Do I need to clay again?

A

amcdonal86

New member
Well I attempted to polish with my Flex VRG 3401 and OHC and OH Polish with very lackluster results, so I'm going to try to give it another shot this weekend--this time with M105/205, which I have had success with in the past.



My question is this: I clayed the entire car 2 weeks ago, do I need to clay it again? The car is parked in covered parking (in a breezeway) at night and in a parking garage during the day. However, I took it for a drive through the mountains a couple weeks ago and allowed it to sit dirty for about a week.



What do you guys think? Last weekend I washed it and the paint still felt like glass to me!
 
If the paint is still glass smooth, no reason to clay again. General rule of thumb is to only touch the paint when you have to. Don't over clay, don't over polish, don't reduce the clear any more than absolutely necessary to get the desired results.
 
Fantastic. Makes me a little more eager to start my second attempt. :D



Here is my plan. First I'm going to wash and dry with ONR. Then before I start each panel, I will do an IPA wipedown.



For each panel, I will start off using a LC Hydro Tangerine Pad and M205. If that doesn't remove the swirls in one pass, I will move to LC Hydro Cyan (light cutting) Pad and M105. Then I will move back to LC Hydro Tangerine Pad and M205 until all defects are gone. After that, I will try to improve the gloss by using M205 and LC Hydro Crimson (finishing) pad. And then finally I will apply Collinite 845 using a LC gray finishing pad.



Does this sound like a good plan? Of course if it turns out I don't need M105 I will skip that step. I bought a whole bunch of pads for this polishing outing--now I will have 2 cyan, 5 tangerine and 3 crimson pads at my disposal. I'm guessing that the tangerine pads will get the most use.
 
Sounds like a great plan :)



IMO the only areas of the car that needs to be clayed more than every 6-12 months are the rear trunk/bumper due to the wind vacuum and the areas immediately behind the wheels where excess dirt is sprayed up from the tires.
 
I clay the entire vehicle every three months. Unfortunately they aren't garage kept so contaminants tend to accumulate rather quickly. Claying this frequently also makes it easier when I do clay. There was a time when I'd clay every other month but I opted to do it seasonally.
 
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