Painted the trunk, can I clay!?

R

rauljimenez

New member
Just painted the trunk and front of the car since they were heavily oxidized and damaged. I know i can't wax till the paint really cures but what about claying? can i do it to keep contaminants off or is it too abrasive?

thanks.
 
I wouldn't... and I don't really see the purpose either (at this point). If you did a base/clear I think it might mess up the clearcoat.
 
If it's fresh paint, there should be no contamination in the paint yet. Clay won't do anything for new paint. Why were you wanting to use clay, anyway??
 
My truck had some body work on the fender and door. It has a clear coat. There was some overspray so I just clayed and polished the whole truck, 3 days after it was painted. No problems.
 
Why do people want to clay everything? I don't get it. If you paint a surface there is only two things that are most often done. Wetsanding or buffing. If you used clay bar on a panel that had overspray then yes, that is fine, but no need to use clay bar on fresh paint. This note is good for future readers. I know you have already done the job, just trying to help future new paint people.
 
I dunno if you can really generalize this one...if a panel gets contamination on it that won't wash off them I clay it, no matter if it was freshly painted or not. You can get contamination regardless of when the paint was sprayed, just not the awful-buildup-over-time that some people think is the only reason to clay.



A clay like Sonus green (that takes a little work to cut through even a glaze like Meg's #5) shouldn't hurt the paint any if you do it right.



But I do try to avoid any such stuff until the paint has at least started to harden up (usually a few weeks after painting) just to avoid marring it in case it's still very soft....and some people seem to clay quite aggressively, which is probably bad news for very recent paint.



Frequent washes and applications of glaze (after every wash) oughta go a long way towards keeping contamination from sticking.
 
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