This is the first time I've dared take a machine polisher to a car, and I'm chuffed with the results! I've only just bought the car, and the last guy never cleanerd it much, it was so scuffed and had loads of scratches on the nearside.

This is a typical shot of the scratches:
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50rds.jpg)

The different polishes I planned on using, having researched on detailing forums:
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50det00.jpg)

Gave it a good clay, so the whole car felt glassy - Look at the state of the clay!! The tops of the doors didn't come up that dirty, this lot is from the bottom half of one door!!
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50detclay.jpg)

Here's the car washed and clayed, looking really dull, kinda looked clean and shiney to the eye, but very lacking in glossyness, and looking more grey than black. Was really excited about getting the polisher on it!
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50det01.jpg)

(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50det03.jpg)

Really bad door scratches before (Never thought these would come out with polishing alone!):
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50det06.jpg)

And After:
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50det07.jpg)

NS door before:
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50det08.jpg)

After:
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50det09.jpg)

Much more like it! (Forgive the black plastics untreated!)
(IMG:http://www.lavenham-photographic.co.uk/ben/v50det10.jpg)

After machine polishing I applied a polish/wax and then a hard Carnauba wax.

Wheels will be coming off soon for a proper clean, and to paint the callipers silver.

With this nasty wintery weather it's nice to know it's all waxed up and protected, water seems to run off really well, and even birdcraps I noticed the next day washed them self off after one rainstorm!!

Job well done m8 !!

Nice job.

Outstanding job! Tell me about the clay - honestly don't know a thing about it. How is it different from polish for removing dirt? I've only used a quality polish followed by a carnuba wax. One complaint about my V50 is the paint - it doesn't handle bird stuff at all - I had some sit on the roof in the sun. The poop and color came off but I can still see the outline of the original splat... any advice on that?

If you haven't tried Clay before you should give it a go!

Get one of the Meguires Quick-Clay kits widely available in motor-spares shops. Or a Bilt hambler one from ebay (much bigger peice for about £10- some of them only need water as a lube, others need a soapy lube) You wash the car as well as you can with a good car shampoo (never washing-up liquid like my uncle used to when I was a kid- it strips all waxes etc off!) tear off a piece of the clay, squidge it a few times to make it softer, like you do Blu-tack, , then constantly spray the QD (Quick-Detailer) over the area as you gently wipe the clay over all the surface. By hand you can really really feel the area that's been clayed, it's really glassy compared to the rest! Plus the clay does a good job of removing tar spots etc. If you ever drop the piece of clay through it out and get a new bit! You don't want to rub grit all over your paintwork!

Then you'd need to polish, then wax your car, then I give it a protection spray for an extra level of protection. The last level isn't strictly necessary, but when you see rain water beading off it gives you an idea of how contaminates are being kept from damaging the paintwork. I'm not sure though but bird-droppings may be acidic enough to eat through protection. They're best washed off as soon as you see them!

Visible bird-droppings may need to be machine polished out, but you could try claying the areas, then possible a swirl-remover like Meguires Swirl-X or something. After all the effort I gave my car, tbh the roof has loads of permanent rain-spots, which I still haven't got round to polishing out.

Lots of these products are available from www.cleanyourcar.co.uk.

I'm by no means an expert, I only learnt what I could from www.detailingword.co.uk. Though be wanted - you start to get a bit OCD and before you know it you're spending tons of cash on cleaning products!!!!

I will definitely give the clay a try - thanks for the "detailed" response...!