Just finished a 2 1/2 day detail job on the car.  Was getting it prepped for winter with a 6 month sealant, and also getting rid of 2 1/2 years of swirls and fine scratches.  It's hard to see the scratches and swirls on silver even at the right angle in the sun, but they're there.  It was even harder to get them to show up in the camera but I circled the more obvious ones in the first picture.  As usual most products used are from my favorite detailing site Autogeek.  The pictures show the progression of taping the car off for polishing (so dust doesn't get in unwanted areas), the sealant after applying it, the sealant after wiping it off, and finally shots in the sun the next day after 2 coats of carnauba on top of the sealant.

The car was already still pretty shiny, but the Deep Gloss Paint sealant on top of the polishing step really brought out the clarity in the reflections such as you see in the more shaded shots at the end of the pictures, and even in bright sun I can see a difference.  The paint just looks shinier and wetter than before.  Following are the steps I followed.

Wash with Pinnacle bodywork shampoo plus Dawn to help strip off old wax

Clay the horizontal surfaces with Mother's California Gold clay kit

Polish with Wolfgang Total Swirl Remover and a light cut polishing pad (Lake Country CCS white pad)

Seal with Wolfgang Deep Gloss Paint Sealant

Wax with 2 coats of Pinnacle Signature II carnauba wax

Total time, about 3 hours to wash, clay, tape the car.  About 7 hours of polishing and sealant application.  About 1 1/2 hours to wax.  Total time approx. 12 hours start to finish over 3 days (Friday night to Sunday afternoon).

Here's a few pics of my car showing off the detail job from yesterday.  These are just poor quality cell phone pics right now, so the metal flake isn't really showing well at all except a bit on the last shot.  Notice the clouds reflections on the roof and hood in the first two pics though.  Not bad for a standard silver vs. a dark color.  Used the following steps and products to get the finish.  Everything but the clay kit was from my favorite detailing supplies site Autogeek.  Oh, and for the polish and wax that was applied with my Porter Cable DA polisher and foam pads.  Removal of excess was done with standard microfiber cloths.

Wash with Pinnacle bodywork shampoo

Clay the entire car (had never been done) with Mother's California Gold clay kit

Polish with Pinnacle Paintwork Cleansing lotion (chemical clean and polish)

Wax with 2 coats of Pinnacle Signature II carnauba wax

Clay the front and back windows because I was dumb and let the rinse water dry and had horrible water spotting

Total time, about 6 hours start to finish

Here's a video of the Summer's End Run from August 14th 2010.  I know the video is not the best quality, and the person holding the camera was pretty shaky.  However, considering this came off a Motorola Droid smart phone I'm pretty impressed with how it turned out.  Recommend right-click/save-as but you can just click the link and stream it if you want.

Download

Here are the pics from the August 14th Summer's End Run 2010.  This was an AMAZING drive from Petaluma CA up 101 and accross to Ft. Bragg.  Then, back down Hwy 1 and across 128 through the redwoods.  It was a loooong day with a total of 15 hours from the time we left Sacramento until we got back.  We had some fog at points as you can see, but overall the weather was really nice and very temperate.  It was only in the 70's most of the day due to being on the coast.  Lots of photos were taken and I had a copilot to take on the road pics this time.  There is also a short video coming in the next few days or so.  Enjoy the pics, and enjoy the few that got turned into black & white pics.