Paint Sealant

Is paint sealant needed after every buff? Or is it only needed for older cars?

And is this the correct order of the process for detailing?
1. Wash and Dry
2. Buff with compound
3. Wash and Dry(optional)
4. Wax with low speed orbital
5. Paint Sealnt with low speed orbital(optional)

Also, if you had to do clay bar, which of the steps above will it fit into?

p.s. I'm a new owner at the full service car wash. I don't have any experience and I'm trying to pick it up as fast as I can. :) Thanks for all your help!

Every vehicle is different but your general order is correct for a vehicle that needs all the steps. Claying would be done between steps 1 & 2. For speed many places go with this format on exteriors.

1. wash
2. clay
3. buff with polish, glaze, compound or a 1 step
4. wax by hand or orbital

Hi: I been using 3m products por the past 6 years and this is how we do it:
1) wash and dry
2) remove tar, grease or soil from paint.
3) claying
4) use on some scratches( when needed) 2000 or 3000 sandpaper
5) Extra cut compound (4000-4500 rpm)
6) wash and dry
6) Sealant(1800-2000 rpm)
7) Swirl marks remover(1500-1800 rpm)
8) Machine glaze (1200-1500 rpm)
9) carnauba hand wax ( just to clean up all the surface)

with these we can give an excellente service to our customers.
We sale this process as Paint Protection with "mirror finishing" And we have done about 3800-3900 cars with this process,for a price of $250-$400 usd, per car ( will depend on the size, color and paint look)
Its a protection against UV light, rain (avoiding those rain spots),dust damage etc. This process will not garantee at all for scratches you need to be very careful when explaining the process to your customer.!
regards
Renato
from Mexico

As someone indicated what you do to a vehicle finish is dependent on the problem.

Here are the procedures you can use and when:

1. A 3 step which is correct, swirl-remove/polish & protect if the paint has problems.
You use a buffer, cutting pad and a compound for this step. Followed by a buffer, polishing pad and swirl remover. Then either by hand or orbital a wax or paint sealant.

2. A 2 Step is is polish and protect.
You typically would use a buffer with polishing pad and polish followed by the wax or sealant.

3. A 1 Step can be done two ways depending on condition of paint and what the customer is buying:

a. Wax or Sealant only on a good paint finish.
b A One-Step Product which is a cleaner/polish/protectant all in one. Best used with a buffer, polishing pad.

However, to implement any of these steps requires you have the knowledge to diagnose paint finish types, the problems and have all the tools, pads and chemicals needed to perform these steps.

Regards
Bud Abraham
DETAIL PLUS SYSTEMS

By the way whether you use a wax or a paint sealant you need to protect the paint after the 3 or 2 step process.

Bud Abraham

Im agree 100% with Bud, you need to get a correct trainning, before you start doing this kind of jobs. Its very important to have the knowledge about how to use every single one of the products you may use, also as Bud mentioned need to know about paint finishing types.
I think you can get all the help you need about trainning from Bud
regards
Renato