Clay bar questions

[a216vcti]

So, I recently went to detail my car this past weekend. After washing and drying, I started to claybar the car using the method in one of the how to videos. One of the recommendations was to clay until you could run a plastic bag over the car and it would feel smooth. Well....after about 1 hour of working on one spot....it still wasn't smooth as glass. Without the plastic bag, it felt smooth; but with the bag, you could still feel bumps. I felt the hood with the bag without any claybar and it felt like sand paper. I was wondering if I should get a more aggressive claybar? Or is it that the plastic bag is always going to be too sensitive? Do I really need the paint to be 100% bump free with the plastic bag? BTW, this is on a Black 2003 VW Jetta that hasn't been really clean much.

[1994Gen1L]

Re: Clay bar questions

Are you using a Meguiars Clay Bar Kit? Are you using Quik Detailer or water for clay bar lubricant? There are mild, medium and aggressive clay bars on the market. I purchased a 1994 Oxford White clearcoat Ford 150 three years ago and used both clay bars from my Meg's kit before I was done. Both bars looked as if I dropped them in the dirt.

Are the clay bars picking up any contaminants? I have found that a warm, soft, tortilla shaped clay bar works really well vs. a cool not so round clay bar.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Clay bar questions

The baggie test can be overly aggressive and on older cars you may actually be feeling very small pitting, or at least the edges of those pits, and that is something that claying will never remove. If you were working on a very high end show car then you might want to look at some different processes, but for a daily driver it's a bit over the top to really shoot for an absolutely flawless surface. We say that only because, with a daily driver, you never know what it might be exposed to next month, next week, tomorrow, or even later today.

You've got a 9 year old car that, by your own admission, "hasn't been really clean much." To now expect a true show car finish may be asking a bit much, and trying to remove every single last little defect is simply unrealistic. Now, before someone steps in and thinks we're suggesting folks take shortcuts, or that we don't think you should strive for the best you can possibly achieve, just understand that we're only try to be realistic here. Yes, you should strive to achieve the best you can possibly can, but you have to understand what that potential actually is on any given car. You can always look deeper for defects and drive yourself absolutely insane trying to eliminate everything.... especially on a daily driver. Have you seen the guy with the video where he talks about using a magnifying lens that allows him to resolve a scratch down to 1/1000th of an inch? You can't see a scratch that small, so what's the point? What if someone else comes along with a lens that will resolve a scratch half that size? Then what?

If, with your bare hand, you can feel definite roughness in the paint prior to claying, and after claying the paint feels perfectly smooth and clean to your bare hand, then you've likely removed all that you're going to. There are all sorts of other fine issues that could be causing a light grab with the baggie. Don't stress over it, don't overthink it. Move on to the next process and work toward making that Jetta look the best it can possibly look, given it's age and level of care it's been exposed to thus far in its life.

[a216vcti]

Great, that's exactly what I was thinking. Thanks so much for the help!