How Long Does It Take You To Clay ?

HondaMan

HondaMan

2004 Civic EX magnesium
Maybe because I'm anxious to get to the AIO and sealing stages where I can see big improvement in the finish, but it always seems like the claying stage 'drags.' I have a Civic (small car) but it takes me over an hour to clay it.

Granted, I take a few breaks because it's tiring and monotonous, but AIO'ing or sealing the car takes me about 45 minutes (both putting on and wiping off) whereas claying the other night took me closer to 75 minutes. There were some tough tar stains, which certainly added to the time it took.

Anybody else find claying is more lengthy than one would expect? How long does it take you to take, including any (small) breaks?
 
Hey Hman, how ya been??

Claying "stand alone" (using the lube, claying, and wiping away the residue) takes me about 30 minutes or so on my land-yacht Tacoma. I usually clay during the wash cycle, and I feel that it takes less time. Maybe it's the fact that I am doing two things at once. As my wash process continues to evolve, I may decide to go back to doing it as it's own process, who knows?

It seems like you might be going at it with a little caution, which is not a bad thing. The more you do it, the faster and more comfortable you get with it.
 
Claying is defiantly a boring part of the process, but a essential one. If over the surface is well maintained then I do spot claying. Like this past weekend I did a full detail on my car and I just went around the car and ran my hand over different parts of the body. If it felt rough or I could here my hand drag across the surface, I clayed it.
 
It takes me about 15-20 minutes to clay, but my car is medium sized and being a convertible means no roof to clay. I also just do it during the washing phase so I can rinse all the lube off at the end.
 
A smaller car I can do in about 20 minutes or so....larger SUV styles about twice that as I have to climb the ladder allot more.....as for if its boring....not to me its one of the prep stages that I find really sets the clear up for a better finsih
 
SpaceAce said:
I also just do it during the washing phase so I can rinse all the lube off at the end.
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I'll be doing my 1st clay job shortly. Are you saying I can do it while washing the car? Do you mean, once I rinse the car, leave it wet, and then spray QD and clay?
 
FreeBIZZ said:
I'll be doing my 1st clay job shortly. Are you saying I can do it while washing the car? Do you mean, once I rinse the car, leave it wet, and then spray QD and clay?
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Yes, you can do it as you wash. My method gets tweaked here and there the more I learn, but currently I will:

Wash a panel
Rinse
Use the soap & water (from the wash bucket) / foam (from the foam gun) as the lube & clay the panel
Rinse

I have done it other ways, but right now I think this is working best for me.
 
FreeBIZZ said:
I'll be doing my 1st clay job shortly. Are you saying I can do it while washing the car? Do you mean, once I rinse the car, leave it wet, and then spray QD and clay?
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Yes. I wash the whole car and leave it wet. The water left from the rinse really saves on spraying lube.
 
Thanks for the time-savers, guys. I'll try wash/clay at same time. I have a foam gun, too, so I may try that as a lube.

When done claying do you all just rinse again, and then dry prior to next step polish or AIO?
 
FreeBIZZ said:
When done claying do you all just rinse again, and then dry prior to next step polish or AIO?
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On cars with lots of contaminates (which seems like all I do lately), I quickly hand wash the vehicle again and then rinse off.
 
I used to clay while I washed but I have since gotten used to using clay lube (becuase of all the winter QEW'n). I will however start to clay while I wash tough. Either way takes me about 10-15 mintues, if the car is in decent condition.

Greg
 
GregCavi said:
I used to clay while I washed but I have since gotten used to using clay lube (becuase of all the winter QEW'n). I will however start to clay while I wash tough. Either way takes me about 10-15 mintues, if the car is in decent condition.

Greg
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Greg, are you going to be doing it a section at a time, or wash the whole vehicle and then clay?
 
Takes me about 2-6 minutes per panel depending on the size and contamination, so between 20 minutes and an hour.
 
TrueDetailer said:
I clay as i wash so it takes me about 10-15 minutes to clay an average contaminated f150 or silverado.
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About the same here,10-15 min. how much of the clay bar do all of you use?

i use 1/2 of the bar of the poorboy size and i get about 2 large cars out of it

Jeff
 
wow i think i am the slowest clayer around! I wash then dry then clay then wash again. It takes over an hour for my accord
 
I find it depends on the car the condition and the clay. It takes me anywere from 25 minutes to do a small car in good shape to over and hour to do a huge truck.
 
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