Bad experience with clay

X

xmx250

New member
So today i attempted to clay for the first time. My car is a year old, dark blue, and has never been clayed. I used the mothers clay kit.



Before i did the the whole car i tested two areas. Small part of the roof and a small part of the back of the car. After claying these areas i noticed marring, i was pretty upset because i thought clay was safe. MY car has minimal swirling so it was easy to see the new marks



i cant imagine what i did wrong since i read up on how to clay and even watched a few youtube vids on how to clay.



I washed the car, kneeded the clay, wet both the clay and area with QD then lightly glided the clay back and forth.
 
Exactly what mindflux stated, but usually you should barely, if not scratch the surface with clay unless you dropped the clay bar and reused it.
 
i see





it was a brand new bar never dropped or anything...ahhhh. I'm never gonna polish the car myself so i cant risk marring it.





Are there any clays out there that WILL NOT mar the paint?
 
It could also be you are seeing just how much crap and filth has been embedded in and on your paint, in addition to a bit of clay marring.



You may well have a screwed up batch of lube. Got any ONR? I never lube with anything else (diluted of course). I believe you can use automotive shampoo as well (never tried).



Make sure you get plenty of (good) lube on the surface and the clay. Be gentle. Try using less clay and thinning the pad you create, I find it gives you more control over pressure.





Finally I have run into clay bars that always mar. Very aggressive. I don't remember the brand. It was red. Probably built for heavy overspray or some such thing. I can tell you it was not Sonus, Megs, Adams, or Pinnacle (my current favorite).



The most gentle clay I have used to date was the Sonus. The Pinnacle is a close second. With Adams right on it's heels. To me the Sonus was a bit too gentle.



I always always polish after claying. Even if it is with a light pad and polish combo.



Hope that helped.
 
xmx250 said:
i see





it was a brand new bar never dropped or anything...ahhhh. I'm never gonna polish the car myself so i cant risk marring it.





Are there any clays out there that WILL NOT mar the paint?
Click to expand...



I never saw any evidence of it with Sonus. None.



Why can't you polish your car??



Check out ONR. Great lube, pre-glass cleaner, wash, etc.
 
Why are you never going to polish it yourself? You're missing out on a very, very important step in keeping your paint looking great if you don't polish.



I don't think I've used a clay that doesn't end up leaving at least a little marring. Sounds like you might want to re-think your "M.O." if you never plan to polish.
 
Hey, Knuckle.



I just ordered some Pinnacle clay for the first time. I just went through a batch of Sonus clay, and even though I liked it, I think it petered out a little too quickly. Any experience with Sonus and a short life?



Tell me about the Pinnacle...I'm excited about trying it.



Thanks, buddy.



KnuckleBuckett said:
It could also be you are seeing just how much crap and filth has been embedded in and on your paint, in addition to a bit of clay marring.



You may well have a screwed up batch of lube. Got any ONR? I never lube with anything else (diluted of course). I believe you can use automotive shampoo as well (never tried).



Make sure you get plenty of (good) lube on the surface and the clay. Be gentle. Try using less clay and thinning the pad you create, I find it gives you more control over pressure.





Finally I have run into clay bars that always mar. Very aggressive. I don't remember the brand. It was red. Probably built for heavy overspray or some such thing. I can tell you it was not Sonus, Megs, Adams, or Pinnacle (my current favorite).



The most gentle clay I have used to date was the Sonus. The Pinnacle is a close second. With Adams right on it's heels. To me the Sonus was a bit too gentle.



I always always polish after claying. Even if it is with a light pad and polish combo.



Hope that helped.
Click to expand...
 
Sonus is super mild and often too mild for the initial clay. Once a thorough claying has been done, Sonus is great for spot claying and touch ups.



Paint Hardness/Softness also factors into the amount of marring that clay can inflict.



I've never used mothers, but I hear that the Megs White OTC clay is pretty gentle. For OTC I like the Clay Magic blue the best, however, it will mar, at least for me on relatively soft paints.
 
EisenHulk said:
Hey, Knuckle.



I just ordered some Pinnacle clay for the first time. I just went through a batch of Sonus clay, and even though I liked it, I think it petered out a little too quickly. Any experience with Sonus and a short life?



Tell me about the Pinnacle...I'm excited about trying it.



Thanks, buddy.
Click to expand...



I did not use the Sonus long enough to make a durability judgement. It left too much crud behind IMO, thus required lots more time to get a nice clean smooth finish. More work.



The Pinnacle is awesome. Flexible, durable, works fast with very light or no marring. I have been thrilled with it. I keep several bars. I cut each bar in half and use each half for a different purpose. One is for glass, one for roof, trunk, and hood, one for quarter panels and doors above the middle, one is for the bottom of the doors and quarter panels, and kick panels, and last but not lease I keep a bar for rims. I keep a couple spares in case I drop one too.



This all adds up to about four to five full bars.



I have never used the Sonus or Pinnacle lubes. I use diluted ONR as lube and cannot say enough good about it. What an amazing product. I never stop finding uses for the stuff.



You should love the Pinnacle.
 
well my car is a honda civic which is known to have soft paint....









about polishing, well i'm afraid to do it lol.





i was nervous about hand waxing the first time lol.
 
Thanks for the great review, Knuckle.



That's also a very good idea about cutting the bar up for different sections.



I'll let you know what I think...should be arriving tomorrow.



Thanks again!!!





KnuckleBuckett said:
I did not use the Sonus long enough to make a durability judgement. It left too much crud behind IMO, thus required lots more time to get a nice clean smooth finish. More work.



The Pinnacle is awesome. Flexible, durable, works fast with very light or no marring. I have been thrilled with it. I keep several bars. I cut each bar in half and use each half for a different purpose. One is for glass, one for roof, trunk, and hood, one for quarter panels and doors above the middle, one is for the bottom of the doors and quarter panels, and kick panels, and last but not lease I keep a bar for rims. I keep a couple spares in case I drop one too.



This all adds up to about four to five full bars.



I have never used the Sonus or Pinnacle lubes. I use diluted ONR as lube and cannot say enough good about it. What an amazing product. I never stop finding uses for the stuff.



You should love the Pinnacle.
Click to expand...
 
xmx250 said:
well my car is a honda civic which is known to have soft paint....









about polishing, well i'm afraid to do it lol.





i was nervous about hand waxing the first time lol.
Click to expand...



Don't be.



Really. Don't be.



With paint that soft, get a PC and maybe IP and 106ff. Couple of LC pads and you will be amazed at the difference. You will wonder why you didn't do this years ago.



Maybe others in here can give him a better polishing regimen. I use a Flex and the full rainbow of LC pads. Polishes I use are Menz PowerGloss(may soon be replaced by Meg105), SIP, 106ff, and Micropolish.



That said Klasse AIO has a great rep.



Can someone help him out with a simple easy starter setup?
 
xmx250- Sorry to hear you marred your paint. You really are gonna have to polish it sometime anyhow, this might be a good time to do it.



The Sonus Ultra-fine has never marred paint for me, but then neither has the Mother's (or the seemingly identical Griot's). I've heard that there are some paints that are simply so soft that *any* clay will mar them, but if you didn't have much marring before I doubt that is the case here.



Note that once clay gets contaminated with abrasive [stuff] it basically turns into sandpaper. I'll sometimes knead/replace my clay after a single brief contact with the paint, that way I'm not dragging the contaminated clay across the paint, causing marring. Yeah, that's a PIA but it saves me from having to polish, which is an even *bigger* PIA. Otherwise, if the clay picks up a speck of something abrasive during the first inch of contact, and you them move it four *more* inches, you can expect a 4 inch long scratch; IME it's seldom the *clay* that mars, but rather the stuff that gets stuck *to* the clay (the clay is floating on a film of lube anyhow, it shouldn't actually be directly contacting the paint very much).



Lots of lube, *very* frequent kneading/replacing of the clay, very minimal pressure.



Note that I tear a claybar up into small pieces and then get new piece when the one I'm using is contaminated.



EisenHulk said:
.. I just went through a batch of Sonus clay, and even though I liked it, I think it petered out a little too quickly. Any experience with Sonus and a short life?
Click to expand...



If you're referring to the green Sonus Ultra-fine, IMO the gentle nature of it contributes to its short working life; the more aggressive Mother's/Griot's clays last a lot longer and so does the IMO quite aggressive Sonus *gray* clay.



I think of clay as a renewable resource and I just use it up...once it's even slightly contaminated I don't want to be touching my paint with it anyhow and I only trust kneading to a limited extent. But yeah, a bar of the Sonus green doesn't last very long no matter what.
 
Accumulator said:
xmx250- Sorry to hear you marred your paint. You really are gonna have to polish it sometime anyhow, this might be a good time to do it.



The Sonus Ultra-fine has never marred paint for me, but then neither has the Mother's (or the seemingly identical Griot's). I've heard that there are some paints that are simply so soft that *any* clay will mar them, but if you didn't have much marring before I doubt that is the case here.



Note that once clay gets contaminated with abrasive [stuff] it basically turns into sandpaper. I'll sometimes knead/replace my clay after a single brief contact with the paint, that way I'm not dragging the contaminated clay across the paint, causing marring. Yeah, that's a PIA but it saves me from having to polish, which is an even *bigger* PIA. Otherwise, if the clay picks up a speck of something abrasive during the first inch of contact, and you them move it four *more* inches, you can expect a 4 inch long scratch; IME it's seldom the *clay* that mars, but rather the stuff that gets stuck *to* the clay (the clay is floating on a film of lube anyhow, it shouldn't actually be directly contacting the paint very much).



Lots of lube, *very* frequent kneading/replacing of the clay, very minimal pressure.



Note that I tear a claybar up into small pieces and then get new piece when the one I'm using is contaminated.







If you're referring to the green Sonus Ultra-fine, IMO the gentle nature of it contributes to its short working life; the more aggressive Mother's/Griot's clays last a lot longer and so does the IMO quite aggressive Sonus *gray* clay.



I think of clay as a renewable resource and I just use it up...once it's even slightly contaminated I don't want to be touching my paint with it anyhow and I only trust kneading to a limited extent. But yeah, a bar of the Sonus green doesn't last very long no matter what.
Click to expand...











well only two small spots are marred, the test areas. doesnt bother me much









maybe i'll try the sonus ultra fine, is it sold over the counter? also maybe i would be better off using some really soapy water vs. the QD.



soapy wash water feels slicker IMO
 
Thanks, Accumulator.



I didn't know if it were my batch, but it didn't take long for the green Sonus clay to become VERY sticky. It was then demoted to wheel cleaning.







Accumulator said:
If you're referring to the green Sonus Ultra-fine, IMO the gentle nature of it contributes to its short working life; the more aggressive Mother's/Griot's clays last a lot longer and so does the IMO quite aggressive Sonus *gray* clay.



I think of clay as a renewable resource and I just use it up...once it's even slightly contaminated I don't want to be touching my paint with it anyhow and I only trust kneading to a limited extent. But yeah, a bar of the Sonus green doesn't last very long no matter what.
Click to expand...
 
Aside from the obvious "clay removes embedded dirt, etc.," isn't detailing clay abrasive by nature? When I first tried clay I remember using a bit too much pressure which caused some serious micromarring. Mind you, that has all been removed from polishing, but I digress. You're going to get some level of marring, so like knuckle mentioned above, it's not a bad idea to invest in a Porter Cable or similar. The combo he mentioned: 106ff, IP, white, and gray pads should get the job done for now. Hope this helped!



- Marc
 
xmx250 said:
maybe i'll try the sonus ultra fine, is it sold over the counter? also maybe i would be better off using some really soapy water vs. the QD.



soapy wash water feels slicker IMO
Click to expand...





The Sonus is only available online. I didn't much care for the Mother's Showtime as a clay lube; I greatly prefer Sonus Glyde lube and the Clay Magic stuff isn't bad. Some people use shampoo mix but certain clays don't get along with certain shampoos.



EisenHulk said:
I didn't know if it were my batch, but it didn't take long for the green Sonus clay to become VERY sticky. It was then demoted to wheel cleaning.
Click to expand...



I find that the Sonus green lasts a little longer if I use Glyde instead of other lubes (just in case you weren't using it). But yeah, it has a limited life no matter what and once it's shot it never works all that great on my wheels. Eh..it's the price I pay for a nice mild clay.



Moutee said:
Aside from the obvious "clay removes embedded dirt, etc.," isn't detailing clay abrasive by nature? ...
Click to expand...



While all clay is abrasive to *some* extent, the degree varies a *LOT* and many clays aren't funtionally abrasive. There are some clays that are quite abrasive (I can't use 'em without marring), but others didn't mar even when (I rubbed them against paint without any lube.



And used "properly" (scare-quotes intentional) the clay doesn't directly contact the paint but rather floats on a film of lube; it then shears off above-surface contamination that it runs into.



On paints of normal harness (i.e., not stupid-soft) it's absolutely possible to clay without marring...*if* you use the right clay and the right technique. And IMO part of that "right technique" can be using the right lube.
 
I was actually using Glyde with the Sonus green. I do agree, it is a very nice MILD clay. Thanks for the input, sir.





Accumulator said:
I find that the Sonus green lasts a little longer if I use Glyde instead of other lubes (just in case you weren't using it). But yeah, it has a limited life no matter what and once it's shot it never works all that great on my wheels. Eh..it's the price I pay for a nice mild clay.
Click to expand...
 
EisenHulk said:
I was actually using Glyde with the Sonus green..
Click to expand...



Heh heh, it dies even *faster* with some QDs and shampoo :eek: And if you somehow let it come in contact with solvents/tar removers it *really* turns into a soupy mess!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top