I did my car last night. I'll list the technique below. For a wash and dry, you can get away with < 2 hours. If you want it to look Really Really Good, it's going to take longer, but at least you can take breaks to .. uh.. change the DVD for the little-uns
The basic premise is Don't Scratch The Paint. So, you're going to need a wash mitt, 2 buckets of water that's not too hot to keep your hand in, and your favourite car shampoo (hint, Zymol, poorboys, meguiars. all available at Halfords in an emergency), a shammy, for drying, your favourite wax/sealant and a wax applicator pad, and either a nice soft terry towel or a microfibre towel for polishing the wax. Start on a Saturday.
If you have the hose to hand, use it to rinse the top layer of dirt off. Don't force it under high pressure - you're trying to float the dirt off, not force it into the paintwork. Don't worry too much if you haven't got a hose that reaches though.
Now, wash mitt on hand, into the soapy hot water and onto the roof. Don't let the excess water come off the mitt before you go to the roof becuase you want as much water as possible up there. You're floating the dirt away, unless it gets stuck in the nice deep pile on the mitt. Work from the top of the roof to the low parts. When you're running wlo on water, dunk your mitt in the non-soapy bucket and shake to rinse it out, and leave the chunky scratch horrible particles there. Lift out, squeeze to drain the mitt, then into the soapy bucket to continue with the car. The idea here is not to transfer the dirt back onto the car, and so you don't want to leave it in the soapy water bucket either.
Work from the top of the car down, so that you're never transferring freshly moved dirt onto an already washed part of the car.
Eventually (20 minutes?) you'll have soaped the car up. Now, throw out your dirty water, rinse the bucket, and then fill with warm water again. We're now going to rinse the car and shammy it dry to avoid streaks. There shouldn't be any dirt to worry about, so we only need the one bucket. We are still saving the soapy bucket for later though.
So, non-soapy mitt onto roof, using plenty of water to push the last of the soap suds away, then drop the mitt back in the bucket, and shammy the roof off quick, to avoid water marks. Repeat for the rest of the car, working from the top down, to avoid water-marking some part you've already done.
Now you have a clean, dry car.
Change the DVD now.
At this point, you can choose to clay your car, if you have time. I'll describe that below, since you said you only have 2 hours, and claying takes longer than that the first time.
Put 5 ml of wax on your pad, and cover square foot of paintwork with it, rubbing it in with a nice firm even stroke. When you've coated a panel, move on to the next. When you've coated 3 panels, it's time to polish the wax on the first. Using the terry/microfibre towel, polish the wax layer. The first wax layer wants to be done nice firm, to fill in all the little micro holes/dimples in the paintwork. Subsequent layers will enhance this.
So, now you've done 3 panels. Repeat for the rest of the car.
At the top, I mentioned to start on Saturday. That's because on Sunday, you want to wax your car a second time, polishing a little less firmly this time. That'll leave a very smooth layer of wax that'll be the ablative protection layer on your paintwork. You want to have given the original layer 18 hours to cure and harden before you put the second layer on. The second layer is the one that'll be scratched, abraded, tree-sapped, tarred, bird-droppinged, etc, and then possibly stripped away when you clean the car next. But it's a second layer. Second layer good.
Now your car should be all lovely and clean, and protected.
But it won't have that smooth glassy feel under your fingers like it just arrived from the dealer. The way to achieve that is to send the wife and kids out shopping and to a film, and give yourself about 4 hours to clay the car, at the point I said above.
With detailing clay you
must have cleaned the car thoroughly, and dried it. Then follow the clay directions. There is such a thing as too much lubricant, and as soon as the clay starts to go squidgy, find somewhere clean to put it down, and start again with a new piece. Wheile you're working on it, if it starts to feel more like blu-tack then clay, stop and dry it off. When you're working the clay, it's the wight of the clay that exterts all the pressure needed. Don't press! You aim to do nothing more than feel the texture of the paint through the clay's movements, which means not pressing at all! It will feel rough. Then a little more smooth. Then glassy. When it's glassy, move the centre of the circle you're working a little way, until you've worked the whole panel smooth. 1 spray from a spray bottle of lubricant should cover about a square foot, and before you apply clay to car, a tiny squirt of lubricant onto the clay directly should be worked in with your fingers - just enough to make it feel tacky, but remember to pay attention to the warning above.
The first time you cleay your car, you want to leave 4 hours or more, and to have enough time to wax it after.
It will look and feel like it's just rolled out of the showroom.
