what if you buffer without claying?

[Alexandre]

lets say you get a car that is like one year old and was never clayed..

what happens if you use the rotary buffer with cut compound or cleaner paint without claying the car before, would the paint contamination and rough aspect be gone anyway?

[speed3blackmica]

Re: what if you buffer without claying?

im not "exactly" sure for the answer to your question. however i did work on friends car where the hood had major over spray from being in the body shop for so long. i only had the meguiars quick clay bars and they just werent cutting it to remove the overspray. it didnt even put a dent. so after trying for 5 minutes, i just went straight to using Ultimate Compound via G110v2 with a yellow polishing pad..after 2 passes the swirls were gone, and so was the overspray. so i guess the contaminents do essentially get abraded away just like the paint does. However, i would assume that leaving these bonded contaminents in a way, "get in the way" of the cutting action of the product you are using. so its best to clay before hand. im not exactly sure though the major effects of not claying, hopefully someone will clarify.

[HCAD]

Re: what if you buffer without claying?

I'm going to say it's a safety thing. You're safer to remove a small spec of rail dust, tar or tree sap with the clay bar than to pick it up on your pad while buffing.

[seth1066]

Re: what if you buffer without claying?

im not "exactly" sure for the answer to your question. however i did work on friends car where the hood had major over spray from being in the body shop for so long. i only had the meguiars quick clay bars and they just werent cutting it to remove the overspray. it didnt even put a dent. so after trying for 5 minutes, i just went straight to using Ultimate Compound via G110v2 with a yellow polishing pad..after 2 passes the swirls were gone, and so was the overspray. so i guess the contaminents do essentially get abraded away just like the paint does. However, i would assume that leaving these bonded contaminents in a way, "get in the way" of the cutting action of the product you are using. so its best to clay before hand. im not exactly sure though the major effects of not claying, hopefully someone will clarify.

In this particular case, the contaminant (the overspray) is on the surface of the paint; the clay bar will pull out those that are stuck in and partially below the paint's surface.

[Markus Kleis]

Re: what if you buffer without claying?

It depends on how thorough you are with your polishing/compounding, but in theory, yes, you will most likely remove most of it.

You might also find yourself buffing and removing more clear or color coat than you need to in order to remove the contamination, though.

Claying would be the least invasive way to remove bonded contaminants.

[HealthyCivic]

Re: what if you buffer without claying?

That's something I had thought about in the past as well. I usually clay before I do any other paint work just so that I am in touch with the condition of the surface before I work, but if I'm going to do some heavy cutting anyway, is there any point?

[Lasthope05]

Re: what if you buffer without claying?

One some of the bonded contaminates will remain depending upon its composition. If its something like paint over spray, compound or polishing will remove it but if its brake/rail dust than no. Depending upon how deep the metal dust is in embedded or the strength of the bond, compounding or polishing will not remove all of it. In that instance the pad/product used will simply abrade a small portion of the contaminate and its surroundings.

To better explain, a similar situation is when buffing a car with orange peel. Even thought you are removing clear coat as you polish, you are abrading away an equal amount of clear off the high and low portions of the orange peel. The end result is still a finish with orange peel. The pressures applied to remove defects compresses and conforms the pad to these "high" and "low" spots to allow for equal paint removal.