Clay vs Colorsanding?

[VengeFulHemi]

I had ordered a dvd from a forum I belong to in addition to Meg's(my favorite). The host&producer of this dvd owns&runs a resto&bshop business in Tenn. The video is colorsanding&buffing. I've always used the claybar for everything, but he metions nothing about it. His dvd is strictly wetsanding w/1000,1500,2000, then using a polisher w/a three step process(i'm sure 3M).

My question is: does clay, compound, & polish achive those same results as opposed to colorsanding(no clay), and using a PC/DA as opposed to a rotary?

[G Force]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

i guess that clay sticks out,wet sanding cuts off.

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

Wetsanding is removing actual paint.

When you use a claybar, you are removing below surface contaminants. Yes, the aggressive claybar does have abrasives, but they are meant to remove the bonded contaminants - not flatten the paint or remove a scratch.

[VengeFulHemi]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

i guess that clay sticks out,wet sanding cuts off.

i understand about the sanding aspect, but what do you mean by "clay sticks out"? just confused about how you phrased it.

[VengeFulHemi]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

Wetsanding is removing actual paint. When you use a claybar, you are removing below surface contaminants.

so is the clay basically achiving the same thing as colorsanding(in a way)?

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

Sorry, I had to edit my post to add some things.

The aggressive claybar is designed to effectively remove tough bonded contaminants by use of abrasives. These abrasives are not the same as the ones used in wetsanding. Basically, a claybar can not be used in place of wetsanding.

If the paint has plenty of bonded contaminants, I would use the claybar first and then start wetsanding. It's best to have the paint as clean as possible before you start.

[G Force]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

so is the clay basically achiving the same thing as colorsanding(in a way)?

i beleive clay sticks to contaminants and may lift them from the paint they dug in.
wet sanding cuts contaminants at paint levels.

[VengeFulHemi]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

please forgive me for being repetitive, but does this mean colorsanding would be more effective, or is it only necessary if a finish is in poor condition? my finish is very good, not show car by any means.

[PorscheGuy997]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

The aggressive claybar is meant for pros because its aggressive nature can marre the paint.

If you haven't already wetsanded in the past, I wouldn't suggest doing it to your truck. The process is not easy and you need experience.

If the finish is in good condition, I see no reason to wetsand or use an aggressive claybar.

What are you trying to correct?

[VengeFulHemi]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

What are you trying to correct?[/quote]
Nothing severe or anything, just would like very much to have a slick, smooth, scratch&web free finish. Just like everyone else, I want a show car finish, but I know that would be a ton more of work, but I would be very happy with the latter.

[Tim Lingor]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

Morning,

Clay bars remove bonded contaminants on the surface of the paint. So picture a speck of over spray sitting on top on the paint. The abrasives in the clay remove the speck while gliding over the surface.

Wet sanding of course will remove this speck but will also remove far more as it touches the paint.

Now, if I am reading your question correctly, you are wondering why the person is using a clay bar as well as wet sanding? When wet sanding by hand, you use a special sanding block. As you sand, you want extremely even pressure on a very flat surface in order to prevent waves in the paint. (This is why I always flinch whenever someone suggests wet sanding as an alternative to swirl removal. Unless you know what you are doing, you can create waves in the paint extremely easily. As soon as the paint is buffed out and someone looks down the side of the car, you will see these distortions and they look TERRIBLE!). But before you sand, you want a extremely clean and even surface to sand on.

Let's suppose for a moment that something metallic from your brake pads has bonded on your paint. If you just start wet sanding BEFORE removing this contaminant, it may get caught under the sandpaper and lead to things like tracers (which are usually caused by uneven grits applied to the paper and the reason why I stick to Unigrit Papers). These tracers are deep scratches that are difficult to remove with buffing so more sanding is needed. You see the cycle you may get yourself into?

Now as for comparing color/wet sanding to claying, there is a HUGE difference in terms of paint correction that will be necessary after using each method. Claying will leave the finish ultra smooth and ready for doing anything from major compounding to light paint correction. Even on paints in pristine condition, I will clay them even if I am only doing extremely minor paint correction.

NOW...for wet sanding, it is nothing like claying at all. The paint will be abraded and you will have to have a lot of experience in removing these sanding marks, especially with hardened OEM paints. In the vast majority of cases, you will need a lot of experience with using a rotary buffer in order to remove the sanding marks! We get a lot of posts on MOL where people have claimed to have removed the saning marks easily. I often reply, pull it out into the sun and look REALLY close at the paint. In the vast majority of cases, the sanding marks will be still there albeit very faintly. Now I am not saying that is true in all cases. But from all of my years doing this, I have inspected a lot of wet sanding jobs where people think the paint is perfect only to discover that it is far from ultra clear and free of all sanding marks. It takes years of doing this to do it well.

Caveat: Wet sanding is only for the very experienced. My best advice BEFORE touching anything you care about is practice, practice and practice some more. It is easy to sand paint, but it can be extremely difficult to remove the sanding marks afterwards. Finally, wet sanding removes paint. If too much paint is removed, you may damage the paint's UV protection leading CC failure in short order. This is especially true on OEM paint as it is usually around 4.5 mils thick with 1.5 mils being the CC.

Tim

[Lydia]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

Just wondering here. Doesn't the clay bar remove above surface defects, not below surface defects?

Edit: Tim said what I was going to say as far as clay versus color sanding much better as I was typing. Lol.

[Tim Lingor]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

Just wondering here. Doesn't the clay bar remove above surface defects, not below surface defects?

Edit: Tim said what I was going to say as far as clay versus color sanding much better as I was typing. Lol.

LOLOL! I know the feeling! Mike and I are often typing at the same time and of course he can type much faster than I can. So after spending 15 minutes typing a post, I post it only to discover that Mike typed the same thing and beat me to it! It drives me nuts! LOLOLOLOL!

And yes...clay does remove contaminants above the surface.

Tim

[VengeFulHemi]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

Now, if I am reading your question correctly, you are wondering why the person is using a clay bar as well as wet sanding?

He wasn't using both clay&colorsand, just colorsand. His name is Kevin Tetz. His website is http://www.paintucation.com/. I'm in no way promoting him or his website, I just started getting into spray gun painting, and I have passed by his place and saw some interesting stuff. But I guess i'm a bit nieve because he is someone who has been at this for 30+yrs. But most importantly, many many thanks to you and everyone at MG for steering me in the right direction.

I figure tomarrow I will clay, use my cutting pad w/#83, then #9 w/polishing pad, then the show car glaze.

[Lydia]

Re: Clay vs Colorsanding?

Have you tried a test spot with that combination yet? More importantly, have you tried #83 with the polishing pad, or #80 first? Also, are you using the PC or a rotary?

Tim: Glad I'm not the only one it happens to. Lol.