Clay removes both dirt and wax, so you'll need to re-wax after claying. If your car's finish is in good shape, you can use a combined polish/wax product, but if the finish is in bad shape, a two-stage polish and wax process is better.
Polish smooths, clarifies, and cleans the surface of your car. Polishing will remove some small scratches, but it can also remove paint, so if you polish by hand, be careful to use light pressure. Using power tools to polish a car used to require finely-honed skill to avoid paint damage, but today there are electric orbital polishers that make the job easy and virtually foolproof. Mothers sells a kit called the Wax Attack, which includes the orbital polisher plus bottles of wax and polish. A less expensive alternative is Mothers Powerball 4 Paint, which attaches to a cordless drill.
Products used:
Mothers Wax Attack Polisher (buy direct)
Other orbital polishers (compare prices)
Mothers Microfiber Applicator Pads (compare prices)
Mothers PowerPolish Stage 1 (compare prices)
