Does Clay Completely Remove Surface Contaminants?

Intermezzo · 01-20-02, 12:35

I pretty much spent the whole morning and afternoon yesterday detailing a friend's car (A white '94 Mitsubishi Diamante). I started out with a claying, followed by a few applications of PPCL and then two applications of ZFX.

My question is, does clay completely remove the rust spots that come from environmental contaminants and brake dust? This was the first time I've ever clayed on a white car and so I could clearly the rust spots. The clay seemed to remove most of it as well as smoothen out the paint, but I'd say that 50% of the tiny little rust spots were still visible. Is this normal? How am I supposed to completely rid the car of them?

It was kind of embarrassing to my friend because I had given him the impression that claying would completely remove the rust. The PPCL it did do an incredible job with the paint's smoothness and the ZFX coats really lit up the car's shine, but you guys all know what those rust spots look like, right? They're only visible if you look really close, but next time I'd like to be able to rid his car of those nasty specks.

Thanks.

BradE · 01-20-02, 12:41

Claying sometimes only removes the tops of the containments. For you to totally correct the problem you could use something like the ABC system and while using the B product you can clay the tuff spots. The B products melts the deep down particles causing the rust spots, where as claying may only remove the tops of the particles.

Brad · 01-20-02, 12:42

Clay is kind of like a lint roller. It will pull out dimensional debris sticking out of and on top of the paint surface. It has no effect on any staining or leeching of chimicals that are "in" the paint not lying on it. For that you may need additional cleaners or abrasives.

Michael H · 01-20-02, 12:44

Clay does a great but not perfect job. Two suggestions, you may need to clay a second time. Secondly, sounds as if the car has not been detailed in a while so you may need to use a cutter like Finesse It II - the paint cleaner you used is only mildly abrasive.

puterbum · 01-20-02, 01:27

I am currently experiencing the same problem. I'm detailing a silver Mercedes-Benz CLK320 and it's taken me a couple of hours just to clay the front 1/3 of it (okay, I'm really slow anyways)!

The best thing I have found is to go back and forth over the area until it is gone, I personally fold the clay so the surface area touching the paint is limited to the width of the contaminants and make extremely short back-and-forth strokes. I would be hesitant to do this on a black car or a car which I was not doing any surface prep on...

I will be testing ABC soon to see how it compares on a silver truck.

BW · 01-20-02, 05:30

Yea, with white, many things are a lot more noticable then lets say, a light metallic color... especially on the lower panels. In fact the easiest white cars usually are covered with grey plastic on the lower bumpers or have two-tone paint. Anway after seeing all of the surface contaminates close up... I sorta lost my confidence about layering more and more layers of Klasse. I thought I was the only one on this forum that noticed this...

But then I went ahead and tried the ABC system. It really works great.. try some!

~bw

Intel486 · 01-20-02, 07:50

Where can you get this ABC system?

puterbum · 01-20-02, 08:38

Automotive International makes (I believe) and sells the ABC system.

Intermezzo · 01-20-02, 11:31

OK, thanks for the responses everyone. I guess it would make sense that particles embedded for the long-term would leech rust and stain the immediate surrounding area, which is something that clay will not remove.

BW, when you say you lost confidence in layering multiple coats of Klasse, is it because you still get embedded particles despite the extra protection? Would you recommend regular use (1 or 2 times a year) of the ABC car wash to get out rust stains that claying will not?

Thanks

BW · 01-21-02, 09:21

What I have worried about was sealing "in" the contaminates or anything I haven't removed before applying a new layer of SG. Now I just like to keep my car in the garage for a few days and apply 4-5 layers or so of SG, and just use OGSO in-between washes. Then I will start all over again… maybe about 6 months later with the ABC system.

With my Steel Blue car, I keep layering on the Z-2 though. The specks are a lot less noticeable on medium metallic colors… and since I “Z-1” about every 4 or so layers, the cleaners in Z-1 usually take the majority of specks off.

~bw

Brad4rdHay · 01-21-02, 10:21

Yes, ABC works wonderfully, I live the stuff, well worth the price. The B part of the system is what acts like clay, loosening and removing contaminants from the paint, the B's advantage is that its loosening and lifting them out of the paint so they can float away with the suds, as aposed to clay which grinds and pulls at the contaminants and holds then in the clay....a greater poitential for maring. Clay is great though for removing some stuborn contaminants that ABC might leave behind. Like BradB said, clay also wont take care of chemicals that are in the pores of the paint, which ABC definately does. Yes using ABC regiularly is recomended by RonK, I would use it every 6 moths (twice a year) when the polymer protection is wearing off and you want to start over. ABC will clean out the acids and chemicals that have "soaked" into the paint, preventing further damage, and preping the surface nicely.

Intermezzo · 01-21-02, 12:13

BradfordHay, BW, thanks. Perhaps I'll seriously consider getting some.