The Detailing World forum is very good for hints, tips and advice. The deeper you go, the more it'll cost you if you let it.
Like Sasha, I do the below;
Snow foam pre-wash
Bucket wash with a shampoo, not a shampoo and wax combination using a wash mitt not a sponge.
Wheel cleaner
Then if it's time, clay the car to remove baked on crud.
Wash again.
Apply polish
Apply wax
Apply sealent.
Products I use are;
Valet Pro PH Neutral Snow Foam
Autoglym Shampoo or Muc Off Car Shampoo or a Meguiars Shampoo
Meguiars Clay bar kit
Autoglym Super Resin Polish
Autoglym Extra Gloss Protection
Meguiars Wax or Muc Off Car Wax
End up with a lovely clean and shiny car
cleanDS by
Pete, on Flickr
There's a hell of a lot of products available and Clean Your Car is a good website to buy from -
http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/ - or there's Halfords who stock both Meguiars and Autoglym stuff.
I guess it really depends on how into car cleaning you are or want to be. With few products you can do pretty well, but if you're wanting to remove swirls and light scratches that's getting into the realms of machine polishers and cutting compounds.
I like the satisfaction of seeing how clean it is after the time I put into it. Snow foaming is fun too.