paint work feeling a bit rough, thing of doing a 3 stage clean. any susgestions or recomended cleaners, polishes and wax

Get yourself over here http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/ and explore the minefield Alternatively nick p or beancounter will be along soon to point you in the right direction If your paintwork is rough, then a clay is a starter

thanks, thinking of the 3 stages, cleaning polising and protection. norm use autoglym but fancied changing to meguirs, blackfire or poorboys any susgestions

They are all good products, i get my detailer to do mine, in the past ive rinsed the car first, snow foamed, leave to dwell for 20 minutes + then pressure wash off, then snow foam again, then using two bucket method wash vehicle using megs wash mit and megs car shampoo, pressure wash off then towel dry using microfibre towel, then using the megs clay bar kit, once clayed wash car again, towel dry again, then either use a wax ive used col 476 before but found it hard work to put on without a machine, then used a paint sealant gtechniq have some good products which i'm stocking up on at the moment.

OLLI - Ady's given a good account of what you need to do to be honest.

Its a slippery slope and you can get as involved as you want to.
The single biggest 'wow' impact will be from the clay. Its amazing how much stuff gets bonded to the paint over time.

As a simple starter for 10, I'd get either the Meguiars Clay Kit or a Bilt Hamber Clay bar. The benefit of the BH one is that you can use just water as a lubricant.

Wash your car thoroughly and rinse, no need to dry, just get a spray bottle of water (clay lube in the case of the megs kit) and your clay. Cut the clay bar up into about 6-8 pieces. That way if you drop it, you still have some left. If you do drop it, BIN IT straight away.
Spray the surface with the water/lube, the GENTLY start rubbing your clay over the surface. as soon as it stops 'snagging' you have cleaned that area. Work all the way around the car. Start on the roof, boot, bonnet, then work don the sides. When you've finished, go over your windows, you'll be amazed how much crap is on them.

Once finished, wash/rinse the car again.

Next up, you need to 'polish' the car. You can use something like Autoglym SRP, its a great product, just use it sparingly.
If you're going down the machine (DA) polishing route, let me know and I'll give you some pointers.
After you've SRP'd the car, you want something to seal in your hard work. Collinite 476 as Ady says is good, or Finish Kare's 1000P High Temp sealent is also a fantastic product. Advantage is you can follow a similar process on your alloys to make them easier to clean in future.

Hope that helps, but give a shout back if you need anything else.  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

sounds good advice

I used Wolf chemicals Body Wrap on mine about a year ago, which gave a really nice shine and beaded the water really nice, but i washed it with iron x soap gel and that stripped the beading, left the protection

I gave it a good wash the other night and used the Gtechniq C1.5 Silo Seal, spray on wipe of coating and the results were fantastic, brought back a glowing shine and this morning the beads of water from the rain was nice and tight, well worth a look at their products

I took a picture too

Click image to enlarge

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

Looking good Nick  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

must say it was done to try it out as as soon as i have the time the car needs claying and polsihing

I spend a hour on the wheels last night, loads of black spot of brake dust behind the spokes, Iron X and a agitate with a brush and they was back up and 90% clean, forgot how good a product it is,

but need to polish them and they are a bit dull, used Wolfs Chem Nano clean and seal on them as a quick temp fix

Great piccie NP.

Keep up with the C1.5 every 6-8 weeks and it'll look that good for a long time.  FF 4.4 V8 Soooo looking forward to this bad boy
Ex 2006 RRS SC - garbage
Ex 2016 135i M Sport - dream car
Ex 2003 RS6 Avant - piece of cr*p
Ex 2014 320d X Drive, M Sport Touring - ok I guess
Ex 2007 RRS TDV8 - bloody loved it
EX 2007 FL2 XS - not so bad

Agree, Iron X is a superb product.
I was hoping these new Iron decontaminater (sp) and Tar removers in one (like TRIX) would be good, but I'm not seeing that much praise for them. Seems they are a lot more gentle than the individual stand alone products

Need to give my RRS a good detail at some point, it's looking a little sorry for itself at the moment  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

ONE-LIFE-LIVE-IT, Make sure you give yourself a good few hours ie 6-8 hours to do the job right Great advice as always guys i spent 2 1/2 hours just washing my car last night it was filthy.

^^^ Pics or it didn't happen  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

It was dark by the time i'd finished Wife thought i'd gone out for the night

'thought' or 'hoped'  ON THE WAY: BMW F21 M140i
MERCEDES GL350 - Metallic Navy Blue w/Grey interior

GOING: BMW F31 335D MSport+ xDrive Touring
GONE: Land Rover Discovery 4 HSE - Stornaway Grey w/Black Interior (wish we'd kept it )
GONE: BMW F10 520D MSport - Carbon Black
GONE:MY12 RRS SDV6 HSE Sumatra/Ivory/Grand Black Privacy glass

^^^ Hey, cheeky git