Clay or Not???

[FALCON50EX]

Ok, A lot of people say to clay, it removes so much. I am going to use #7 then #21 with a DA this should remove what ever the clay would have? I will be using this on a 07 black F150 that gets washed all the time and has been waxed from the start. I have #26 to top it off and have read that it would look better or deaper to place a carnauba over the top of the #26??

Thanks for the help

[BINGO53]

Re: Clay or Not???

Hi,
Clay removes "bonded contaminates", and not paint. #7 is a pure polish only, it has no cleaning abilities.

What condition is the surface you are working on? What if any flaws, (swirls, scratches oxydation, etc) need to be removed?

Post back with a little more info.

[FALCON50EX]

Re: Clay or Not???

i also have #9 to start i left that out. The bonded contaminates makes sence. The paint is in very good shape just a little spider webing and two small rock chips. I try to keep it up but know i will do the entire truck top to bottom and then some.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Clay or Not???

Ok, A lot of people say to clay, it removes so much. I

Let's get a little more precise...

As BINGO53 stated, detailing clay removes contaminants that are bonded or stuck on the surface of the paint. Detailing Clay contains a special type of abrasive that will in simple terms, sand anything sitting on top of the paint surface off. Because the clay itself is tacky, these contaminants it abrades off stick the clay. This is why after claying you can usually turn the clay bar over and look at it and you'll see the contaminants you've removed. It's also the reason that once in a while you'll need to knead the clay to force these contaminants into the clay to expose a fresh surface. And at some point the clay will become so loaded up with contaminants you'll want to throw the clay away and replace it with a new pieces of clay.

If you look through the pictures we post for our Saturday classes you'll see we almost always clay our demo cars because they almost always need to be clayed as most of these cars are DAILY DRIVERS.

Daily Drivers accumulate bonded contaminants that washing won't remove and that's where clay is the best tool for the job.

Some people want to use a paint cleaner instead of clay to remove bonded contaminants but the truth is,

Clay is the most effective way to remove above surface bonded contaminants

Paint cleaners like Deep Crystal Paint Cleaner or ScratchX will remove some bonded contaminants, but clay is the most effective way to insure all contaminant are removed.

Have you read The 5 Step Paint Care Cycle yet? As it explains everything you want to do and will guide you to the right product. If you're working by hand, you want to read both of these articles.


The 5 Step Paint Care Cycle

How To Remove Swirls By Hand

[brickyardz]

Re: Clay or Not???

In addition to what everyone else has said, claying is one of the easiest taskes to perform. It is very effortless to do and requires no real elbow grease or what Mike likes to call "passion". You can do a whole car in about an hour to 1.5 hours depending on the size, maybe even faster. It is well worth the time and that alone will make the paint surface very smooth.

[woody27]

Re: Clay or Not???

Mike:
Thank you for taking the mystery out of cleaning our cars properly.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Clay or Not???

In addition to what everyone else has said, claying is one of the easiest tasks to perform. It is very effortless to do and requires no real elbow grease or what Mike likes to call "passion".

Last Saturday at the Mustang Class one of the member's brought their 9-year old son and he learned how to clay.

San Diego Black Mustang Club & WickedStangs at Meguiar's!


Even kids can clay a car!

[249auto]

Re: Clay or Not???

So, this looks like clay is what I want to do. Everyone says that this (clay) removes "bonded contaminants". I know I screwed up and here is how. My stepson and I just painted his car. Looks pretty good actually. Two base coats and two clear coats. However, I found a run area that I sanded out then re-sprayed. Hence the problem. It was in the center of a large flat panel, not near seams and I did not mask off. So, I have self induced overspray surrounding the fix. Will a clay bar in combination with some polish remove this? If not, what will? Is it just that I have to wet sand the whole thing and machine compound/polish? I am very apprehensive about the latter approach, having never done it. Sounds like I'd be more likely to screw it up with a buffer.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Clay or Not???

However, I found a run area that I sanded out then re-sprayed. Hence the problem.

It was in the center of a large flat panel, not near seams and I did not mask off.

So, I have self induced overspray surrounding the fix.

Will a clay bar in combination with some polish remove this? If not, what will? .

First,

"You don't know what you can do until you try"

So the first thing you want to do is to get some quality detailing clay and try to remove the overspray by claying. Hopefully this will do the job.

Meguair's always says,

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

Clay is less aggressive than compounding or sanding, so try claying first. We offer 3 grades of clay, our Consumer, which is fine and in our Professional Line we offer Medium and Aggressive,

Try the Consumer Clay first as with good technique you should be able to remove the overspray, if you can't then it could be using a more aggressive clay may not do the job either, but try claying first.

You don't want to jump right up to the aggressive clay because it's so aggressive it could do instill what we call Clay Hazing into the fresh/soft paint.

The Consumer Clay should be available in your auto parts stores or Call Customer Care to help you locate some

1-800-347-5700

Smooth Surface™ Clay Kit



IF this doesn't work, update us and we'll see you through to success with a different process.

[brickyardz]

Re: Clay or Not???

So, this looks like clay is what I want to do. Everyone says that this (clay) removes "bonded contaminants". I know I screwed up and here is how. My stepson and I just painted his car. Looks pretty good actually. Two base coats and two clear coats. However, I found a run area that I sanded out then re-sprayed. Hence the problem. It was in the center of a large flat panel, not near seams and I did not mask off. So, I have self induced overspray surrounding the fix. Will a clay bar in combination with some polish remove this? If not, what will? Is it just that I have to wet sand the whole thing and machine compound/polish? I am very apprehensive about the latter approach, having never done it. Sounds like I'd be more likely to screw it up with a buffer.

Clay will remove overspray since it is bonded on the surface of the paint. You may need to take more than one pass at it to remove everything but it's easy to do.

although I have never done it, my understanding is you will want to color sand your finish after applying the clear coat to level it out, then take a rotary to it to remove the sanding marks and then finally polish it with something like the DA polisher to remove all traces of swirl marks. Others can confirm or add to this but to make the finish look its best its my understanding thats the process to use.

[249auto]

Re: Clay or Not???

Wow, thanks guys! I'm already under clearcoat and I did to a very light rub down on the base coat with 1000 grit to smooth out some orange peel. I'm okay with orange peel - I have it in the clear, I'll be happy to get rid of the overspray. The advice is great - I figured to start with the least agressive thing that I could. If I could make it disappear by staring at it I would. I'll get some clay and let you know how that works out. Do I need any polish, or just clay alone?

[249auto]

Re: Clay or Not???

So the only product I can find locally at my paint supplier is Meguiar's Mild Detailing Clay which they are telling me to use with Mirror Glaze #34 Final Inspection Is this too agressive for me?

Thanks

----- NEVERMIND ----- I found a local supplier thanks to the Community Link on your home page.

[249auto]

Re: Clay or Not???

Okay, so for the true overspray elements this worked. It looks like I have more than just simple overspray in some areas, so I'm just considering another coat of clear or a color sand. The clay did grab a lot of the finer stuff on the outermost edges of the area and did make it much smoother to the touch. I need to run this over my own car next!

[249auto]

Re: Clay or Not???

Just an update on what I found. Clay worked fine for overspray and some other contamination that got onto my clear coat. Product worked as described and produced the desired effect.

I also had other issues - like some of what I saw was not really overspray, just incredibly bad orange peel or roughness because of poor clear coat application - so those areas got resprayed - my bad.

Finally, I also had some runs to get rid of. So, in the spirit of start least aggressive and work up, I rubbed out some runs with 1000 grit, then 2000 grit. I found then that for that dullness, I could use Scratch X and elbow grease and a small foam buff ball and voila - I have a really good looking surface again.

GREAT PRODUCTS, GREAT ADVICE

[yalerd]

Re: Clay or Not???