I know there are a tone of clay posts about what may have gone wrong ... but this is the opposite. This was my first time. Used lots of lubricant; kneaded the clay; and it seemed to glide. No resistance, no marring. Should there be some resistance? I didn't really see any grit or dirt on the clay but after I was done the hood seemed really smooth vs the roof which felt a little gritty. Why didn't I do the roof you ask? Well, just as I had finished the lower panel (about 60% done the whole car), that little bugger flew right out of my hand so I tossed it and didn't feel like starting a whole new chunk of clay. I read about this happening to other and figured I'll be real careful .... not. Anyhow, just wondering whether the clay is supposed to glide. Thanks
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Did I clay right?
- Thread starter froll
- Start date
If it just glides on the paint the paint is quite clean, like my own car. But when I clayed a friend of mines 16 year old BMW that was in a poor shape it got stuck a few times and I used almost an entire claybar on that car. I used a heavy degreaser first which removes alot of the dirt but not all.
I then used my Cyclo w yellow LC pads and Megs #83, didn't do anything to the heavy swirls and burnt in spots on the roof and hood.
Megs #80 orange LC pads, a little better, but the heavy swirls and spots remained, I removed them on some parts though, that were in better shape.
Gave up and put a coat of NXT on it. Looks better from a distance and feels smooth, but It needs a repaint really :aww:
I then used my Cyclo w yellow LC pads and Megs #83, didn't do anything to the heavy swirls and burnt in spots on the roof and hood.
Megs #80 orange LC pads, a little better, but the heavy swirls and spots remained, I removed them on some parts though, that were in better shape.
Gave up and put a coat of NXT on it. Looks better from a distance and feels smooth, but It needs a repaint really :aww:
As Mcthings and Mark77 said it really depends of the condition of paint you are working with. Clay glides when you have good lubrication – which is the must – and it glides even easier when paint does not have mush contamination. First time I clayed, I dropped my bar with bumper left to go :hairpull , but it wasn't so bad since I divided bar in half before starting. Half Mother’s bar is enough for me to work with at the time. :woohoo:
Thanks all. Just as an aside, after working 3-4 hours and achieving a beautiful shine on my black car, I came in the house, had something to eat and laid down to take a rest. When I got up, I saw it rained and now my car is full of pollen and huge droplets. I'm ready to kill someone but not sure who.
If the clay just slides like that, that means your paint is free of contaminents in that one spot. When I clayed my car a year ago(1 year old at the time), I had pretty much no resistance either with light to medium pressure on the clay. Only trouble spots I had where on the wheels and close to the ground. Which makes sense considering those are the spots where dirt and contaminents like to stay.
On my former car, a subaru legacy, a bar would last me 10-20 washes using about once a month. My new car, a honda accord, used a whole bar the first time I used it. Your paint was probably relatively clean, thus the clay pretty much glided across the paint. Just because your bar isn't getting dirty probably doesn't mean anything more than your paint is pretty clean. You don't really put much pressure on the clay, just work it back and forth till it feels like it's gliding with no resistance. By the way, good call on tossing the dropped bar. I too was very timid with clay the first time I used it. Just didn't seem natural to run clay over the paint. But now after months of using I would never do without it. It's a regular part of my detailing routine.
Accumulator
Well-known member
I divide my claybar into little pieces, and pretty much employ a use-then-pitch approach. Dropping a little chunk is no big loss, and not trying to refold the clay numerous times gives me peace of mind regarding some abrasive contamination working its way back to scratch my paint. I save the used clay to use on wheels and other things that aren't very delicate.