Claying oxidized paint

[MattZ28]

If you have a car with bad oxidation, what do you do?

Do you remove the oxidation first via polishing, THEN clay, or do you clay the oxidized paint, THEN polish it?

I always understood oxidation to be a layer of dead paint, so it wouldn`t make much sense to clay dead paint, would it?

I would think it`s O.K. to clay minorly oxidized paint though...

Just looking for some insight on this, so any info is appreciated. :)

[lucky6025]

Yes wash first then clay then re wash and dry, then depending on how bad might want to use light cut compound first, then polish, then glaze, then top coat, wax/sealer.first off are you using a machine and if so which ones and then what color are we talking about here,then how much time and effort are you willing to put into this to get the results.If you truly want great finish then expect to spend 8hrs minimum and some money, not much, considering what a repaint would cost.

[Hawaiianelement]

I did an older Jeep Cherokee , red , it was never taken care of at all. I started to clay and it was really hard work . So I removed the oxidation first and then clayed . It was soo much easier to clay and I got great results after polishing and wax .

What lucky said is the conventional way to do it . But on my particular case it was soo hard to clay the dead paint and it was getting my clay dirty too fast . Most of the clearcoat was gone from this vehicle.

Mattz28 if you have clear left on the car then clay first ..but if the finish is trashed go with compounding first ..

[Nickc0844]

Another thing to think about if you compound first....because you are compounding, is there the "need" for claying afterwards :dunno By all means, I`m not trying to short-cut the prodcess, but "in theory" it seems as if you would be removing the dead clear along with contaminants when you use something as abrasive as a compound.

What are you thoughts?

[tubafeak]

If the oxidation is bad you will be claying off the dead paint. In these cases it is easier to polish first as most of the imbedded nastiness will be polished away with the dead paint. Clay was originally used to clean overspray, it treats the oxidized paint like overspray. You should find that if you clay the oxidized portion your clay will fill up really quickly.

[immaculate]

:yeah If the vehicle is heavily oxidize you`re just going to end up using a lot of clay to get the job done. If you get rid of the oxidized paint first, then clay, you`ll get rid of any embedded contaminants without having to load up your claybar.

[Rub it out]

Wouldn`t you be grinding the contaminants into the good paint if you compound first?

[tubafeak]

You could be grinding them in, but if you use the correct (heavy) compound you will turn most of it into dust which you will then remove from the car. If paint is oxidized enough that claying would be a problem you should probably take that oportunity to learn how to wetsand.