clay and polish

[Ken Risi]

Yesterday I tried the Meguiar's clay system and # 81 polish. My car is 10 years old and has 264,000 miles. The car is garage kept and only sees highway miles. Prior to this claying and polishing I had been going through the local car was (I do not have access to a hose) and waxing every other week with either Blitz or Collinite. Car always looked great. Although I clayed and polished for the first time yesterday, and, the car does indeed look better than just waxing alone--how come it doesn't look significantly better? When claying I kept re-kneading just as Holly did. The clay seemed to pick up hardly anything (just stuff from the rocker panel area). However, when removing the # 81 polish the car actually squeaked. I topped off this time with Souveran. I will clay and polish again toward the end of summer, but, will wax only as it is a form of relaxation for me. Any comments would be appreciated. Thank you.

[6cyl's_of_fury]

I am guessing you did the polishing by hand, and unless you have fore-arms like popeye ( or Scottwax ) then you are a mere mortal like the rest of us that have to rely on a PC to achieve great polishing results. The polish needs to be really worked and generally speaking polishing by hand will improve the finish, but not give you that WOW look that is achievable with a PC.

As for using a coin-op car wash because you dont have a hose, do yourself a favour and do a search on QEW. No hose is no longer an excuse!

[Accumulator]

Ken Risi- Welcome to Autopia. I think it's cool that you're keeping your high-mileage car in nice shape

The claying/#81/wax is a more complete approach than just washing and waxing, I'm not surprised that it looks better. To take it to the next level, you need to use a *different*/additional polish before the #81. The #81 does *not* contain any significant abrasives, and I'm certain your car could use some abrasive polishing. This is usually *the step* that makes or breaks paint's appearance.

Next time, preceed your #81 with some #80 Speed Glaze. Don't worry about the names of these products, BTW. The #80 has a mild abrasive that breaks down well/easily by hand. It'll smooth the surface a little. Then apply the #81 and finish up with your wax. There are *many* other polishes you could try, but this is an easy way to make an improvement and it sounds like you have access to Meg's products (if not, order some).

You can always try doing a panel or two with the #80/81/wax combo and see if you like the improvement.

Oh, and don't worry about the clay not looking like it picked up much stuff. Much of the contamination might've been too small to be seen (easily), but claying is still a good idea.

[cariblue]

I asked this question on another site, but would like as much input as possible in order to hopefully make the right decision.

I'll be bringing my car home this week with a new paint job/clear coat. So far, my plan is to make the leap to Zaino products (however, still doing research). One person said it would be a good idea to clay the new paint job after a month or so. Opinions?

[Accumulator]

cariblue- First off, don't use Zaino until the paint has cured for a month or two (or three). In the meantime, use 3M's IHG, or Meg's #3/#5/#7/#81 (or #80 if you get some marring you need to polish out). No matter what, use one of these fresh-paint-friendly products until the paint is fully cured (this applies with all solvent-based paints, even those that are "baked"). I know some people say Zaino is OK for fresh paint, but the painters I know disagree (and you sure don't want to mess up a new paintjob).

No reason *not* to clay, it'll remove any contaminants just like with older paint. Be very gentle, though, especially if you need to clay before the curing is finished (the paint will continue to harden throughout the curing period).

[Postwood]

Accumulator - Cariblue can use some carnauba too, right?

I'd just S100 the thing. Who cares about durability when the love of the new paint is so strong.

[cariblue]

Originally posted by Accumulator

No reason *not* to clay, it'll remove any contaminants just like with older paint. Be very gentle, though, especially if you need to clay before the curing is finished (the paint will continue to harden throughout the curing period).

I'm not in a hurry to do anything to it for fear of screwing up the new paint job. No problem waiting 3 months. I just want to do the best I can with this brand new surface. I bought the car used last summer and I'm still learning the ropes on car care. Hell, I drove a van before I finally acquired my dream car. It was lucky to get a water hose pointed at it.

Thanks for the input!

[HRP]

Before I made the decision to wait 3 monts to apply Zaino, I'd check with Sal Zaino at www.zainobros@zainobros.com and get the advice straight from the horse's mouth. Sal is one of the gurus in this field and has always been pretty responsive to customers' questions, and as you know, has one of the best car care product lines out there. You can only do that first full detail on a new paint job once so get the best advice you can. And please pass Sal's comments along. We'd all like to see what he says about when to Zaino a new paint job.

[Accumulator]

HRP- Yeah, best to get info straight from Sal. As I recall, he used to be an auto painter, too. Still, I'd be *very* careful about what gets used on fresh paint. Heh heh, I doubt that Sal would come over and repaint your car if the Zaino messed up the new paintjob

Cariblue- to your taking a long-term perspective! Get one of the new-paint-friendly products on there to provide some (minimal) protection.

Postwood- Nah, carnauba will mess with the paint's "outgassing"/curing too. So no S100, either. Heh heh, some of the "glazes" I mentioned will last almost as long as S100 anyway (J/K ).

[cariblue]

Thanks, again. There's a phone number on their site. I'll try to give them a call after work today. I'll let ya' know what he says.

I'm so anxious about this new paint.

[4DSC]

Ken Risi, nice to see your first post finally.

I think the reason why your car did not come out looking "significantly better" is because your car is both 10 years old, and if you have never polished it before, you did not polish enough. Although kept clean and waxed, the car probably could use a good polishing since the waxes you have do not have any cleaning (abrasive) power, and your car most likely has picked up some swirling and other damage by now.

#81 isn't abrasive at all. It's a glaze, and not a "polish" that will remove any defects. You should probably try some other products like #82 and #83 (if you like the BSP line) to really get anywhere. Only use as strong a product as you need though.

Claying a surface doesn't usually increase its shine or appearance all that much since its main job is to remove contamination off your paint. With certain driving/storage habits, and frequent waxing it is certainly possible that you do not have much contaminants to remove.

[4DSC]

Originally posted by cariblue
I asked this question on another site, but would like as much input as possible in order to hopefully make the right decision.

I'll be bringing my car home this week with a new paint job/clear coat. So far, my plan is to make the leap to Zaino products (however, still doing research). One person said it would be a good idea to clay the new paint job after a month or so. Opinions?

cariblue in the future, please start another thread to ask a question like this which is totally unrelated to the original topic. This is colloquially called a "thread hijacking" and isn't good etiquette.

Thanks.