I'm tired of waxing!

My new ride is rust free and now undercoated with Fluid Film.  I started cleaning up the paint, oy.  I like using 3M's Marine Wax, I find it lasts longer and cleans well.  The first picture is after a good bath and one application of wax.  It pulled all kinds of crap out of the paint, so I did it again; then again.  Still bleeding grit into the rag but it "feels" smoother.

Should I have gone straight to rubbing compound?  I have a buffer but the tail gate has so many angles it's hard to use properly.

Open to suggestions because I have the whole rest of the truck to do.

Thanks, Dan

Did you use a clay bar first? If not, it will remove all the e36 m3 stuck to the surface. 

And sweet truck by the way, that thing looks cherry. 

As a Mod and a spam hunter, given the title. I expected spam

Its single stage paint, right? 

I'd start with a simple clay bar/wax to see how you feel. If it's still not to your standards, then polishing compound (not rubbing compound) on a DA polisher would probably make pretty quick work of the rest of the truck and all of it's flat surfaces, followed by the wax of your choice (I'm a Meguiar's High Tech Yellow 26 guy but YMMV).

That being said, the pic looks really good to me as-is.

As TJL said, I wouldn't recommend trying to use polish to pull contaminants off the paint and use a clay bar or similar instead. One thing I only learned recently is that you can now get "clay towels" which are supposed to make that process less painful. They're not that expensive - I just bought one on Amazon as I've run out of detailing clay, but haven't had a chance to use it.

The easiest way to find out if you've got crud sticking to the paint is to either pull on a thin vinyl glove and run your finger tips over the paint, or use some thin cellophane (like the wrapper on a cigarette box) and do the same. The additional layer between the paint and your fingertips seems to amplify the feel of contamination on the paint. If you feel any, it's clay bar time.

Also, keep in mind that a clay bar will take any wax or sealant off.

Lastly, you might want to look into a synthetic sealant on top of or instead of the wax as those tend to last longer than even a good carnauba wax.

that's a whole lot of sheet metal, so you're kinda berkeleyed if you're gonna DIY.

first thing i'll say is, "wax is not a surface cleaner". 

start with a clay bar wet with soapy water.  keep the bar and the surface wet with soapy water while you're working it.  the clay process goes faster than you expect it to, but it's definitely still laborious.

then give the truck a good wash and rinse.  dry it with a chamois.

at this point you've got a nice clean smooth surface and it's your choice whether to use a paint cleaner followed by a polish followed by a wax, or if it looks good enough to you then you can skip the cleaner and/or the polish and go straight to the wax.

or you can take it to a detailer and drop $200 and pick it up done.  you're an empty nester.   let someone else blow out their rotator cuffs.

That's only a $200 job? I'm feeling kinda stupid for spending a week buffing and waxing my 88 Silverado a couple of years ago.

Thanks guys, forgot about the clay bar.  Mr. Welsh, sorry, still thinking small group of  car guys.