Cleaner/Polish before clay?

mynci

mynci

New member
In what cases, if any, would you consider using a cleaner/polish type product before claying? And if you were to use a cleaner/polish before claying, would it be necessary or more of a personal preference to use a polish again after the clay?
 
MYCNI

Its clay then polish or cleaner wax. If your paint is in decent shape then you could start with a cleaner wax/ polish. To use it after clay again then that would be up to the person but it over kill to me.

Clay is to remove anything that is on the surface a cleaner wax sort of does the same thing but not in the same ways. IMO I always start with clay then move to polish, then sealant or wax or both.
 
Look at it this way... If you had a sliver in your body, would you swab it down with peroxide before or after you pulled the sliver out? The proper way to do it would be to pull the sliver first. That is the way it is with your car. Pull the contamination out of the paint first and then go back and clean the surface. The proper order to do things is:

Wash
Clay
Polish/Cleaner
Seal/Wax

There really is no advantage to polish prior to claying unless the car is so severly oxidized that you have no other choice. Typically the clay should go first.
 
Understood. That is the order I follow. :D I was just wondering if there were any extreme cases in which claying before polishing would be counterproductive, if that makes any sense, and Jngrbrdman, you answered that for me. Thanks for the replies! :)
 
Yea I would have to say on single stage paint where you have a lot of oxidation. In that case you really need not bother with clay the polish or compounds will cut what ever is on the surface, that's my take on it
 
Many times on a badly neglected finish I will polish before claying.
If there is a lot of tar on the paint I use a tar remover to take it off and then if the finish is hazy, I will polish to remove the haze and any other suface contaminates. Then I clay to remove the embedded contaminates in the paint. I feel by following these steps in certain cases actually allows the clay to work more effectively and the haze(oxidation) does not load up the clay. Also, If you were to examine many of the surface contaminates like tar and bugs, etc. many of them actually contain small pieces of dirt or foreign objects that could scratch the paint if embedded into the clay.
Just my thoughts based on my experience ... yours may vary
 
I think obviously you should get the tar and bugs off before you clay or polish, but I think the clay should come first. For some reason I picture the top of the embeded contamination getting knocked off durring polishing and making it harder to pull out of the paint. I would rather get it first and then polish the rest. Polishing first could make claying harder, but claying first won't have any effect on how difficult or easy it is to polish. It just seems logical for me to clay first. Trust me.... If there is one thing I know about then its being smooooooooooth. Claying is all about being smooth. :naughty I'd like to think that I'm generally doing it in the right order.
 
Ah discussion of the old days...Boss and i have discussed this many a time.
Clay is good for relatively new or well maintained finishes to upkeep and maintain them. As for neglected or single stage paints, I'd rather polish first and remove as much crud, oxidation and dirt from the finish first. Remember clay is relatively new to the detailing world and polishing was all we had for many many years previous, and we think we did pretty good back then;)
 
I would side here with Steve.

Claying works OK before polishing but really comes into play AFTER your paint is polished. The polishing usually takes place via a wool pad and a rotary. Clay the paint afterwards and you'll be surprised at the contamininates in the clay.

Plus you'll notice the surface is very slick.

Anthony
 
Anthony Orosco said:
I would side here with Steve.

Claying works OK before polishing but really comes into play AFTER your paint is polished. The polishing usually takes place via a wool pad and a rotary. Clay the paint afterwards and you'll be surprised at the contamininates in the clay.

Plus you'll notice the surface is very slick.

Anthony
Click to expand...

This bugged the heck out of me for the past several months as well...

There are times when I feel that claying is first, and others where I
feel that polishing is first. On some cars I find that I get heavier swirling
marks when I use a polish before doing the clay. On the other hand,
when I would use the clay first, it would pull up so much stuff, that it
became useless shortly thereafter. The polishing comes out great, but
I find that I would use up almost an entire bar when I do the claying
first. In some cases, I would run out of clay before i could finish the
car.

Nowadays, I just do a decontamination wash first, and then if needed,
I do a claying. It takes a little longer, but it insures less chance of
heavy marks in the paint when I do a polish.
 
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