Gonna Order One...

[D&D Auto Detailing]

For a one time thing, yes, in the long run, no. Plus once you get good, you could always get your money back by doing other peoples cars.

[01SVTvert]

It might be cheaper to go to a shop for a one time only but if you really want to you could do the car once and then resell the PC and chemicals and make back a bunch of your money. You will only have your time and a little bit of depreciation factored into the cost of the polish. Hovever when you see your car you may want to keep the stuff and do it again at some point. That is when the PC begins to pay for itself.

Get the PC kit, best you can do for the money

My advice is this, get the PC with the CCS pads then get XMT3 not 2, I tried two and it took out most but not all of my swirls. Ended up ordering the XMT3 separately. You could get the CCS pad and PC kit plus the XMT swirl remover kit that includes XMT3 think it is the heavy or intermediate swirl remover kit. Together these cost about $250 shipping for free also. I bet if you ordered these and then decided to sell later you would get at least $150 to $175 quick and this ends up costing you at most $100 for a really good detail

Over the counter for the carwash soap, Use the heavy microfiber towl that comes with the kit to wash the car and then dry off using the flood with water method and another mf towel. Use the Megs or mothers OTC clay kit from wallyworld or autozone for the clay.

Some will freak about this but instead of washing it and buying soap etc you could go to the local carwash that has air dry etc and run through once right before polishing it. I only say this since you are going to be polishing it anyways and then you would have a relatively dirt free car to start work on at home. You would then only need to go around and check the paint for tar, bugs etc and get that stuff off. You would then start your claying and polishing.

Some will disagree about the carwash but it sounds like you arent in love with the idea of maintaining your own cars hardcore and I am thinking that an all day detail is not your idea of fun.

good luck

[marineman227]

I agree with above. If you're not a detail freak then in the end it's easier and won't matter to you that you went through the car wash anyway. I used to do that because I didn't have an outdoor water source at home.