Hmm, I didn't read this thread because I thought you were just looking for a pro detailer in NJ.... Sorry if this comes a bit too late.
After seeing the last picture you posted, I gotta say HOLY COW
I hate to tell you this, but your paint is swirled out the wazoo, and there is absolutely no way the steps you listed, by hand, are going to fix those. You'll need both something a lot stronger than just SMR and a lot of time (and sweat) to get those out by hand.
The alternative is to pay someone to REMOVE them once with a rotary, and then take it from there. So I suppose it's up to you. You could spend the cash and get it fixed in a day, or you could spread out the job panel by panel over several days yourself.
As for your steps, steps 4 and 5 are unneeded. Just go by feel and do the job thoroughly once. You might not be able to see some of the really minute contamination and you'll be polishing very heavily anyway. The Megs cleaner doesn't really "clean" and doesn't really fit in anywhere. After that is all your polishing work (or turn it over to the pro). After polishing definitely use your Meguiar's Deep Crystal 2 Polish, which is a glaze. Your car is black and will really benefit appearance-wise. People seem to like the Mothers wax better, but they're the same function-wise so it's up to you. HTH
After seeing the last picture you posted, I gotta say HOLY COW
I hate to tell you this, but your paint is swirled out the wazoo, and there is absolutely no way the steps you listed, by hand, are going to fix those. You'll need both something a lot stronger than just SMR and a lot of time (and sweat) to get those out by hand.The alternative is to pay someone to REMOVE them once with a rotary, and then take it from there. So I suppose it's up to you. You could spend the cash and get it fixed in a day, or you could spread out the job panel by panel over several days yourself.
As for your steps, steps 4 and 5 are unneeded. Just go by feel and do the job thoroughly once. You might not be able to see some of the really minute contamination and you'll be polishing very heavily anyway. The Megs cleaner doesn't really "clean" and doesn't really fit in anywhere. After that is all your polishing work (or turn it over to the pro). After polishing definitely use your Meguiar's Deep Crystal 2 Polish, which is a glaze. Your car is black and will really benefit appearance-wise. People seem to like the Mothers wax better, but they're the same function-wise so it's up to you. HTH