Can I use paint cleaner instead of clay?

D

Dave Pickett

New member
Clayed part of my daughters bonnet recently, and possibly because of the cold (2 degs c) I introduced some scratches! PC with 4" pad and RMG to the rescue, but I want to avoid this in future!



A quick trial of DC 1 on the paint appeared to remove all the surface contaminents, is this a (safer for me!) alternative to clay as a first step? It certainly seemed to leave the paint squeeky clean, and a polish with #80 or RMG VM etc would remove any left overs?
 
nothing wrong with what your suggesting, although clay is the easiest way to remove surface contaminents



was the clay clean/new? in cold weather its will take some time to warm the caly enough to use , and make sure you use plenty of lube on a freshly washed car
 
The clay was last years, but having folded it and kneaded it for a while appeared clean. Used loads of lube and the surface was washed, can only be either the cold or the clay had picked up grit?



Rather like the idea of paint cleaner at the moment - its safer for me!
 
Sounds to me like you didn't use enough lubricant with the clay. Clay will pull up and encapsulate the surface contaminants. If you use a cleaner, you'll dislodge the contaminant, and then move it around with whatever you're using to polish.



It seems to me that you'd have more chance of the contaminants scratching the surface using a cleaner/polish than you would with clay and adequate lubrication.



When I use clay, I use lots of soap to lubricate. Lots. I have a sponge in one hand, loaded with soap, the clay in the other, and slowly squeeze the sponge to keep a soapy stream of water going in the area I'm claying.



I personally find this to be a better technique than a spritz of QD, as most clay instructions (I've read) claim.



I only do a small section at a time. Maybe a square foot or two. Then I dunk the clay in the wash bucket, knead it to burry the contaminants that don't wash off, and reveal fresh clean clay to continue working with.



When you can no longer reveal fresh clean clay when you knead it, it's time to retire the clay.



Might be better to have a foam gun going to lubricate the clay with. I dunno. I don't own a foam gun yet but it makes sense to me to use it for clay lubrication. Might be able to get up to half a panel between kneading like that.
 
Clay and chemical paint cleaners are different approaches for somewhat different types of cleaning. It's sorta like the difference between exfoliating your skinn (clay) and washing it with a mild soap (cleaner).



Clay shears stuff off mechanically (David B. disabused me of the misconception that clay "pulls stuff off" a while ago) whereas the chemical cleaner kinda dissolves the contamination and/or lessens it's bond with the paint so you can wipe it away.



Whether you can simply substitute the cleaner for the clay will depend on what kind of contamination you're dealing with. While I'm a big proponent of claying, note that people used paint cleaners for a *long* time before detailing clay became popular.
 
IMO the paint cleaner should be the mandatory step, whereas the clay could be skipped if there are no (faint or barely any) surface particles that could be felt. The paint cleaner will be necessary IMO whether you clay or not.
 
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