Paint Cleaner & Clay????

[sspeer]

I'm a little curious/confused at the role of each of these wonderful tools..



Do you need to use both? Does one remove stuff the other doesn't? What order would you use them if both?



TIA..

 

[Setec Astronomy]

There are certain contaminants/paint conditions that just seem to respond better to one than the other. If you've got a bunch of hard stuff stuck to the paint, like rail dust, you may not want to get that caught in your polishing pad with the paint cleaner and get dragged all over the rest of the finish. Conversely, sometimes you have sticky gunk or oxidation that will just foul your clay. Sometimes you just need to have different tools available for when one of them doesn't work ideally.

 

[Accumulator]

99.999% of the time I clay first. Only time I don't is with *severely* oxidized single stage paint (think white and chalky-looking). Using paint cleaners/polishes first can round off the edges of bonded contamination, making it harder for the clay to do its job.

 

[C. Charles Hahn]

I'm a little curious/confused at the role of each of these wonderful tools..



Do you need to use both? Does one remove stuff the other doesn't? What order would you use them if both?



TIA..

Hey, have you by chance read DavidB's book yet? If not, be sure to grab it. It's a great resource for answering the "basic detailing process" questions.



In short, though, the clay is generally good for contaminants that are larger in size and more "well bonded" to the paint than a liquid-type cleaner.