Wow thanks everyone for the replies! Didn't expect to get so much advice. Will try and respond to a few common points:
I am a new car owner, and the last time I washed a car by hand was before Homecoming senior year of high school. Had no idea what I was doing and the result was pretty middling. However, I am a responsible adult now and have been able to DIY a lot of things successfully, so I am hoping to add washing my car to the repertoire. Been watching a lot of ChrisFix on youtube and was planning to roughly follow the method in this video:
How to SUPER CLEAN Your Car (Best Clean Possible)
I definitely didn't get any pre-treatments from the dealership, but I guess I just assumed there was
some type of coating put on at the factory. But knowing that there isn't makes me feel more comfortable because
if I do it right (or close to it), the result will provide better protection for my paint job than the zero protection I have now.
@JSB33 haha I definitely understand the sentiment. I have put off the first wash because I've been afraid to screw it up, but once I get the hang of it I do plan to take good car of the car!
I also think another barrier has been not being sure which products to get/how much square feet of microfiber cloth I need (probably a LOT more than I have right now). Will I need to sink a good $100 in materials/supplies before doing this? Should I just get cheap microfiber cloths from Advance Auto, or does quality matter there?
Thanks again for all the advice everyone, I promise I am reading it all and will watch the videos after I get off work. Sounds like a good strategy might be to do the first one on my roommate's Fusion, and maybe go someplace to get mine done and just ask them a ton of questions before trying it myself in a couple months.
Open to any more input y'all feel like providing.
Go Hoos