Claying A New Car

[HondaMan]

I clayed my car this weekend, outside of the front bumper area with bugs/tar/whatever, I hardly picked up that much material from the rest of the 7-week old car.

Is that normal? Or did I maybe just not do a good enough job. The clay picked up a few specks of dirt here and there, but nothing like my mom's 10-year old car, which got filthy every few swipes.

I will say though, that clay was great for gettin grid of the bugs and tar. The bugandtar remover required alot of elbow grease; the clay bar took it off right away. A 15-20 minute job took about 3 minutes with clay!

 

[JaredPointer]

Maybe your new car just didn't have a lot of contaminant in the paint. Clay is a wonderful tool though, isn't it. Sounds like you had a productive weekend!!

 

[rollman]

IMO if the car surface feels smooth , then you probably got most of the junk off . Its had to tell with your naked eye unless your claying a white car to tell its totally clean. You can feel the difference without a doubt .

Keep in mind some claybars pick up better than others , so if your not picking up any junk it doesn't necessarily mean there's nothing there . Its all in the feel . :bigups

I think the new car manufactures are doing a better job at covering cars during transit now a days . Some do a better job at it then others.

 

[HondaMan]

Jared, it was productive but spending a total of 6 hours EACH day this past weekend means I can still feel the effects!! My mom appreciated the job on her car, it looks worlds better (maybe next time I'll go with SSR 2.5 + Speed 5-6 on the PC). My mom's friend saw her reflection in the trunk which was impossible 6 hours earlier.

Rollman, I used a ClayMagic bar (fine) and have another one in reserve, along with another from 4*. In fact, I'm gonna break off about 1/4 of one of them (they're each 200 gm) and do the windows on both cars next weekend. Someone said clay worked well on the windows -- I may need more liquid though pretty soon at the rate I use it!

 

[JaredPointer]

It's good exercise. The main thing I think is, if you are not doing it professionally (which I am not), you have to enjoy it. (I am sure the pros here enjoy it too, or else they would find something else to do.0 The reward for the soreness is an extremely clean auto that makes other people stare. I just love getting in my car after I have spent all day cleaning it. It just seems to run that much better if it's clean. Hope you don't "feel it" anymore in a day or so!!

 

[ABCDetail]

Being that your car is only 7 weeks old, it probably didn't have much of an accumulation of bonded contaminents. I've clayed cars that are 2 years old, but have been washed regularly, and haven't gotten much on the clay, but you can always feel a difference in the paint especially around the wheels and the nose of the car.

 

[rollman]

I may need more liquid though pretty soon at the rate I use it!

Here's a tip that works for me and I picked it up here. Clay while your washing the car the soap does the work of the liquid . I to use Clay magic , I just picked up some of Poorboys clay during his sale but haven't tried it yet.

 

[shotime]

If you clay after washing, rinse it off before you clay. I use either a QD or soap + water in a spray bottle, clay, then rinse again. I used to clay after washing but it just takes too long.

 

[tomp]

Being the one who got Hondaman into this crazy idea of spending 12 hours of labor detailing (PAC should give me a commission!), I think the best advise is that the materials that clay removes are not visible to the naked eye. Those particles could be abrasive and cause microscratches that aren't visible to the naked eye. But they could dull the surface ever so slightly.

(As a side note, we are both amateur astronomers who are familiar with optics. This effect has been noticed in cleaning and polishing optical glass that is used for telescopes. For instance, contaminants in cheap cotton balls have been known to damage eyepieces and lenses. We use surgical cotton instead.)

You can't see the effects unless you use a microscope. But the surface dulls by a minute amount.

On a related note, Hondaman and I both spent the weekend keeping in touch as we detailed our vehicles. It's kinda fun to keep in touch with someone while you're making progress on the vehicles.

I started at 10:30 a.m. and finished at 10:30 p.m. Vehicle: Red '04 Mitsubishi Endeavor.

Washed with Eagle One wet and 2 drops of Dawn (Dawn settled to bottom without mixing in so that was a waste) Water still beaded after I was done so I assumed it had little effect in getting rid of the previous coats of wax and SG.

Clayed with claymagic and Ultimate clay lube.

SSR1 with E2K Green pad at speed 5 over hood (3 passes to try and get rid of scratches)
Scratches weren't really cleaned up much but hood really shone!

SSR1 with same pad at speed 4 over rest of vehicle.

AIO - tried with blue E2K pad and realized it was drying before I could wipe it off. That made it more difficult than doing it by hand. So I went to wipe on / wipe off.

UPP 2 coats over 2 days.

And today the Millersville Fire Company decided to flush the fire hydrants!

Thank you Poorboys for SPRAY AND WASH!!!!!!

 

[JaredPointer]

Tomp, did the flushing ruin your clean-up job? I bet your car looked good. Sounds like you both had a busy weekend!!

 

[HondaMan]

After I did my mom's car with the SSR 2, my dad said it looked great, I could stop. I explained to him I still had the sealandt (AIO) and 2 coats of UPP to go!!

Speaking of which, I only got 1 coat of UPP on and it looks like I may have to wait until the weekend to get another coat on. Should I do just a 2nd coat then, or should I put 2 coats on again within 24 hours?

I'll have to wash the car, as mom took it out today and it got a bit of dust/dirt on it (but nothing like what came back from the shore a week ago after it was washed but there was no wax or gloss on it -- dust and dirt covered the car after 2 days!). Either that or maybe I can get a S&W by the weekend.