Clay bar before polish, is it worth it?
- Thread starter 94 NDTA
- Start date
pair of Blazers
New member
clay it....
93 Toyota never saw more than an occasional wash
workin half
here you can see what came off compared to the other half.
93 Toyota never saw more than an occasional wash
workin half
here you can see what came off compared to the other half.
i find it funny that someone stated it takes 10 minutes to do hehe. Anyway - will claying remove water spots that normally can't be removed with just a spray or wash? I noticed my white vinegar/water mix removes the water spots and I seem to have a hell of alot of those that don't want to come out with a QD. Is it feesable to do a white vinegar bath? Meaning wash the entire car with water/white vinegar or will this potentially damage the page.
I just used clay for the first time last week. I did my white 2005 suburban and it made it look new again. I don't go overboard on cleaning but keep it clean and waxed twice in 1.5 years.
My friends black 2000 Grand prix was done yesterday. He washes and waxes his all the time and wipes it down with cotton towels. I think I am getting him converted. Lots of wax on this car! We clayed his grand prix yesterday and used Adam's products, Swirl & Haze, Polish on the hood.
His car was gritty when we started, he was amazed at how rough his was compared to my truck. After claying, wow! Smooth surface, better depth. Polished some problem spots, hood, rear deck, rear bumper. All improved. Put on the Buttery Wax and what a huge improvement over before. He was thrilled, but I can't get him to put his hanky back in his pocket to wipe a spot he sees on the paint. Must get him some MF towels immediately, or he is going to put in more scratches.
My first experience with Premium car care products, I am impressed and love the Adam's products. Hope to improve my car care processes.
Dave
My friends black 2000 Grand prix was done yesterday. He washes and waxes his all the time and wipes it down with cotton towels. I think I am getting him converted. Lots of wax on this car! We clayed his grand prix yesterday and used Adam's products, Swirl & Haze, Polish on the hood.
His car was gritty when we started, he was amazed at how rough his was compared to my truck. After claying, wow! Smooth surface, better depth. Polished some problem spots, hood, rear deck, rear bumper. All improved. Put on the Buttery Wax and what a huge improvement over before. He was thrilled, but I can't get him to put his hanky back in his pocket to wipe a spot he sees on the paint. Must get him some MF towels immediately, or he is going to put in more scratches.
My first experience with Premium car care products, I am impressed and love the Adam's products. Hope to improve my car care processes.
Dave
imported_spielnicht
New member
Definitely worth it!
Before I started paying even closer attention to detailing, I was a skeptic as well. But now I will never detail without claying.
You want to see how good a clay bar is, feel the bottom of the driver and passenger doors. You'll most certainly notice bumps. No matter how many times you wash that area or polish it, you'll never get them out. Try one or two passes with a clay bar and the area is smooth clean. :idea
Before I started paying even closer attention to detailing, I was a skeptic as well. But now I will never detail without claying.
You want to see how good a clay bar is, feel the bottom of the driver and passenger doors. You'll most certainly notice bumps. No matter how many times you wash that area or polish it, you'll never get them out. Try one or two passes with a clay bar and the area is smooth clean. :idea
I have done it before on my Trans Am, before I had a PC.
I have another car now, and figured it wouldn't be worth it since I was buffing it anyways. It turned out well, but I see what you guys mean with the contaminants and smoothness. It's just not the same.
How often do you guys clay?
I have another car now, and figured it wouldn't be worth it since I was buffing it anyways. It turned out well, but I see what you guys mean with the contaminants and smoothness. It's just not the same.
How often do you guys clay?
SVR
Dream Machines
Two days ago I gave my falcon's left side doors a going over with blackfire 106FF and driven to perfection and ultra gloss superpolish.
I did not clay the rear door and as such, the pad was hopping all over the place and the polishes was drying ultra fast and causing holograms
Probably from 20 plus coats of sealant and aquawax and maybe a little contaminants I couldn't feel
After a going over with sonus green, I re did it with LC black and blue pads and it glided along beautifully and came out perfect
I did not clay the rear door and as such, the pad was hopping all over the place and the polishes was drying ultra fast and causing holograms
Probably from 20 plus coats of sealant and aquawax and maybe a little contaminants I couldn't feel
After a going over with sonus green, I re did it with LC black and blue pads and it glided along beautifully and came out perfect
But what happens if the car was clayed a week or 2 before? Do I still have to go through the process of claying the car? I realized today in the sun that my car had a good amount of love marks in the paint and 2 weeks before I had spent a several hours washing, claying, and waxing the car. I want to save as much time as possible because it is a very large car. Can I just use dish washer soap to wash it to strip all wax and go to polishing and compound because it was clayed very recently? Thank You!
Accumulator
Well-known member
When I saw this thread got revived, I immediately started thinking "eh, I like clay but you just can't beat a system like "ABC" for real decontamination"...
fangster- No, you probably don't need to reclay unless it picked up new contamination. DONE PROPERLY, clay shouldn't do much wax-stripping anyhow; if it does you're claying *MUCH* more aggressively than I recommend.
With regard to the wax that's already on there, I would *NOT* use the dishsoap approach:
-Dawn/etc. lack lubricity and it's very easy to mar up your paint if you wash with (only) something like that. At least wash properly first and then use the Dawn..BUT:
-the wax-stripping abilities of Dawn/etc. are vastly over-rated. A decent wax will stand up to a Dawn wash quite well.
-when you do need a super-shampoo, there are better options and IMO it's worth spending the $ to do it right
All that having been said, most of the time you can just polish/compound right through the existing wax with no problems. If the existing stuff is *VERY* healthy you might need to clean the pad(s) out more often/thoroughly than usual (thinking of your other thread here...) but that's usually the only issue.
If you do need to strip it, I'd use something like ValuGard's "A", or Eraser, or Akrya Klean/PrepWash (#HT806) from Top of the Line (my usual choice).
fangster- No, you probably don't need to reclay unless it picked up new contamination. DONE PROPERLY, clay shouldn't do much wax-stripping anyhow; if it does you're claying *MUCH* more aggressively than I recommend.
With regard to the wax that's already on there, I would *NOT* use the dishsoap approach:
-Dawn/etc. lack lubricity and it's very easy to mar up your paint if you wash with (only) something like that. At least wash properly first and then use the Dawn..BUT:
-the wax-stripping abilities of Dawn/etc. are vastly over-rated. A decent wax will stand up to a Dawn wash quite well.
-when you do need a super-shampoo, there are better options and IMO it's worth spending the $ to do it right
All that having been said, most of the time you can just polish/compound right through the existing wax with no problems. If the existing stuff is *VERY* healthy you might need to clean the pad(s) out more often/thoroughly than usual (thinking of your other thread here...) but that's usually the only issue.
If you do need to strip it, I'd use something like ValuGard's "A", or Eraser, or Akrya Klean/PrepWash (#HT806) from Top of the Line (my usual choice).