Claying a car - I'm a believer

[Foxfire1]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I can confirm that claying will be part of the bi-annual maintenance schedule for my cars both spring and fall. When I did the BMW is wasn't as bad as those pics Mike posted but still shocked me that a "clean" care could be so dirty. Lesson learned, there is clean and then there is detailer's clean.

FF

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

Lesson learned, there is clean and then there is detailer's clean.

There you go....

[Cat]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I just purchased my Meguair's Clay Bar system and can't wait to use it this weekend. My car has some light swirl marks which I got from taking it through a hand wash place this winter. Will claying it get out those light swirls or should I plan to use Scratch x on those before I put on wax?

Cat :x

[Don]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I just purchased my Meguair's Clay Bar system and can't wait to use it this weekend. My car has some light swirl marks which I got from taking it through a hand wash place this winter. Will claying it get out those light swirls or should I plan to use Scratch x on those before I put on wax?

Cat :x

No. Clay removes things on the paint and embedded into the paint, but swirls are actually a physical defect in the surface of the paint.
How to Remove Swirls by Hand


You actually have to polish (remove) paint to eliminate the swirls, down to about where the red line is in the image. Use the link to go to Mike's Tutorial.
You can also see from this image that there is a limited amount of paint to work with, I'm not saying this to scare you off, but this is the exact reason you always use the LEAST AGGRESSIVE METHOD FIRST! And why you should always use the right chemicals, applicators and cloths when cleaning / polishing / waxing your paint to avoid installing swirls/scratches in the first place.

[Murr1525]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

Dont plan on ScratchXing the entire car at once, it is a lot of effort. Just focus on a small area at a time, and try to do 1 or 2 panels a day. The car should almost be rocking on the springs as you work it in, and you may need a couple applications.

What it Means to Remove a Scratch

How To Remove Swirls By Hand

How to remove a defect by hand with ScratchX

[V.I.P.E.R]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

I'm wondering i have used riccardo clay for some time and even though you can't get it in the usa i still use it and love it awsome clay.

But i'm tring to find an easy to ned flexable stretchy clay like riccardo that works' great but have not found any yet now i have not used meguiars' yet and want to know what types' of clay they have??????

[Derrick]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

They have the consumer line clay which is the Smooth Surface Clay Kit that you can usually find at any local auto parts stores and Walmarts. They also have the Detailing Clay Mild and Detailing Clay Aggressive in the Professional Mirror Glaze line

[V.I.P.E.R]

Re: Claying a car - I'm a believer

The mirror glaze line sounds' like what i need to try i do alot of higher end details' and like i said it is really hard to find a good clay they always' break apart hard to need the purple seems' to be the worst next to the blue for most companies i think that would be do to them all coming from same place lol