Ever the optimist, I figured that spring is on its way, so I had the car detailed the other day. A detailer I know had some Zymol Royale (retailing at at £8700 a pot) which he offered to try on my car, so I couldn't resist!
I took some pictures on the day, so I thought I will show you the process.
The car was clean, but he gave it a good two-bucket wash with a soft mit to get rid of any grime. The wheels were done at the same time.
Then the car was clayed to remove any contaminants from the paint. Paint thickens measurements showed consistent thick paint (believed to be the original paint) everywhere.
This allowed a two stage correction with a machine polisher that got rid of 20 years worth of tiny scratches!
Zymol Royale was then applied - two layers, with an hour between them, to allow the first one to cure before the second was applied. By then it was raining again, so the car stayed in the garage (I was itching to take pictures of the whole car in natural light, but it was chucking it down). I only managed to take pictures of the back of the car - but it will give you an idea of the final finish.
All in all, I think it's worth doing this once every few years - to keep the paintwork in tip-top condition. The detailer admitted that moving from a "good" wax (say at £100 a pot) to these very expensive waxes does not make a huge difference to the appearer of the car, but it will last for 7-9 months (cheaper waxes might last 2-3 months). I must admit that I would not pay the extra £100 pound for the Royale, but as it was free...)
If you have the patience you can do this yourselves by hand. The detailer took about 9 hours to finish the car (started at 7am and finished at 4pm) - and I blame my bad back for not doing this myself
PS I would put up more pics of the intermediate stages, but I can only attach 5 pics to a post.
Roll on Spring. 
