Claying a car - I'm a believer

[Foxfire1]

Thank you to the MOL community for introducing me to the concept of claying a car before waxing it. I have to be honest that I was rather skeptical of the whole concept as I was of the mindset "I just washed the car, it's clean".

Well today I have seen the light and hear the choir. I spent the day working on a friends 328xi that is a daily driver and I thought what the heck, it can't hurt (pics in Show Off Your Latest Detail forum). I was amazed at what the clay took off in the way of "gunk" especially on the hood, around the fenders and lower rocker panels. It is such a simple process and made such a difference.

They say knowledge is power... today it was knowledge is a better detail.

FF

[yalerd]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

Glad you saw the light!
Claying seems to be "stupid" but for me it's just as important as correcting the defects, or adding those essential oils or waxing.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

Detailing clay is a powerful tool for what it's for. We recently had a class where one of the members brought a very, very very beautiful restored Cougar with a BRAND NEW PAINT JOB. Most people would think a brand new paint job shouldn't need to be clayed, but check out the pictures....


It was a sunny day with a great group of serious car enthusiasts from San Diego! Here's some pics from the day, a big thank you to Mary Ann for action as our staff photographer...

We chose this 1969 Ford Cougar Convertible which has a newer paint job but whoever buffed it out left rotary buffer swirls in the paint and by the time we worked on it there was a lot of accumulated bonded contaminants, (see the picture of the clay below), all over the paint, to the point that the paint felt like a piece of #40 Grit Sandpaper!

Entire thread here,

http://meguiarsonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22888

Claying the paint...










This could be some kind of paint overspray that landed on the new paint job after it was painted by while it was still at the body shop, it could also be some kind of overspray or industrial fallout/pollution that fell on the car wherever it is normally parked.

Above surface bonded contaminants come from what's in the air where you normally park the car.




Whatever the black gunk was is irrelevant because what's important is the paint was NEVER going to look it's best till after this gunk was removed safely by claying an no wax was ever going to stick to the paint and last for any length of time as long as this gunk was on the surface.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the clay and the help you received from our forum.

[kellyinkc]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

Thank you to the MOL community for introducing me to the concept of claying a car before waxing it. I have to be honest that I was rather skeptical of the whole concept as I was of the mindset "I just washed the car, it's clean".

Well today I have seen the light and hear the choir. I spent the day working on a friends 328xi that is a daily driver and I thought what the heck, it can't hurt (pics in Show Off Your Latest Detail forum). I was amazed at what the clay took off in the way of "gunk" especially on the hood, around the fenders and lower rocker panels. It is such a simple process and made such a difference.

They say knowledge is power... today it was knowledge is a better detail.

FF

I was the same way at first. After I tried it..... WOW!!

Glad to have you aboard.

Kelly

[supercharged]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

claying is necessary. I clay my whole car once a year, and clay hood, fenders, roof, and trunk lid every 3-4 months...

[Murr1525]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I remember my car looked freshly waxed the first time I clayed..... then I cleaned, polished and waxed it....

Dont forget to look into a cleaning step as well with some sort of paint cleaner, many folks think claying/cleaning do the same thing at first.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I also was skeptical at first. Then when I saw how much gunk was removed, I became a instant believer. Now I consider claying a necessary step. Glad you seen the effects.

[Derrick]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

Welcome into the light . I love claying and always highly recommend it to all my customers. Ever since i got into claying and cleaning i cannot go back. Now i absolutely hate it when a customer just wants a wash and wax on a none prepped surface. I just cant stand the thought of them telling someone i detailed it and have the car still all swirled up and felling like sand paper. That makes me look bad and i don't get any satisfaction in those jobs and that's the main reason i do this work, because i love the feeling of making something go from a piece of junk to a show car quality finish. You guys know what I'm talking about. When the customers don't even want to drive the car anymore after your done and others take their shoes off now just to get in. I love this stuff

[car fanatic]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I just got done claying my car today for the first time and the clay was not even dirty, i dont know if the clay was not strong enough or what. I will polish and wax it tommorrow.

[Murr1525]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

Hopefully the car was clean then.. Its kind of hard to screw up claying, if you lubricated, and slid the clay back and forth.

Did it feel smooth, or the clay catching on anything at all? Used the Smooth Surface Clay and the QD?

[TheEricHarris]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I clayed my car today as well. Before I clayed, it was "rough" when gliding my hand over the car. Now it's smooth as glass. My clay bar did not look dirty either. But it sure got the car smooth!

Tomorrow I'll begin polishing with M80!

[EAT HEMI]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I love the way the paint feels after claying. It really shows how good our sense of touch can be (because it obviously feels different after claying!).

Anyway, welcome to the wonderful world of claying!

[car fanatic]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

The paint felt smoother so it must have done the job lol, i guess i was just expecting more amazing results. But today i decided to wax with nxt 2.0(first time using it) and i am amazed. I ask my father how did my car look and he said it is as shiny as it will get, so i guess i did something right.

[Don]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I just got done claying my car today for the first time and the clay was not even dirty, i dont know if the clay was not strong enough or what. I will polish and wax it tommorrow.

The Cougar that Mike posted about was on the extreme end of the scale...odds are that nothing had been done to the paint-no wax protection, or even any polishing with a fresh paint-safe polish, after it was painted, so there was absolutely nothing to stop contaminants from sticking to the paint. Even though you can't wax a brand new paint job, you should still use one of the "paintable" polishes regularly until it's safe to wax to avoid/minimize the issues demonstrated on the Cougar.

My cars are regularly maintained, so when I clay, there is very little visible dirt etc. on the clay afterwards, but that doesn't mean that there was nothing there to be removed.

Waxing without claying is like putting on body lotion without showering (just the image makes me want to jump in the shower ). The lotion just can't work properly when you try to apply it over the dirt, sweat, oils etc on your skin, the gunk (images again ) has to be removed before the aloe, etc in thelotion can provide maximum benefits.

[Don]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

double post oops