Clay bar and polish - *** are they supposed to do again??

S

sklew

New member
Ok, so I finally got my clay bar and polisher and I got all excited, and I finally went out to do them today.



I washed the car with soap, then dried it with microfiber drying towel. Then I took some clay out and made them into a ball, and put some detailer on it, and then put some more on the car, and started rubbing it. I just worked on my back trunk for beginners. I clayed the whole trunk.



And then I put some polisher on a microfiber towel, and rubbed it on the back trunk.



I looked at the trunk. It looked exaclty like it did before. :eek:



Now what the hell are clay bar and polisher supposed to do again?? Aren't they supposed to get rid of dirt and scratches and swirl marks on the paint?



Clay bar and polishing didn't get rid of any of scratches and swirlmarks on my car! So what am I doing wrong??
 
Could be any number of things.

What polish are you using?

What pad are you using?

What speed are you using it on?

How long are you working the polish?



JJ
 
J.J. said:
Could be any number of things.

What polish are you using?

What pad are you using?

What speed are you using it on?

How long are you working the polish?



JJ
Click to expand...
Ditto, need more info...
 
I was using shining monkey clay bar, with shining monkey detailer. Shining monkey clay bar looks just like perferct shine clay bar. I am using shining monkey polisher as well.



I am just using micro fiber towel to do this with my hands. I'm not using a PC.
 
Well, I've never head of shining monkey, so I can't offer any advice in that regard. Removing swirls by hand is near impossible. I wouldn't even consider it. You would need to work the polsih way to hard to remove swirls by hand, and Your freakin' arm would fall off after. So, I think we've identified your problem.



JJ
 
Ahhh...



So basically I should get the PC...



Dang...I was hoping I didnt' have to shell out another $150 on cleaning tools...o wells.. I guess I"m gonna have to..
 
sklew- I'd find out if the Shining Monkey polish is abrasive and if so, *how* abrasive. You need abrasives to remove swirls.



I dunno about a product that leaves a panel looking the same as before you used it...



There are products that will remove, or at least conceal, a lot of marring, even when used by hand. Meg's Scratch-X and #80 come to mind.
 
If you're gonna polish by hand, I'd use a terry towel, as it tends to give a product a little more "bite" than a mf. As far as polishes go, I'd dump the shining monkey for Poorboy's SSR2 or Meg's #80, or do the wash/clay yourself, pay someone to polish it, and then wax it yourself. I'd almost suggest paying someone to do the polishing, as polishing a whole car by hand is miserable, and when you figure in the time itll take you to do it its not worth the savings.
 
themightytimmah said:
If you're gonna polish by hand, I'd use a terry towel, as it tends to give a product a little more "bite" than a mf. As far as polishes go, I'd dump the shining monkey for Poorboy's SSR2 or Meg's #80, or do the wash/clay yourself, pay someone to polish it, and then wax it yourself. I'd almost suggest paying someone to do the polishing, as polishing a whole car by hand is miserable, and when you figure in the time itll take you to do it its not worth the savings.
Click to expand...



:eek: is it that bad to polish a car by hand? I plan on doing this when I get my PB SSR's in. Granted it's quite a small car (MINI to be exact0 how many hours would you expect it to take? also I plan to use a foam applicator, good or bad?
 
FWIW:

Polishing by hand is possible but very time and body consuming. I have only seen one man remove marring and scratching by hand. Scottwax. He used a terry towel folded into 1/8's giving a very thick pad to work with. A foam applicator will not have enough "bite" to work any polish by hand to successfully remove marring.
 
I would prefer to pay someone to Polish and then take care of the work they have done. Polishing by hand is a complete waste of time IMO



JJ
 
sklew- If a product won't work by hand I don't see how it would work by PC. If you work a small area by hand you should be able to duplicate anything the PC will do. The big advantage of the PC is that it doesn't get tired and can go over an area, a few thousand times, much faster than you will by hand.



I've done spot correction *by hand* many, many times, and I usually only use a plush MF for this. If you don't need a rotary, you can almost always, *with enough time and effort* do the job by hand. I've removed fingernail scratches from behind the door handles of our Audis (very hard clear) by hand, so it can be done.



But I'd sure pick a product that is considered easy to use by hand!



mataku- Haven't used the PB stuff, so I dunno how it'll go. Plan on spending a lot more time than you'd ever expect.



If the foam app doesn't work well (or isn't user-friendly), I'd try a folded *very soft, 100% cotton* towel (or cotton applicator) for the first passes and then plush MF for the final polishing.
 
themightytimmah said:
If you're gonna polish by hand, I'd use a terry towel, as it tends to give a product a little more "bite" than a mf. As far as polishes go, I'd dump the shining monkey for Poorboy's SSR2 or Meg's #80, or do the wash/clay yourself, pay someone to polish it, and then wax it yourself. I'd almost suggest paying someone to do the polishing, as polishing a whole car by hand is miserable, and when you figure in the time itll take you to do it its not worth the savings.
Click to expand...



I ordered some Poorboys about a month ago and when it arrived, I wanted to try them right away so I tried both SSR2.5 and SSR2 each by hand on a panel that had moderate swirls. In both cases, I used a foam pad to apply.



SSR2.5 was a little too agressive and left a lot of micro-marring by hand, but SSR2 worked fine. Using moderate pressure, I worked a 2x2 section for only maybe 20-30 seconds by hand using SSR2 and all the swirls were gone. The panel also had some scratches on it and I couldn't get the scratches out by hand though even after a couple passes.



I have since gone over the entire car (with a PC of course) in a full detail but hand application of SSR2 actually wasn't that bad.
 
toyemp said:
I have since gone over the entire car (with a PC of course) in a full detail but hand application of SSR2 actually wasn't that bad. [/B]
Click to expand...





After going over it with the PC, were you able to remove all the swirls and scratches with SSR2?
 
hm... maybe i'll give it a try, although I only got the 2.5 and not the 2. My car has really light scratches all over, so there's really no point in spot polishing for me, I might even consider just using the 1



anyways, though, I've decided to get a PC. I can get one for about 95$ then pads for about 60$, so I figured, what the hell.



thanks for the tip though, I'll be getting my PB before I get the PC, so I'll probably give the SSR 1 and possibly 2.5 a try.
 
Klasse AIO might be the ticket if you dont have a PC. If you are on a budget, try a chemical paint cleanser. If your scratches and swirls are not too bad, this might do it for you.



There are ways around the expense of a buffer if you dont want to invest at this time.:xyxthumbs
 
sklew said:
After going over it with the PC, were you able to remove all the swirls and scratches with SSR2?
Click to expand...



except for a couple areas that had some deeper scratches, SSR2 worked fine for me. I had to step up to SSR2.5 for the deeper scratches.



This was only the 2nd time I have used PB products, so I am still learning. I normally use #83 and/or #80 so I am more familiar with those, but I wanted to try something new.
 
toyemp said:
except for a couple areas that had some deeper scratches, SSR2 worked fine for me. I had to step up to SSR2.5 for the deeper scratches.



This was only the 2nd time I have used PB products, so I am still learning. I normally use #83 and/or #80 so I am more familiar with those, but I wanted to try something new.
Click to expand...



Oh so you have used #80 before huh. How do they compare with the PBs?
 
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