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Re: First time clay baring
Another great thread where the community steps up and helps out the "new guy" with a whole list of Q&A!!
Just a couple of notes here:
Waxing, or any other sort of care on plastics, metals, etc: Keep this in mind - the substrate is nowhere near as important as the top coat material you are working on. For example, the newest 5 Series BMWs have body panels that range from steel to aluminum to composite to urethane, but they are all covered in the same paint. Therefore, regardless what's under the paint, all panels get treated exactly the same way. Every modern car on the road today has urethane bumper covers and, with the exception of some SUVs and light trucks, they are all painted. Even your typical "alloy wheel" is painted. They aren't bare metal, so since you're working on paint it doesn't matter if the wheel's structure is aluminum or steel - if it's painted, treat it like paint. Most carbon fiber pieces these days have a clear coat on them - it's basically just paint so treat it like paint.
How long does the positive effect of claying last? Until the next time the car is exposed to something that could heavily contaminate it, or it's exposed to something sticky enough that it grabs hold quickly. That could, quite literally, be the day after you do a full detail. Or it could be a year. It all depends on exposure. Same goes for swirl marks and other below surface defects. You could spend a three day weekend dialing your ride to total perfection, then take it through a really lousy tunnel wash with old rotating brushes and it's swirl city all over again. What all that means is that maintenance is as important, if not more so, than all the corrective measures you take to make the car look great in the first place. In our Saturday Detailing 101 classes everyone wants to know how to remove swirls and other defects from their paint. We believe that the most important parts of the class program are the washing and maintaining sections. Those steps are, after all, the times when you run the greatest risk of creating swirls in the first place. If you don't create them, or at least minimize them, you don't have to fix them. Simple in concept, a bit trickier in execution!
Another great thread where the community steps up and helps out the "new guy" with a whole list of Q&A!!
Just a couple of notes here:
Waxing, or any other sort of care on plastics, metals, etc: Keep this in mind - the substrate is nowhere near as important as the top coat material you are working on. For example, the newest 5 Series BMWs have body panels that range from steel to aluminum to composite to urethane, but they are all covered in the same paint. Therefore, regardless what's under the paint, all panels get treated exactly the same way. Every modern car on the road today has urethane bumper covers and, with the exception of some SUVs and light trucks, they are all painted. Even your typical "alloy wheel" is painted. They aren't bare metal, so since you're working on paint it doesn't matter if the wheel's structure is aluminum or steel - if it's painted, treat it like paint. Most carbon fiber pieces these days have a clear coat on them - it's basically just paint so treat it like paint.
How long does the positive effect of claying last? Until the next time the car is exposed to something that could heavily contaminate it, or it's exposed to something sticky enough that it grabs hold quickly. That could, quite literally, be the day after you do a full detail. Or it could be a year. It all depends on exposure. Same goes for swirl marks and other below surface defects. You could spend a three day weekend dialing your ride to total perfection, then take it through a really lousy tunnel wash with old rotating brushes and it's swirl city all over again. What all that means is that maintenance is as important, if not more so, than all the corrective measures you take to make the car look great in the first place. In our Saturday Detailing 101 classes everyone wants to know how to remove swirls and other defects from their paint. We believe that the most important parts of the class program are the washing and maintaining sections. Those steps are, after all, the times when you run the greatest risk of creating swirls in the first place. If you don't create them, or at least minimize them, you don't have to fix them. Simple in concept, a bit trickier in execution!
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