Claying and Old Wax

Z

zainoshine

Don't forget the pedals!
This has been on my mind for a long time: let's say I get a customer's vehicle that has a few coats of wax on it, i was the vehicle with an average car shampoo, and then decide to clay. Will the clay remove the old wax? If it doesn't, how does it get to the contamination on the paint?



Should the correct procedure then be: wash, polish, clay?



I don't understand how clay can get under wax and lift contaminants? Does it remove the wax?



Thanks

Carl
 
Pigeon, its sort of abrades it away. Thats why its recommended that you reseal after claying. Although there are some folks who swear that claying will not remove any significant protection, it is recommended by clay manufacturers.

What the clay doesnt remove, the polish more than likely will.

Your process should be wash, clay, polish(es), seal.
 
Yeah, I agree with Patrick.



I do think clay will remove a good deal of the wax on the car. Whatever isn't removed will be removed by the cleaner/polish.
 
You should clay first, then buff clean with a paint cleaner. If the paint is in good condition, then you could skip the clay, however, the paint cleaner is the essential ingredient to remove all of the old wax and oxidation before polishing and waxing.
 
a.k.a. Patrick said:
...Although there are some folks who swear that claying will not remove any significant protection...
Click to expand...



Heh heh, that would be me. I spot-clay with *every* wash, and it does NOT remove all my LSP; I would've noticed by now, having done it for over ten years ;) Yeah, it removes a little, and those areas that get clayed will need the LSP redone before the areas that *don't* get clayed, but it's not like it takes off an appreciable amount.



All depends on how gently/not you do the claying. In my case, I'm cleaning stuff out of my LSP, not the paint itself. If I have to clean stuff out of the paint, it takes a *lot* of extra, more aggressive than normal claying to get through the LSP to the paint. Since I keep a good layer of LSP at all times, it seems I hardly ever have to actually clay contamination out of the paint.



But I guess I must clay *much* more gently than most people or this topic wouldn't even come up :nixweiss



Generally, yeah, you wash, clay, polish, wax. If there's already a good coat of wax on it, and the contamination is just in the wax, you can try claying *very* gently while you wash and then just do a quick additional coat of wax. But it's not, of course, as thorough an approach as doing the whole exterior detail process.
 
PIEGEON



I was just about to say that if you are working on a car that you want to strip the wax and everything else in its way. A good Dawn wash will do that I would not do this on any regular method.

As for clay it wil' also remove wax and everyhting else that is sticking to the paint such as sap, over spray in some case, tar, poulation and rail dust. Always clay my cars on all details then follow with a SWR, polish, seal and then pure carnuba to top.



We all have our ways of doing thing but this has been mine for sometime on all my car and customers cars
 
Depending on the wax, Dawn might not get it off either. It sure doesn't do much to fresh Meg's #16, let alone Collinite. But whatever polish you use will cut right through it anyhow. Old wax usually isn't much of a problem, about the only time it's been a hassle for me is when I used PI-III MG on it and it sorta gummed up. Not a biggie, I just used AIO afterwards and that cleaned it all up just fine.
 
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