finish with zero effort.
j. Really impressed with Megs X Glass Cleaner (best I've used).
k. Didn't really need to buy the Megs Leather Wax as the PB Natural Dressing would've sufficed.
You'll note that I didn't include claying in the process. I'll probably do this in future although I'm happy with my efforts today.
Obviously, I'm a complete novice at this and I'd genuinely welcome comments.
One thing is for sure - I got a lot more satisfaction out of this than paying for a valet (even though it would have been far less expensive!)