Scratch x better than clay??

[h22accordex]

I decided to try the scratch x on the hood of my silver 01 accord. I did a coat of that and my paint felt as good or better than after i clay. Than i put a coat of nxt on and it was even better! Should i stop claying and just use scratch x on the whole car, or is there something that clay does better?? The clay i use is Pinnacle poly clay. Thanks!

 

[Jngrbrdman]

ScratchX will polish down the crud that is on the top of the paint, but it will not pull contamination out of the paint like clay can. Clay isn't just knocking off the top of contamination. It is grabbing onto it and pulling it out. Its like waxing your legs. You are uprooting the crap that is in your paint. All polishes will do is clean the surface.



Someone gave me a good analogy once when I was trying to figure out if you should polish before or after you clay. They compared it to cleaning a wound. Would you apply alcohol before or after you pulled the splinter? This is the same principle. The polish will clean the surface but the clay will remove the splinter. To understand the purpose of clay you really need to understand industrial fallout (IFO).

 

[Wang]

yeah, that would be a good analogy, but I don't know what that means



Seriously, I agree, claying is the best bet for removing embedded contamination. Scratch X is good for removing swirls and very light scratches.

 

[shaf]

In all likelihood, the contamination that was removed with Scratch-X was either abraded off by the polish, or sheared off by the applicator pad. Possibly also dissolved by solvents, but I'm not sure.



In any case, this isn't the best way to deal with rough feeling contamination. It's the way it used to be handled though...