Clay Polishing Pad Review

[Dan]

I`m all about reducing the time it takes to do certain steps in the detailing process. There are things I love doing like cleaning leather or putting on the LSP, and things I dread like cleaning tar out of wheel wells or cleaning really dirty windows. Up there with cleaning wheel wells is claying. Done right, it can be downright tedious. To cut down my claying time I like to use TW ICE liquid clay as my wash step (after foaming/powerwashing) and then use a dedicated tar cleaner on the lower panels.



Even with all that prep work, I find it takes me 2+ hours to clay an unmaintained vehicle. Many people do what I call a light claying and then let their compound do the rest. I prefer to clay until the pad comes up clean for a given section. This is very time consuming, so imagine my excitement when I first saw the clay polishing pad. I think the first time I saw it was when Danase had them on clearance. I should have bought then, but I figured someone feedback would make it online. Well I got the itch to buy one a few weeks ago.



The premise is to let your orbital polisher to the work of claying. It is a large foam pad with a hollow cavity for standard detailing clay. The AG unit has a capacity of 200g of clay, quite a large piece. The cavity has a plastic insert, the clay is supposed to stick to this. The foam is supposed to be wet, to keep everything lubed.











I think I know why there haven`t been any real reviews. This thing is a total wash on time savings. While it does work very well, when it works, its a downright hassle. The biggest problem with it is that you have to spend a lot of time shaping the clay. Then you have to make sure the pad is wet enough, but not too wet. If it is too wet, the clay becomes unglued from the plastic carrier inside the foam pad. Once it becomes unglued, it just wiggles in there. You have to stop the orbital and basically start over, re-kneading the clay, getting it to stick to the pad, re-misting and then back to work. It also only really works well on flat surfaces. Anything with real contours will still require hand claying.



While I wish this would have worked out, I think claying by hand is still faster. I`m really disappointed.

[David Fermani]

Nice. I use to use these all the time back in the day. I think LC makes them in white and black foam. Great for large overspray jobs. Yes downfall is constant kneeding and the biggest one is the extensive marring it creates. Saves the operator from breaking his back for sure.

[Accumulator]

Yakky- I`d always shied away from those out of concerns about marring (clay not being kneaded/etc. regularly enough), but it was interesting to hear somebody`s BTDT take on one.



Years ago, there was a guy here from, IIRC, the Philippines, who liked using the Griot`s version on his white Toyota truck, but I can`t remember anybody else trying one.



David Fermani- Would you say the MicroMesh papers have replaced that for the big overspray jobs these days?

[JohnKleven]

If you want to save time when claying, you should try a Hi-Tech Magna Sponge. Saves a ton of time, but the car must be corrected afterwards.





John

[craigdt]

Hmm thats interesting. Thanks for taking the time to do the review. Wish it would have worked out better