too much clay

G

gav'spurplez

New member
how often is too often to clay a car. mine sits outside and usually gets washed 1-2 times a week. but if i am in the mood to add a coat of WG, i should clay it first right ?? :nixweiss



it only makes sense, but just asking. you can't do any harm to the paint can you ??



thanks :xyxthumbs
 
If you want to keep the surface as smooth as possible before applying additional coats of WG, you could just spot clay the car first. While you're washing, rub you hand over the surface and if you feel any roughness just clay that one area and move on. You could clay the whole car, but spot claying should be sufficient.
 
sounds good. i usually hit the car with some QD after every wash.



but i just thought that claying the whole car would be the best :)
 
I spot clay every wash. My car is silver and shows every little speck of contamination. I find that the rear bumper near the exhaust needs it every wash.
 
I can't think of any reason that you could clay too much. Like mentioned above, I would just spot clay the car. You don't really need to clay the whole car. If it doesn't take you very long to clay the whole car, then go for it if it makes you feel better!



Gav'sPurplez - In case you don't know about the IL/WI detailing meet we're planning for the spring, here's the link to the thread. Chime in so we have a complete list.

http://autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=45599&highlight=wisconsin+detailers
 
stevet said:
I spot clay every wash. My car is silver and shows every little speck of contamination...
Click to expand...



Same here :xyxthumbs Been doing it since "detailing clay" came out, never had any problems from it.
 
spot claying...



doesn't it remove all the wax too - I thought Clay was a good tool to remove 'old' wax residue as part of the start of a 'full detail'?

In which case - aren't you just removing the protection from that area? or do you guys re-wax after every wash?



confused

Graham
 
gkerr4 - This comes up frequently, and some of us have sorta agreed to disagree. My $0.02 follows:



Nah, it doesn't seem to remove *much* LSP (Last Step Product) if you clay correctly. The trick is to clay *very* gently. You pull the contaminants out of the wax/sealant. You *don't* abrade the wax/sealant off the panel by rubbing it aggressively with the clay. Big difference.



Yeah, it *does* take off a little LSP, but not enough to really matter. Sal Zaino says it oughta remove no more than "half a layer" of Zaino, for instance. I might have to rewax my often-clayed areas a little before the areas I never clay, but not much.



After reading all the "clay removes wax" posts, I decided to do it, to clay until I'd removed my LSP. I had to clay a *very* long time and I finally clayed so aggressively that I felt I was doing it incorrectly and risking marring the finish. It was so much more aggressive than what I usually do that I can't really even compare the two techniques. So if clay is removing your LSP, you're not claying correctly. Just IMO, of course. But I've been spot-claying ever since "detailing clay" came out and I'm *very* certain that I'd notice if I were compromising my LSP with it.
 
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