Clay Bar and Paint Correction

[Flet]

Is using a clay bar absolutely necessary if you are going to be using UC to correct swirl marks? Isn't UC already an abrasive thus removing contaminants? And second question, what about if you already have wax on your car? Do you have to remove that first before getting to work with UC?

[Top Gear]

Re: Clay Bar and Paint Correction

It depends. If the car is older and has never been clayed or regularly polished with a DA, then it might be good to clay. If you're regularly using the DA, then claying can be skipped, as long as the surface is baby smooth when clean. If the surface is rough, it just makes more work for the DA or hand-compounding, which encourages you to overdo it, but otherwise doesn't matter. Sometimes defects can go away with claying, and it's a nice step to be sure you've got a clean slate. As for the wax, that will go away easily enough, so there's rarely a need to remove it with a dedicated step. Usually, I'm doing the correction work when the wax is worn off, anyway.

[TFTADetail]

Re: Clay Bar and Paint Correction

I like & prefer to clay ANY vehicle that I am either applying a wax to or even an AIO product. When doing a multi stage polishing that goes without saying. The finish is going to be 90% better just because the finish was clayed before hand. If the finish is in excellent condition then I would say it should be a judgement call on your part.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Clay Bar and Paint Correction

While a compound can and will remove some level of above surface bonded contaminants, it is neither the fastest nor the safest way to do so. Clay actually shaves down the bonded particulate and hangs onto it, using the quick detail spray as a lubricant to prevent direct interaction with the paint. Compounding will break this particulates off the paint surface and mix them in with the abrasives in the compound itself. This is where things can turn on you, depending on the severity of the bonded contaminants, how the paint responds, and what your ultimate goal is. The abrasives in a compound are highly refined, very predictable and very controlled. The crud you pick up off the surface of the paint is the exact opposite. As you know, even when compounding totally clean paint you are pulling some paint residue onto the pad, right? On really touch sensitive paints this accumulated paint residue is often enough to cause massive frustration when trying to finish out defect free with your polisher. And paint residue is far smaller in size than the various chunks of junk you'd be breaking off so the potential for slowing you down is even greater. To be sure, the odds of any real damage is virtually nil, but claying is generally a much quicker process than many make it out to be (some folks have a tendancy to over complicate some things and over simplify others) and it's far more effective at removing those bonded contaminants.

If the paint feels rough, it really is best to clay it first and then address whatever below surface defects may be present. It's just a better way to do things.