Coatings and clay maintenance

A

AudiOn19s

New member
I have to be honest I've been a hold out on the latest coatings, but I'm tempted enough to give it a go on my daily driver so i can form my own opinion of them. I'm going to either either Opti-coat or cQuartz soon



I'm curious how you treat the coatings when it's time to clay the car? I'm guessing the clay won't necessarily remove the coatings based on some of the reports I read here, but will the coating be compromised by bonded contaminants? Will it need to be re-applied anyhow after I clay contaminants away? My daily drives probably 25k miles a year, It needs clayed at least once a quarter no matter how well I keep after it, esp the rear. I'm just not sure what to expect as the need to clay comes up.



Thanks,

Andy
 
Let me give this a go again. I applied Opti-Coat to the driver right after posting this. The car is now in need of being clayed at least in spots. The back side has bonded contaminants that need removed. How will claying effect the coating? Will it lightly marr the surface like it does on softer paints? Is There any way to correct marring in the coating?



Really impressed with Opti-coat, matter of fact I've got it on two customer cars and two family members cars now going through different evaluatios of my own. Just really worried about what's going to happen when I clay.



Andy
 
Claying should be fine as long as you don't get any marring. Whether or not it marrs the paint will depend on the paint, clay, lube, and the guy claying the car. You should be able to use Poli-Seal or Optimum Finish II without compromising the coating if needed....any more than that is pushing it though IMO.





The other option would be to try some products like TarX and IronX to see how much of the bonded contaminants they can remove without claying....this is something I'd like to try eventually on my own car.
 
Or give KAIO a try. I'm only a month or so in OC, but the paint is still pretty smooth. Even tar seems to wash right off which is amazing.
 
IF you clay gently enough that it wouldn't compromise a healthy LSP, I wouldn't expect it to compromise the coating either. Sonus SFX with plenty of Glyde oughta be fine as long as you do it correctly.
 
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