Would you use Agressive clay?

[Detaillab]

I just did a truck that had really really bad oil based paint overspray. I used mild detailing clay and it took a lot of it off after a couple of passes. I ended up running out of QD so I have to go back on thursday. Would aggressive clay be easier? With the mild it was two or three applications before I got the desired results. The truck is an '03 Ford Superduty, and it is black. Sorry I don't have pics, it would have been extreme too becuase I don't think I have ever seen a truck that dirty before, and with such severe overspray. The truck is swirled out pretty bad as well, but the paint is very workable so no biggie.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?

The aggressive clay is aggressive enough that you may instill what we call clay hazing, which is clay micro-scratching. For this you'll have to machine buff in most cases to remove the clay haze.

You might want to stick with a less aggressive clay.

[diat150]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?

can the clay haze be taken out with a DA and #83/80? Also, is the white clay as aggressive as the blue? what is the difference in those two?

[Lydia]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?

I personally wouldn't suggest using the red aggressive clay on a black vehicle. The only two vehicles I've used it on were VERY badly oxidized (one of them I couldn't see my reflection at all because the clear coat was missing, and the other I could barely barely see a reflection...is was SS). The funny thing was, in the SS car, after using the clay I could see my reflection a little better because the paint was so oxidized the clay helped clear it up a little. I still wouldn't suggest using it, though. It put some pretty nasty swirls in the SS paint, even thought it was oxidized.

[Lt1Corvette]

Re: Would you use Aggressive clay?

can the clay haze be taken out with a DA and #83/80? Also, is the white clay as aggressive as the blue? what is the difference in those two?

In my experience, Yes. But as said unless you really need it, don't use it. As far as blue professional mild clay vs white consumer clay they are pretty close, however I find the blue to have just slightly more bit. But either one is safe to use on a swirl free black car.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?

can the clay haze be taken out with a DA and #83/80?

That all depends upon how soft, or how hard the paint is.

[Detaillab]

Re: Would you use Aggressive clay?

In my experience, Yes. But as said unless you really need it, don't use it. As far as blue professional mild clay vs white consumer clay they are pretty close, however I find the blue to have just slightly more bit. But either one is safe to use on a swirl free black car.

It is far from a swilr free black finish, but I don't really want to make it worse.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?

Meguiar's always teaches the philosophy of

"Use the least aggressive product to get the job done"


This would include claying. Last summer we had someone use our aggressive clay on the deck lid of of a car, we forget the car, because our Consumer clay, (white clay), and our Medium Clay, (blue clay), wasn't working even after multiple attempts.

The Aggressive Clay in our Professional Line worked with just a few passes. This however left clay hazing in the paint, we don't know if it was from the clay, or the contaminants embedded in the clay that the clay removed and then pushed over the paint to instill the scratches.

The scratches left in the paint after claying would not come out by hand or with a dual action polisher and we had to use a cutting compound with a cutting pad on a rotary buffer to remove the scratches. This was because the clear paint on this car was as hard as glass. After removing the scratches from the claying process, we thought to ourselves,

"Boy I'm glad we didn't have to clay the entire car"


It's never fun work on clear coat paint that are very, very hard. Especially if you have to compound them with a rotary buffer because this commits you to doing a complete buff-out to get it to a flawless, swirl-free finish and that will require a lot of time, work and energy.

So here's a tip, anytime you can remove above surface bonded contaminants using our Consumer Clay, (fine grade), or our Medium Clay in our Professional Line, do so, it may save you from a lot of follow-up work later.

[Detaillab]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?

We did it! It took several hours (four tuesday, and four today). I used the mild clay as suggested. We had to use quite a bit of pressure to be effective, but it worked. I think the clay may have scratched up the paint a little, but we used M66 to top and it took out all the swirls. We did the windows as well. We did not do the plastic and rubber pieces, becuase I didn't know what to use. What would you all suggest for removing overspray from plastic and rubber pieces?

P.S. Pictures are comming!

[Detaillab]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?




This was an in progress shot

[Detaillab]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?




Reflection shot

[Chex]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?

Man NOW THAT'S AN OVERSPRAYED finish!

BTW, what would happen if instead of using an agressive clay bar, we used body solvent to soften the overspray and then clay it out with a mild clay bar? would it be safe? This is an idea I thought about at the moment of posting

[oldmodman]

Re: Would you use Agressive clay?

I have only used the Red "Clay Magic" clay and had no problems with any micro scratches at all. The car that I was using it on had never been properly washed or polished in it's life so I can't be sure.

I first tried the white clay and it didn't appear to be doing much at all. Switched to the red clay and afterwards the finish felt smooth but still looked terrible.

Then I used DACP with a red pad, switched to 82 with a yellow pad, and finished up with 80 on a tan pad. 99% of the surface marring was gone and the remainder was too deep to remove with anything less that a rotary with #85.

After I finished, but before waxing I used the red clay in a nearly perfect area to see if it was damaging the surface and it did not.

After a couple of coats of NXT the "old heap" was done.

Bye the way, almost all of the surface crud was sap that had been on the paint for at least three years. I was amazed that it hadn't eaten all the through the paint all the way to the car's interior!