I had a bit of spare time to myself over the weekend (as well as being off Friday and Monday ), so I decided to have a go at the car with the clay bar and polish to see how easy it really was to do a 'proper' job on the car... So, 3 hours later after:

Hose down to remove loose dust etc,
Meguirs NXT shampoo (one panel at a time, then hosed off)
Drying off with a nice new Meguiars Chamois,
Clay Bar the entire car (one panel at a time as per instructions)and windows )
Another rinse off and dry
A nice coat of Meguirs NXT Tech Wax
Wheels washed, dried and NXT'd
Trim (and tyres) detailed with Meguiars Trim Detailer.

By the time I'd go down to the beach for some pics, it was already covered in dust :mad:, but rather than risk scratching all my hard work, I left it be and took some pics. It looks MUCH better than before, and soooooooooooo smooth! I could hardly believe the amount of crap the clay bar took off especially off the boot lid and bottom half of the doors!
Some pics of the finished purple beastie:









Then I spent another couple of hours yesterday with the wheels off, painting the brake calipers and wheel hubs gold and silver respectively. The pic's a bit crap, you can almost make out the shiny new painted bits! I know a few people on here don't like painted brakes and all that nonsense, but I think it's fairly subtle and not too over the top..




Conclusions: BUY A CLAY BAR and some MEGUIARS polish / wax!!