Painted the trunk, can I clay!?

[rauljimenez]

Just painted the trunk and front of the car since they were heavily oxidized and damaged. I know i can`t wax till the paint really cures but what about claying? can i do it to keep contaminants off or is it too abrasive?

thanks.

[MrSelfDestruct]

I wouldn`t... and I don`t really see the purpose either (at this point). If you did a base/clear I think it might mess up the clearcoat.

[TN9thSi]

If it`s fresh paint, there should be no contamination in the paint yet. Clay won`t do anything for new paint. Why were you wanting to use clay, anyway??

[Pb2theMax]

My truck had some body work on the fender and door. It has a clear coat. There was some overspray so I just clayed and polished the whole truck, 3 days after it was painted. No problems.

[autoprincess]

Why do people want to clay everything? I don`t get it. If you paint a surface there is only two things that are most often done. Wetsanding or buffing. If you used clay bar on a panel that had overspray then yes, that is fine, but no need to use clay bar on fresh paint. This note is good for future readers. I know you have already done the job, just trying to help future new paint people.

[s2skimon]

as many have said, no need to clay .. after 2 to 4 weeks of panels curing, then decide

[Accumulator]

I dunno if you can really generalize this one...if a panel gets contamination on it that won`t wash off them I clay it, no matter if it was freshly painted or not. You can get contamination regardless of when the paint was sprayed, just not the awful-buildup-over-time that some people think is the only reason to clay.



A clay like Sonus green (that takes a little work to cut through even a glaze like Meg`s #5) shouldn`t hurt the paint any if you do it right.



But I do try to avoid any such stuff until the paint has at least started to harden up (usually a few weeks after painting) just to avoid marring it in case it`s still very soft....and some people seem to clay quite aggressively, which is probably bad news for very recent paint.



Frequent washes and applications of glaze (after every wash) oughta go a long way towards keeping contamination from sticking.