Sonus clay

M

melissa809

New member
Hey guys...I posted awhile back about claying my car..well I bought the ultra fine grade sonus clay and will be claying my car on Saturday....do i need to polish after or could I go straight to a sealant and wax?



Thanks

Melissa
 
It depends on the condition of the paint. If its in really good shape, you may not need to polish. However, you may still want to use a paint cleaner of some type.



If you have swirls and other defects, you'll need to polish.
 
No one can tell you for sure. I doubt the sonus will cause much marring but if you car is already marred from something else than yes it may need some type of polishing.



If the car is in a relatively swirl free state I would go with a paint cleanser/cleaner after just to clean up the paint chemically
 
melissa809 said:
I bought the car new in May...no dealer prep...so would a wax or sealant right after the clay be okay?...
Click to expand...



Going straight to a sealant and wax after clay is perfectly acceptable for a car that is so new, although any defects (swirls, mild scratches) currently present, if any, will still be there if no polishing is performed. No dealer prep is certainly a great way to start your new car off on the right path to a swirl-free finish. Proper washing and drying from there on will ensure the finish stays that way. And try to avoid doing any "wipedowns" of the finish in between washes. Better to live with a little dirt and dust in the meantime rather than risk the potential marring that could be induced.
 
If you've had it since May and you're driving it regularly, even if the paint is in great shape, I would use a paint cleaner before sealing if you didn't need too polish it. This is particularly true if you've had no significant protection on the paint since then.



Keep in mind that I'm not a pro. But I think that you'll get better results if you clean the paint before sealing - something like a Mother's pre-wax cleaner or Meguiar's Cleaner wax. The type of cleaner might depend on the sealant - you may not want to use either of those products, but there are other similar products that might be more compatible with your sealant. I don't have any real experience with them though.
 
Actually...I rarely even drive the car every weekend...it's not my daily driver...I wash it regularly...initially putting a coat of wax on it when I bought it in May.....it is swirl free as of now...just have some rail dust that I need to take care of
 
melissa809- If you wipe all the clay/lube residue off really well, I bet you can go straight to the wax; I do this all the time. If you clay while washing, it's easy to do a quick rewash/rinse of each panel after you clay it.



One thing though, the Sonus green UltraFine (which I use all the time, great stuff) is *very* gentle and it might not be aggressive enough for the raildust, which I'm assuming has oxidized and resulted in rust-blooms :think:
 
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