claying white cars

[Accumulator]

So on the FK Decontamination kit, is it ok to do paint correction after you've applied its sealant? Or should you do the correction, then apply the sealant, then hit it with your LSP?

I've never used any decon stuff from FK other than their 1119, but IMO it stands to reason that applying a sealant before doing correction would just result in a film of sealant that your correction would have to cut through before it gets to the paint. So you'd do the decon, then the correction, then the sealant. Unless I'm missing something here..... :nixweiss

 

[ezemsm444]

When they are really bad after washed I use APC 3:1 as Lube then rinse panel by panel. The APC really helps out allot. The only downfall is the clay begins the come apart so the piece i use is useless.

 

[white gecko 99]

When they are really bad after washed I use APC 3:1 as Lube then rinse panel by panel. The APC really helps out allot. The only downfall is the clay begins the come apart so the piece i use is useless.

I tried this on a white Yukon and it works!!



Megs APC 3:1 (3 parts water / 1 part apc).... am I listing that right?



anyway, 3:1 was too strong. Ate up clay very fast. Take it down to 5:1 or 6:1 and it works great. Also keep a bucket of water nearby to dunk the clay in after each panel BEFORE you kneed (sp?) the clay again. This will rinse off the APC before you kneed it into the clay and speed up the breakdown of the clay.



Hope this helps some other people! I love this method!

 

[02zx9r]

may have to play around with that, thanks gecko and ezem for the tip

 

[Accumulator]

That APC/clay combo is very similar to using clay while doing the alkaline step of a decon system. I did that with FK1119 on my nephew-in-law's white company car and it worked great on some nasty stains.



Note I sometimes clay while either/both the alkaline/acidic steps are dwelling, just adds a little "oomph" to the decon process. And it keeps the clay vendor's lights on too

 

[tresola]

I have owned a blue car, red car, two black cars and now two white cars. My favorite to detail was the red and the worst is a tossup between the black and white. Black shows every imperfection blaringly, while white, on the other hand, seems to camouflage stuff until you get in for a closer inspection. I am amazed how clean a white car can look until you start cleaning it, then you see how filthy it truly is! My Subaru is a darker white pearl than my new Toyota; my Toyota is more of a super white with pearl. The Subaru hides dirt a little easier than the Toyota because of its yellowish hue. I can see the scuffs on my Toyota that might hide on the Subaru.



And rust is rust! All cars rust, although its not nearly as noticeable on a darker car than a lighter car, of course. It hid better on my red car than it does on my white cars. Some manufactureres are worse for rust, like my poor Subaru. It was a little rusty last year and I touched all the spots up, then we had a really harsh winter with lots of salt. I now have holes behind the molding where the rust has grown and I'm afraid to see what another year will bring. My red Toyota, on the other hand, was easy to treat to keep the rust only on the surface. The rust on that grew like a "fungus", a yellowish something rather would peep out occasionally of where I had the touchup paint. My blue Mercury had a bit of rust to it, and if I remember correctly, it was also eating away a bit at the metal. My new white Toyota has surface rust on the rear of one well because the idiot shop guys messed up the paint job. I think once I get it sanded and put some touchup paint & clearcoat, it'll stay covered.

 

[efnfast]

As I've posted before on threads like this, you can experiment with claying during the decontamination steps. Yeah, it dissolves the clay *very* fast, but it can add a little oomph to the process when required.



More of my Autopian Heresy: on dark vehicles where the ferrous contamination's rust blooms don't show, I'll question just how necessary it is to do a perfect job. Such stuff is really obvious on white, and pretty obvious on silver..but on some colors it just doesn't show. I really dunno if it's likely to cause true *functional* issues like paint failure, at least not if you keep the vehicle in otherwise nicely detailed condition.



People went a long time without clay and/or decontamination systems, and chemical paint cleaners that only do a so-so job used to be all we had to work with. There are still a lot of oe-paint cars running around that survived stone-age detailing processes just fine

If you don't fully clay though, whne you go to polish won't you just be rubbing the particulates into your pads/paint?

 

[Accumulator]

If you don't fully clay though, whne you go to polish won't you just be rubbing the particulates into your pads/paint?

Sure..but I'd add an "if". IF the contamination is significant in a functional way. Consider that back before there *was* detailing clay, this simply wasn't all *that* big of a deal. Getting abrasive contamination stuck in the pads and thus swirling up the vehicle was never a big problem for me (no, I'm sure not saying it never happened at all).



When I recently polished the Yukon's (black) hood I didn't clay it. Everything went fine.



No, I'm not saying not to clay. Heh heh, I probably clay at least as much as anybody here (consider my spot-claying at every wash). You can bet I'll clay the sides and liftgate of the Yukon when I redo them.



But I do think it's one of those case-by-case things and when you add a decon system to the mix there's often a good chance (good enough? hm... :nixweiss ) that the claying isn't absolutely necessary.

 

[GoudyL]

When I'm claying white cars, it generally takes me about 3 times longer than other colors (sometimes yellow too). Reason being the fallout/rust spots. They seem to clay down smooth quite easily, but takes a long time to remove the visible dot.

This is what prewax cleaners are ment for. Claying is for removing cementious particles, prewax cleaner for everything else including enviromental hazing.



Often turtle wax bug and tar remover (in the metal can) is useful, since some of these rust spots are really soluble tar stains, that need a solvent cleaner to remove.

 

[David Fermani]

Sure..but I'd add an "if". IF the contamination is significant in a functional way. Consider that back before there *was* detailing clay, this simply wasn't all *that* big of a deal. Getting abrasive contamination stuck in the pads and thus swirling up the vehicle was never a big problem for me (no, I'm sure not saying it never happened at all).

Yeah, but that leads back to pre-90ish days and most vehicles were single stage. I think that in itself can be a huge factor in the appearance of swirls caused from contaminants left on the buffed surface. I think bccc is the main reason why swirls stick out so bad because of the way it refracts off the basecoat. Sound possible...:think:

 

[FordFan2009]

What about adding a little vinager to your wash mix? or some lemon juice.

 

[White95Max]

I had to spend many hours claying my Protege when I first got it. The paint contamination was disgusting. I even used the FK1 decon system twice in a row. The helped somewhat, but I still had to finish it off by claying again afterward. I think it depends more on the owner's washing habits than anything else. If they never wash the car, the crap just settles into the paint forever, and becomes very hard to remove.

My wife will be getting a 2003 Protege5 on Monday, which I plan to spend a lot of time with next week. I'm working a lot of hours this weekend so I can take a couple days off during the week to spend with the P5.

 

[Accumulator]

David Fermani- Heh heh...hey, the first time I got abrasive contamination on a pad when doing a black ss lacquer car you can bet I realized I'd made an "oops!"



I pretty much treat my ss cars the same as my b/c ones and I do see their marring when I inspect...I dunno if that diff is significant *in my case*. I'll still say it's a case-by-case thing but hey..if in doubt *clay*. I'm probably coming across as far less a proponent of claying than I really am.



white95max- You gonna decon the P5? As thin as Mazda clear (actually the paint in general..) is I'd try to do as much as possible via nonabrasive means.



FordFan2009- Too mild. About all that'd do is tweak your wash towards the acidic side of the scale. To get rid of things like rust-blooms you really have to burn 'em out with something of significant potency. Mild acids can be great for mild problems like hard water/mineral deposits though.

 

[White95Max]

white95max- You gonna decon the P5? As thin as Mazda clear (actually the paint in general..) is I'd try to do as much as possible via nonabrasive means.

I don't think so. The decon system didn't impress me too much the first time, and beside that, I live in an apartment so I don't really have anywhere to use it. I'll have to start working on it and figure out how bad the contamination really is; then I'll decide what to do next.

 

[Accumulator]

White95Max- Ah, yeah...you really do need a controlled-environment shop to use the decon stuff.

 

[tresola]

Before reading the following article on this website entitled from "A Lesson From White Paint", I really didn't think white paint was different from any other color. After reading the article, I took it to heart as I went to work on the exterior of my new Toyota, which has pearl white paint. Sure, pearl makes things sparkly, but the car was so dirty it looked more like super white.



So, I bought the Turtle Wax Clay Kit that included a clay bar and liquid clay. WOW. I was only going to clay the "troubled" areas but ended up doing the entire car. Not only did I get every scuff mark out, but I also got out overspray, oxidation and recovered both bumpers to match the rest of the car. Both bumpers looked a bit yellow; I think they were the newest painted parts on the car. They felt like sandpaper to the touch, and the clay bar at first met a lot of resistance, but after working for a little bit, they became smooth as glass and I couldn't believe the dirt that came up! I had washed the car prior to claying (I think anyways!) I have never seen a paint hold in so much dirt as this car. The results were absolutely stunning. Maybe its the clearcoat or something, because my even more pearly yellowish-white Subaru doesn't seem to hold any dirt in the paint.



I highly recommend to anyone having any sort of white car to do a major claying job and then try some paint cleaner before you polish & wax. I don't see where the paint cleaners would get down into the pores enough to get the same results as the clay. Clay removes contaminates a heck of a lot easier than any product I know of, and it barely takes time or effort.



I'll try and get some pictures up somewheres where you can see the before and after shots of my car.

 

[mrgrape]

i do lots of white cars including mine, claying is a BITCH>>>>

white cars are the worst for claying and black for scratches.

 

[GoudyL]

So, I bought the Turtle Wax Clay Kit that included a clay bar and liquid clay. WOW. I was only going to clay the "troubled" areas but ended up doing the entire car. Not only did I get every scuff mark out, but I also got out overspray, oxidation and recovered both bumpers to match the rest of the car.

It's a very under rated kit, probably because it comes from turtle wax, and that lots of people had a hard time with the idea that the liquid clay bar was a pre-wax cleaner, and not the same as actual clay bar per se.



If Meg's came out with this kit, everyone would be raving about it.

I highly recommend to anyone having any sort of white car to do a major claying job and then try some paint cleaner before you polish & wax. I don't see where the paint cleaners would get down into the pores enough to get the same results as the clay.

It's just the opposite, the solvents/soaps in the liquid clay/pre wax cleaner can disolve dirt out of the pores in the paint. The detailing clay is surface contamination only (especially since it "floats" on a layer of clay lube over the surface.)



You want to use the LCB first, otherwise the clay will get massively fouled with dirt you should have removed using the LCB.



Now that you've prepped the car with the TW Ice clay kit, try applying some Ice polish.

 

[tresola]

Yeah, I was using the liquid clay first, then would switch over to the bar to get better results if it was a rough area. I'm not too worried about getting the claybar dirty since I "roll" it and the dirt goes away.



I'm not very fond of using that ICE polish on anything that isn't a scooter/motorcycle. My experience with putting it on my cars- the darned crap won't leave! I put it on lightly and let it dry, and it takes forever to remove! I've never had such a problem with any of my other products, sun or no sun. The stuff does leave a nice shine, but at what cost. I like my Wizards & Mothers for polishes. I'm probably one of the few that doesn't have high praises for Meguiars either!