Unfortunately there aren't any real hard and fast definitions for various terms in the auto detailing world. For example, Zaino calls most of their products "polish" but since most of those are used as the final protection step their definition seems a bit out of place.

Meguiar's uses the following definitions (and we've been doing so since long before Sal Zaino was born):

Wash: The removal of loose contanimants such as dirt, road grime, etc
Cleaning: As in "paint cleaning", the removal of bonded contaminants that are not removed during a routine wash. These include both bonded surface contaminants such as rail dust, tree sap, hard water mineral deposits, etc that are removed with a clay bar, and below surface defects such as fine swrils and scratches, etching from bird droppings and acid rain, dirt in paint, etc that are removed with either an abrasive or chemical cleaner.
Polish: The creation of a high gloss shine.


Washing is pretty self explanatory: a bucket, a hose, some car wash soap and a good wash mitt.

Cleaning is broken down into the clay bar treatment for all the stuff that makes the paint feel rough to the touch and the step that literally levels the paint to eliminate fine swirls, scratches, etc. Yes, in order to actually remove a swirl you have to remove some clear coat. Sounds scary, I know, but done properly it really isn't. Tests using coating thickness gauges have repeatedly shown that use of DA polisher and a light abrasive cleaner removes so small an amount of clear coat that it can't even be measured. Wet sanding and compounding are a different story, but that's best left to a pro. Do these two steps together and the paint will look incredible - super high gloss and incredibly smooth to the touch, but it will not be protected at all.

Polishes are essentially similar to a glaze - something that can hide fine swirls and buffer trails, which a body shop will inflict on your finish when they take a rotary buffer and wool pad to it just to bring up the shine of a fresh paint job. The problem is these products have a very short lifespan and are just intended to either hide minor defects (as in the case of a body shop) or add a level of depth and gloss to paint that has been fully cleaned as outlined above. We consider it to be an optional step when dealing with well prepped paint - our best known product of this sort is M07 Show Car Glaze. As the name implies it was designed with show cars in mind and it does an amazing job of darkening the paint and adding a very high gloss shine. But it won't last very long unless you apply a wax/sealant on top of it. It wasn't designed to last long, so keep that in mind.

We also make a broad range of cleaner polishes that are, as the name implies, a combination of paint cleaner and polish in one. The most common are M80 Speed Glaze and M83 Dual Action Cleaner Polish. M80 has more polishing oils in it than M83 does, while M83 has stronger cleaners. Both have the ability to actually remove swirl marks, not just hide them. When properly used you can wipe the surface with a 50/50 mix of water and alcohol to remove any traces of the product, and the swirls are gone - this proves they aren't just filling.

It should be noted that the paint on the Crossfire is extremely hard. Products and techniques I use regularly on my 2004 PT Cruiser to remove every single defect from the paint don't have a lot of impact on the Crossfire. I had to step up to a new product of ours - M105 Ultra Cut Compound. This requires a bit more advanced technique but the results are just amazing.

Keep in mind too that even before I started working for Meguiar's I had detailed all sorts of different cars, with a wide variety of finishes. Not all paint systems are created equal. I've been to numerous shows, recently including the Los Angeles Conours d'Elegance, and am always amazed at the amount of swirls in the paint on even multi-million dollar cars. Talking with the owners just confirms that many, many people simply don't know what they're looking at when evaluating paint. I've actually had people tell me that their process, whatever it might be, keeps their paint 100% swirl free, yet when we walk over to their mega-buck car sitting before the judges the swirls just about jump out and slap you in the face. We're rather picky at Meguiar's when it comes to truly defect free finishes. When I have to go out and select a handful of cars as candidtates for the "Best Paint" award at a show, and Barry Meguair himself is making the final call, I'd damn well better have a nearly perfect car for him to give the award to. And trust me on this, they are extremely hard to find.