Due to time constraints, I can't devote a whole day on the weekend to detailing my daily driver. I'm going to have to do it over a span of a few evenings during this week. I need to clay, polish out some very light swirls, and apply a coating. I'll wash and clay the whole car at once, but as far as the polishing and coating, I was wondering if I should polish the car in sections first over a period of two or three days, and then apply the coating to the entire car at the end of the week, or coat the panels at the end of the night that I've managed to finish polishing? I guess I'm a little paranoid about the paint having no protection on it should I leave coating until the end.

Due to a recent move, and the garage only having room for one car right now, my car has to sit outside at night, and will get driven to work each day, so I have to give it a quick wash each night before I start. When I polish the car, I plan to polish several inches into the adjacent panels so the pad won't have to come near panels that have already been polished, and potentially already coated.