i just bought me a orbital polisher from Griot's this weekend. washed my car with dish soap to remove the old wax, then did the 3 step. started with # 3 then # 2 then waxed. car looks awesome, cant believe i waited so long to buy one of these machines. oh and i did tape off my car. taped off the trim, winsheild wipers and any plastic and all the cracks in the between the body parts. made the clean up soo much easier. but it adds about an hour to the job. in all took me about 6-7 hours to do it, but then again it was my first time and i did do the three step process.