[Finnegan]

Two bucket method. Buy a grit guard from any detailing company. Go to Home Depot or similar and get two large buckets. Grit guards go in buckets. Clear water in one; soapy water in the other. Scrub you sponge on the grit guard in the clear water, wring in out, repeat in soapy water bucket. Do one small section of the car at a time (half hood, top, side panel) then use the rinse and soap after each section to get rid of grit. Rinse each section as you complete it (do not leave soap on the car). You'll be surprised how much grit you get after even one section. If the car is really dirty, or you have a dirty panel, bucket rinse/soap mutiple times to avoid carrying grit. Change rinse water during wash process if car is dirty--several times if really dirty. I also blast my sponge with the hose and run throught the rinse process many times after each wash and before to ensure the sponge is grit-free. The reason to use this method is that rubbing any kind of material on the car picks up grit. If you don't get that off the spong/mitt whatever it scratches the paint. Be carefull about what you use to wash with--some polyester and man-made materials scratch even if grit-free.

If you're going to wash wheels have a separate sponge/wash kit for that. It's grit city, and you never want that near the paint!

Steps:

Rinse car with clear water, let it sit, rinse again
Two bucket section by section
Blast rinse
Clear stream rinse which will pull water off car (direct from hose end--careful of the metal hardware on the hose!)
Clean Microfiber towel dry (do not rub), blot (use quality microfiber towels, cheap Costco ones/etc. will scratch).

Use these methods, and a good cleaner, sealer, wax and your paint will look good for a long time. I saw Rick Hunter's car a few weeks back. He'd had it detailed two years ago. Looked just about as good as Skelekitty's car that was detailed the day prior to the meet up! Rick used the two bucket method....it really seems to work long term.

Interesting: Zpost doesn't have detailing section. M3post does. Maybe Bimmerpost ought have a general detailing section as wash/wax/etc. is pretty much the same deal car to car rather than a mismash.