OK what's going on here? (claying my new car)

White95Max

New member
I have spent about 35 minutes claying my car now. How much did I get done? About 1/3 of the hood, and about half the trunk too. I keep claying until I see all the black specks disappear. I've tried the Mothers clay and the Shining Monkey clay. Both used with Showtime QD as lube. The first time I clayed the Maxima I think it took me like 1.5hrs to do the whole car. I don't understand why it would take so long on the Protege. I really don't want to spend hours and hours on the claying process. I guess a decontamination kit is my answer?
 
Maybe the clay is too soft ?



I find that the mothers clay to be less able to get stubborn stuff out of paint than the Clay Magic.
 
Well I tried the Shining Monkey clay too. I guess I could open my Sonus clay and see how that works. I'll try that and report back.



This car has probably never been waxed or anything EVER. When I first washed it a few days ago, the entire car was covered in a sheet of water. No beads whatsoever. So it's been unprotected for probably its whole life, and has sat outside as well.
 
The Sonus clay feels just as soft as the Mothers clay. I tried using NXT/water and lube, but that didn't seem to make a difference. I had good results by pressing harder though. I realize that I may get some marring from more pressure on the clay, but I'm planning to do SSR2 via rotary anyway. :nixweiss



Also, the vertical panels are much easier to clay. I guess it's just really bad on the horizontal panels because the contaminants have so much time to ease their way into the paint. Plus there were no protective layers to interfere with the contamination. I think I'll just hang in there and keep going. I can't stand looking at my neighbor's silver Sonata being so much shinier than my silver car. I detailed that car BTW (clay,AIO,UPP,Nattyglaz16).
 
used car?...it wouldn't surprise me if you used a couple bars of clay to get it completely decontaminated. it took me an entire bar for my WRX, which was straight from the dealer because it had so much rail dust! on my old Prelude and Integra(both used), they required a couple bars of clay each as well for the first cleaning. it's shocking how much crap there can be on a used car. with respect to mother's clay, i don't like it. it tends to fall apart and get all over the place. when compared to the blackfire and clay magic clays i've used(i prefer BF), the mother's is junk. just think though, once you're done with this first claying, you should be set :xyxthumbs
 
White95Max- As per our PMs, I'd use the decontamination system but still have plenty of clay on hand. When you say "Sonus", I assume you mean the *gray* clay; the green is too mild (by far) for this job. Between the decon. system and some good clay (I'm not too fond of Mother's either), you should be all set.



Oh, and on the Mazda clear, you can press pretty hard when claying, at least my my standards, and still not mar. It's a good clear, tough enough to resist damage but pretty easy to correct. The SSR 2.5 (which I've never used) and rotary should be plenty aggresssive for anything that can be wisely corrected. These things don't have *really* thick paint though, so give some thought to living with the deeper marring.
 
Whoa! Really? You guys don't like Mother's clay? I do find that it does tend to fall apart but it does the job well (at least for me).
 
I'm big on CG's clay right now. I've only used it and Mother's, and I find that it beats Mother's bigtime for not falling apart and "grab". 95Max, PM me back and I'll hopefully get that kit shipped out tomorrow. You might want to try red clay too.
 
Yes, by "Sonus clay" I was referring to the gray clay. I agree about the Mothers clay falling apart sometimes (it's doing it now as a matter of fact, probably since it's loaded with rail dust and crap).



Timmah - PM sent.
 
Can you get ClayMagic's more aggressive claybar from a local detail supply? Seems more cost effective than buying a few mild claybars or ordering a decon kit.
 
I had similar issues when initially claying my GFs Mini Cooper S - it took me about two hours as it had heaps of rail dust on it. It also had to go to the bodyshop to have the roof spoiler repainted and came back with underseal splatter down the side of it - obviously overspray from another car in the workshop.



I just kept going with the Clay Magic, but which I had had a more aggressive clay to hand.



Ben
 
merci said:
I guess I'd better try other clay bars then. Optimum clay is coming in a few days. :D



Don't think that those clay bars are no good. They are all good clay, it's just that my car seems to be an extreme case for contamination.
 
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