Which step should come first?

[weatherman]

If a person plans to clay their vehicle and apply paint cleaner before waxing, which is the preferred order, clay then apply paint cleaner, or vice versa? Thanks in advance.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Which step should come first?

You clay first, this removes the gunk sitting on top of the surface which gets it out of the way so the paint cleaner can go right to work on the paint itself.

The only time you use a paint cleaner first is if you're working on a severely oxidized single stage paint then you use a paint cleaner first to remove the dead paint and then clay afterwards. If you clay first with severely oxidized paint you'll load your clay up with dead paint.

Clay with dead, oxidized blue paint.



This just wastes your clay. Remove the dead paint first, the clay.

[Jeepster04]

Re: Which step should come first?

Didnt know you shouldnt clay first with single stage.. Good tip mike.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Which step should come first?

Didnt know you shouldnt clay first with single stage.. Good tip mike.

There's an "if" in that recommendation, and that's if the paint has a lot of dead, oxidized paint on the surface. If you clay dead, oxidized paint the claying action will absorb this loose, disintegrating paint into itself and load your clay up with dead paint. This kind of loads up the clay with something that would be better and more efficiently removed using a paint cleaner by hand or any number of cleaning products by machine.

The idea being to remove the dead paint first and then use your clay to remove any bonded contaminants that didn't come off with the paint cleaner. Somewhere on our hard drive we have pictures of a clay bar and what it looks like AFTER first using a paint cleaner on dead, oxidized paint and the amount of bonded contaminants it picked up was simply amazing.

We point this out because a lot of people are under the impression that if they just use a paint cleaner it will remove all the bonded contaminants like a clay bar will and this is not always true.

"Claying is the most efficient way to remove
above surface bonded contaminants"

Key word above is efficient. This applies if you clay first, or clay second.

In the real world, most people don't own a car with an oxidized single stage finish that they also plan on detailing, so the above tip only affects a small portion of our population.

Hope this adds some clarificatoin....

[weatherman]

Re: Which step should come first?

There's an "if" in that recommendation, and that's if the paint has a lot of dead, oxidized paint on the surface. If you clay dead, oxidized paint the claying action will absorb this loose, disintegrating paint into itself and load your clay up with dead paint. This kind of loads up the clay with something that would be better and more efficiently removed using a paint cleaner by hand or any number of cleaning products by machine.

The idea being to remove the dead paint first and then use your clay to remove any bonded contaminants that didn't come off with the paint cleaner. Somewhere on our hard drive we have pictures of a clay bar and what it looks like AFTER first using a paint cleaner on dead, oxidized paint and the amount of bonded contaminants it picked up was simply amazing.

We point this out because a lot of people are under the impression that if they just use a paint cleaner it will remove all the bonded contaminants like a clay bar will and this is not always true.

"Claying is the most efficient way to remove
above surface bonded contaminants"

Key word above is efficient. This applies if you clay first, or clay second.

In the real world, most people don't own a car with an oxidized single stage finish that they also plan on detailing, so the above tip only affects a small portion of our population.

Hope this adds some clarificatoin....

First of all, thanks for all of the good information. If the surface/paint on my vehicle feels very smooth with no evidence of contaminants, do I even need to clay? I've read a couple of threads where some guys think you should clay no matter what, but if the surface of the paint is in good shape, I'm thinking after washing I will start with the paint cleaner, then polish with machine glaze, then apply the NXT 2.0.

[HagFan]

Re: Which step should come first?

You could slip a plactic baggie over your hand and see if it still feels smooth. If so, then I wouldn't bother with the clay. You could always try a 1'x1' test area with the clay and see if there is noticeable improvement.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Which step should come first?

First of all, thanks for all of the good information. If the surface/paint on my vehicle feels very smooth with no evidence of contaminants, do I even need to clay?

After washing, if the paint feels clean and smooth then you could go right to wax. If you already have purchased the clay, you might want to go ahead and at least test the clay out on the hood, you would be surprised at what a clay bar can remove that you cannot feel. We've clayed hundreds, if not thousands of cars our our Thursday and Saturday classes and it can surprise you what claying can reveal to your eyes when you turn the clay patty over after claying what felt like a contaminant-free surface.

Your choice.

[Murr1525]

Re: Which step should come first?

I'll also add that if you are new to claying, you might be like I used to be and think that the paint was smooth. Then I clayed it anyway, and found out what smooth paint really was.

Its really an amazing step for how easy it is.

[weatherman]

Re: Which step should come first?

After washing, if the paint feels clean and smooth then you could go right to wax. If you already have purchased the clay, you might want to go ahead and at least test the clay out on the hood, you would be surprised at what a clay bar can remove that you cannot feel. We've clayed hundreds, if not thousands of cars our our Thursday and Saturday classes and it can surprise you what claying can reveal to your eyes when you turn the clay patty over after claying what felt like a contaminant-free surface.

Your choice.

Mike, thanks again for the good information. Besides just wanting my black Ridgeline to stand tall, another reason for the makeover is that I have an issue with my clear coat having a light cloudy appearance. I addressed this in detail in another thread, and after applying one coat of NXT, it cleared up most of the cloudiness. Briefly, when I bought the vehicle, I let them talk me into applying a coat of Simoniz. So my thinking is that if I clay at least the hood, top, and any other upward facing surfaces, and apply the paint cleaner, it should get rid of anything on the paint/clear/coat that shouldn't be there. Then after polishing with the machine glaze and a coat of NXT 2.0, that puppy ought to look awesome. I will let you all know the results if the weather ever warms up around here.