Always Clay before DA or Rotary?

[Sal329]

Re: Always Clay before DA or Rotary?

If it was my car I would wash the car, then check the paint, if it feels rough I would clay then take care of the swirls.

[jmitch8011]

Re: Always Clay before DA or Rotary?

I've also had to do that before too on a severly oxidized car. The clay just loaded up with dead paint really quickly, so I had to buff it first.

As you both pointed out that was why and I had kind of forgotten the reasoning so thanks a lot. I hope to get a rotory and hood soon to practice so I can do some serious work.

[jmitch8011]

Re: Always Clay before DA or Rotary?

Lydia Quote:
Originally Posted by ZoranC
IIRC you are correct and that was in post by Mike Phillips on use of rotary, paint was in very bad condition so rotary+wool was used to do quick knock down of impurities as using clay would be very inefficient.

I've also had to do that before too on a severly oxidized car. The clay just loaded up with dead paint really quickly, so I had to buff it first.

- Yes, that's what I was thinking about. Thanks because I had forgotten why they switched up the process.

-when either of you has had to remove oxidation in this fashion , what pad and product did you use that worked best. You can clairfy the paint type if you want as well. Thanks.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Always Clay before DA or Rotary?

In this classic thread, posted just about one week after this forum went live...

1986 Ford Bronco II - Extreme Makeover

You can see what happens to clay when you're working on a severely oxidized paint, what happens is the dead oxidized paint will come off and into your clay bar.

Next, I clayed all of the horizontal surfaces and upper vertical surfaces using Meguiar's new Quik Clay System.



Before claying the panels, be sure to spray some Quik Detailer onto both the clay and the panel to be worked.



Then simply work the clay back and forth over one section at a time, kind of like you would rub a bar of soap over your skin.



You can usually feel when the surface goes smooth as glass.


There's nothing wrong with this except that it's going to load your clay up with dead paint.




So another approach would be to remove the dead paint first and then clay the paint. Some people would think that by using a paint cleaner to remove oxidation that you would also remove all of the above surface bonded contaminants, that's usually not the case. If you clay paint after using a paint cleaner or a cleaner/wax on a severely oxidize finish and turn your clay over you'll usually see bonded contaminants that were not removed by the cleaning process.

Again... the most effective way to remove above surface bonded contaminants is to use detailing clay, key word being effective.

Sometimes you just need to tweak your approach depending upon what you're working on.

Since most people own cars with a clear coat paint the above wouldn't be the normal approach, that said, MOL is a place where you can find information on working on a wide spectrum of paint care issues including working on severely neglected oxidized paints as we help a lot of people restore the original paint on older cars.

[jmitch8011]

Re: Always Clay before DA or Rotary?

Hey thanks a lot for that response Mike! That makes a lot of sense. I did a black sentra about two years back but I did it by hand and I used DC #1 in the correct fashion. I could have REALLY REALLY REALLY used a buffer or at leas a DA because even after working on the paint it was shiny but not clear as there was still oxidation left. The owner loved it because it lookd so much better and also had a shine. I wanted to work longer on the car but I only had a few hours to work before dark and the owner was leaving town the next day. I have read where people will say that anyone can clean a car but everyone can't detail a car. Every car I do they love it but I have never corrected the paint to it's highest level. Even when I wax my car you can't see the defects unless you look very close and know what to look for. I Hope to correct this as well. It's a daily driver so I should get a lot of practice but hopefully not anything crazy as I do like my car to stay as close to show quailty as possible.