Tips for claying faster? How long does it take you to clay bar?

R

redlinegts85

New member
The thing that always takes me the longest is claying my car. I just don't understand how some people claim to be done with it in 20 minutes. Is there something I'm missing? You spray the detail spray and then move the clay bar back and forth until it feels smooth right? How would you get the entire car done in 20 minutes doing little sections at a time?



Another question, do you press the clay bar onto the car while moving it back and forth or do you just let it glide lightly?
 
This is what I recently posted on g35driver:



"roll the clay into a ball, and flatten it out. If youre reusing clay you've used previously, make sure you find a clean surface of it to work with. I find that the size of the Meguiar's clay (straight out of the box, small soap bar size) is pretty much perfect to work with. Spray down the clay w/ the quik detail, then thoroughly spray down a 2x2 section of the car. You want to make sure the clay is gliding smoothly over the surface (to prevent scratches) which is why the lubrication is so important. Make between 3-4 passes on the section (up and down, not circular), wipe down finished section w/ microfiber. Touch finished section, make sure it is smooth as glass, then proceed to next section. Once you get it down, should take you about 30-45 mins to finish the whole car from bumper to bumper. Then I usually go into polishing, then waxing steps, but that can be elaborated on later if you would like. ; ) "



In regards to the pressure, I usually apply light (several lbs ) pressure, and put in a lil more if I don't get any results from the first several passes.
 
Just glide it lightly. A lot of us use car wash as a lube, it goes a bit faster that way. Mix a fresh (small) bucket of wash after you wash the car, use a clean mitt/sponge/etc. to wet the car down in sections, rinse as you would while/after you wash.
 
20 minutes does seem a bit too little time to clay an entire car. I also use car soap as my lube, and it certainly makes things faster. An average midsize sedan takes me around 50 minutes to clay.
 
I had a really really bad white car Friday and it took me an hour to clay it. That was one of the longest I have ever clayed besides cars with bad over spray or something. 20 minutes is about average for me I would say.

What sort of clay are you using? How about the lube? Is this on your personal car? If so how often do you clay?
 
True that. :) It's easy to clay a car in 20 minutes if you aren't having to remove much contamination. With that said, my "average" for claying cars is probably about 1 hour...and I can't tell you how many cars I've done that have taken me over 2 hours; the reason is we have a severe contamination problem in my area.



If you're polishing, feel free to apply ample pressure...just make sure you aren't putting in scratching deeper that you'll be removing by polishing (this is more of a problem with the non-elastic type clays available today).
 
I clayed for the first time last month with soapy water and even in my paranoid state, it took me about 45 minutes. I continually check the smoothness of the paint as well as looking for any possible marring from my newbie techniques....none ever surfaced.



FYI - Car is only one year old, but it seem that the only areas where I pulled off some brown "grime" was the horizontal ones. The sides had no real grime coming off on the clay.
 
Yea. The first time you clay will probably take a while.



After that, if you maintain it, claying will go much faster because you won't have to do multiple passes over heavily contaminated areas. Of course, you could use a more aggressive clay, but that brings its own problems which IMO aren't worth it for use on just a single personal vehicle.
 
i did my m3, took me about 30-45 minutes. i just sprayed and moved it back and forth really quick. Spray ahead of time so you can just work your way through. I don't see that you should spend a lot of time claying unless it's heavily contiminated.
 
IMO The reason it takes 20 minutes is that the only part of the vehicle that actually needs claying is the hood, roof, trunklid, back bumper [top] and front bumper
 
Cars with normal amount of fallout normally takes about an hour. If the car has very little, then it's understanable to be around 30 min. I usually clay after I wash while the car is still wet, which somewhat speeds up the process. You don't need to use as much QD/Clay lube either. On occasion I will take much longer then an hour, these are the ones with a heavy amount of fallout.
 
Trouble with that method is that some clay bars may fall to bits or leave residue in your hands and you can't be absolutely sure all the grit is gone.



I prefer to do it after drying. 30mins to 1.2 hours

Time is no problem for me. I'm not under the pump
 
atticdog said:
I find the only areas that need claying are the lower side panels and behind the rear tire
Click to expand...



I personally think the exact opposite. IMO these areas are probably the least ones that need to be clayed. I would say all horizontal surfaces and especially the rearmost part of the trunklid and top of rear bumper. Anybody care to offer an explanation as to why so much contamination bonds to the back of the vehicle?
 
My semi-educated guess as to why the rear seems to get the dirtiest is due to the vortex created in the rear when the car is in motion. As the car pushes forward through the air, there's a vacuum created in the rear and nature abhors a vacuum, so air and dirt rushes in to fill it. The vortex pulls the dust and dirt kicked up by the car back onto the bumper and trunk.



Back when station wagons were popular, there was a warning not to leave the rear hatch or window open while driving because the exhaust fumes would be pulled back into the car by the same vortices.



Almost sounds like I know what I'm talking about! This might not be the most accurate. You physics and aerodynamics experts can feel free to correct any mistakes.
 
I can clay my car in 15 minutes. :)

I have a Miata in good shape. I also use the wash suds as lube as mentioned in above posts using Clay Magic bar.
 
I just got done doing the neighbors Yukon which has had nothing but a carwash a couple of times a year. Just the claying alone took me about 2 hours, I've never seen so much gunk imbedded in paint!
 
clnfrk said:
I personally think the exact opposite. IMO these areas are probably the least ones that need to be clayed. I would say all horizontal surfaces and especially the rearmost part of the trunklid and top of rear bumper. Anybody care to offer an explanation as to why so much contamination bonds to the back of the vehicle?
Click to expand...



I guess we dont have much fallout but i seem to always have tons black bits of tar stuck all over the side panels at the very bottom under the doors between the tires and on the back bumber bottom right behind the rear tires
 
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