Claying without marring

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connorb850

New member
My daily driver is a 1996 black BMW with over 220k miles that stays outside 24/7. The car is generally in very good condition, but the paint/clear coat is showing its age and I don't feel comfortable polishing any further. Ultimately it will need to be repainted, but that will have to wait a couple years. For now my goal is to preserve and maintain the original paint.



I last clayed and polished the car May 2009 and have done a decent job keeping swirls to a minimum. It badly needs to be clayed again though, but I'm reluctant to do so since I won't be polishing afterwards. My experience with claying is that some marring WILL be caused, but is easily removed if you are going to polish. I've used 2 or 3 different brands/types of clay bars on various cars over the years, and this has always been the case for me.



Is there a certain clay bar or claying process that will not cause any marring?
 
I haven't induced marring when I clay my Acura paint with Clay Magic's blue clay or Detailed Image's Fine Clay while using ONR as my clay lube... Make sure to use plenty of lube and a gentle clay and I don't see why you would have problems with BMW's soft clear.
 
If it's soft BMW black, nothing will work. The contaminants will do the marring even if the clay doesn't. It's time to measure the paint thickness, and if it is indeed too thin, it's time to use something that conceals.
 
yakky said:
If it's soft BMW black, nothing will work. The contaminants will do the marring even if the clay doesn't. It's time to measure the paint thickness, and if it is indeed too thin, it's time to use something that conceals.
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Agreed!

On some very soft clearcoats, the debris itself, when it's abraded away by the clay, will cause marring.

No matter how careful you are, there will be marring to a certain extent.

It all depends on your technique, type of clay and most importantly, characteristics of the clearcoat.
 
Depending on what the contaminants are, you could use a decontaminant wash or if its tree sap or tar, you could clean it with solvent.
 
Either clay extremely carefully and cover up the marring with AG SRP, Meg's NXT, etc.



or



Measure paint and polish if possible. I thought my Acura paint was way too thin, but it turned out to have lots of life left.



or



Repaint and polish :)
 
Thanks for the input. This is not the extremely soft black paint like on the newer BMWs. Some panels (mainly top surfaces) are somewhat dull looking and pitted, even after heavy polishing I've done on this car over the past few years. I'll take some pictures next wash if I remember. I'm pretty confident that the clearcoat is getting thin, even though I've never had it measured.



I think my approach will be to use some ultra fine clay (very carefully) and then try to mask whatever marring I might cause.
 
connorb850 said:
Thanks for the input. This is not the extremely soft black paint like on the newer BMWs. Some panels (mainly top surfaces) are somewhat dull looking and pitted, even after heavy polishing I've done on this car over the past few years. I'll take some pictures next wash if I remember. I'm pretty confident that the clearcoat is getting thin, even though I've never had it measured.



I think my approach will be to use some ultra fine clay (very carefully) and then try to mask whatever marring I might cause.
Click to expand...



Why even bother claying and risking marring. Claying will not improve the looks. Just use a paint cleaner and seal/wax or use a glaze first to hide as much as you can before sealing/waxing.
 
Heh, I can finally access this thread! connorb850 and I had been PMing...



Legacy99- I'd rather clean the paint with something Sonus Ultra Fine than a paint cleaner as it'd be easier *for me* (maybe not for somebody else) to avoid marring that way. Heh heh, of course I sometimes get as nutty about claying as I do about my wash technique :o



Alexshimshimhae- Yeah, the first/alkaline part of a decontamination system can be a good alternative to clay, or at least a worthwhile first step.
 
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