wiping off lube?

joyriide1113 said:
if clay lube leaves permanent streaks that require machine polishing, then u shouldn't be using that as a clay lube. ive had soapy water from washing dry right on my car due to extreme heat from sun, and all i needed to use to remove it was a quick rinse with water and a microfiber towel.
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I've had streaks once with clay+soapy water. Very difficult to remove on a black Kia Sportage.
 
I almost always polish after clay (on my car just claying marrs the paint a small amount) so sometimes I will not wipe off the lube streaks before hand. IMO there is no reason to and it does not affect the final product. Flame away. :D
 
wifehatescar said:
I almost always polish after clay (on my car just claying marrs the paint a small amount) so sometimes I will not wipe off the lube streaks before hand. IMO there is no reason to and it does not affect the final product. Flame away. :D
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i AGREE. Also the Adams videos are not intended for the ANAL Detailers like us that are very very picky. :online2lo I did use the Adams videos for reference when i was rookie. Those videos really help you out when learning. But once you master the detail world, We tend to critic Adams methods. I'm sure that if some of us had videos on our Websites some of us would citicize some methods. :dontgetit

Bottom line: Depending on the condition of surface( if you clayed out alot of stuff or not) really depends if you can go ahead & polish. Honestly it doesnt look right but i know many proffesionals that do it. :cool: :chop
 
wifehatescar said:
I almost always polish after clay (on my car just claying marrs the paint a small amount) so sometimes I will not wipe off the lube streaks before hand. IMO there is no reason to and it does not affect the final product. Flame away. :D
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That is exactly how I do it. In fact, I'm such a fan of that method I included it in the guides on OCDetails.com. Since the next step following clay should be a paint cleaner or polish, what difference does it make if you are cleaning off some streaks along with any other contamination? Seems silly to wash the car after you clay it just so you can polish.
 
Jngrbrdman said:
Seems silly to wash the car after you clay it just so you can polish.
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Oh crap. I thought we were talking about using a mf to wipe down a panel after claying, not washing the car.
 
What do you hurt by claying and then going to polishing without wasting QD on the whole car getting harmless streaks off? I don't look at this type of thing as cutting corners. It is more like being more effecient. You could QD after every step if you wanted to, but that would just waste time and product. It probably takes longer per panel to wipe off all the streaks than it does to clay the panel to begin with.

I would never waste my time on a step that doesn't enhance the appearnce of the car and doesn't do anything else useful. Nobody just clays the car and then leaves it at that anyway. Clay should always be followed by polish or paint cleaner. Not washing the streaks off isn't going to impact the other steps one bit.
 
PEI Detail said:
A lot of the time I'm doing a customer's car and going right to LSP. Can't skip it.
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Now THAT is cutting corners. If you are going straight to an LSP after claying then you should wipe off the clay streaks. Personally it surprises me that a professional would clay a car and then go directly to a wax without polishing first. If you are going to cut out the polish and paint cleaner then why even clay?
 
The Fuzz said:
Now THAT is cutting corners. If you are going straight to an LSP after claying then you should wipe off the clay streaks. Personally it surprises me that a professional would clay a car and then go directly to a wax without polishing first. If you are going to cut out the polish and paint cleaner then why even clay?
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It's what people pay for. They want wax, I give them wax. It isn't about cutting corners, but I don't give out free polishing just for fun. Why clay then? Because a clayed surface makes a beautiful base for wax, and dragging a wax applicator around a non-clayed surface doesn't strike my fancy, particularly on rocker panels.

Listen, you folks all live in an area where people have heard of detailing. My repeat customers get curious and go a little further each time, but it takes a while to educate an entire city where the only other shop in town sends cars out with holograms and buffing marks with pride. Any time I say "polish" to a customer, they say, "no, Buddy Wasisname went to that place on St. Peter's Road and it looked awful two weeks later. I just wanted to make it a little shiny and keep the car a little longer. See you later, goodbye."

Now the thread has brought up an idea: clay&lube->polish w/o mf wipe off. Lovely, I will try it, and save me and my customers some time and money. It just isn't a cure all, and I've seen clay streaks on that black Kia not come out without significant work.

Not all paint is created equal. Not all customers and economies are either.
 
PEI Detail said:
It's what people pay for. They want wax, I give them wax. It isn't about cutting corners, but I don't give out free polishing just for fun. Why clay then? Because a clayed surface makes a beautiful base for wax, and dragging a wax applicator around a non-clayed surface doesn't strike my fancy, particularly on rocker panels.

Listen, you folks all live in an area where people have heard of detailing. My repeat customers get curious and go a little further each time, but it takes a while to educate an entire city where the only other shop in town sends cars out with holograms and buffing marks with pride. Any time I say "polish" to a customer, they say, "no, Buddy Wasisname went to that place on St. Peter's Road and it looked awful two weeks later. I just wanted to make it a little shiny and keep the car a little longer. See you later, goodbye."

Now the thread has brought up an idea: clay&lube->polish w/o mf wipe off. Lovely, I will try it, and save me and my customers some time and money. It just isn't a cure all, and I've seen clay streaks on that black Kia not come out without significant work.

Not all paint is created equal. Not all customers and economies are either.
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Amen!
 
Is claying built into the price of your waxing? If customers don't know enough to know that getting the car polished is important, then how do you explain clay to them? In cases where they don't want to pay for the polishing then you don't really have any choice after the clay than to clean off the streaks. It is a practice that I would only think is necessary in this specific instance where they don't want to pay for polishing. The customer is king, so give them what they want. You should try polishing after clay and see what it does. I think the problem with the streaks on the Kia were because it was a Kia and not because clay streaks stain. :lol: You will have much better luck with that technique on other cars.
 
I think it was the Kia too, but with black cars, I doubt I'll risk it. It seems black finishes are getting more and more sensitive, not better and better (though Kia is the worst).
The customer is king, and sometimes I upsell to a clay treatment. For me, if they are willing to shell out an extra $20-$25, I would rather them clay, and I won't polish without claying unless there are no contaminants. I have upsold some KAIO work with clay only on the rockers, but I won't whip out a polisher without clay.
I will try skipping the mf step when polishing sometime. If I can save that time, it will be great.
 
PEI, why not clay during the wash? Like, after washing with the mitt but before rinsing, use the suds remaining on the car as clay lube. And have a spray bottle of ~1oz. soap per ~30 oz. water on hand for when you need to refresh the lube. Then when all done, just rinse and dry the car as usual. Or if you're slow like me, you could clay a couple of panels and rinse so there are no shampoo streaks on the car. I find it saves me a lot of time and a lot of lube to do it this way, and with the right soap it makes a nice, slippery lube.
 
Sherman8r44 said:
PEI, why not clay during the wash? Like, after washing with the mitt but before rinsing, use the suds remaining on the car as clay lube. And have a spray bottle of ~1oz. soap per ~30 oz. water on hand for when you need to refresh the lube. Then when all done, just rinse and dry the car as usual. Or if you're slow like me, you could clay a couple of panels and rinse so there are no shampoo streaks on the car. I find it saves me a lot of time and a lot of lube to do it this way, and with the right soap it makes a nice, slippery lube.
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I've tried that, and works okay when going to a polish step. I typically don't dry the car fully on the flat panels. Here, the water is so hard that it etches really quickly, so I have to move quick or rinse when I go.
 
PEI Detail said:
I've tried that, and works okay when going to a polish step. I typically don't dry the car fully on the flat panels. Here, the water is so hard that it etches really quickly, so I have to move quick or rinse when I go.
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I always dry the car before claying or i end up with water spots.
 
Brenton, have you looked into a water softener.
If it saves you a step, it might wind up paying for itself.
I thought of it now due to this thread

Just a thought
"J"
 
So I tried this method, or a version of it, moving really quickly on a Black 97 4-Runner. It was a job about fixing the marring marks from another detailer. I was billing by the hour, but time was of the essense, a deadline. I was working indoors in a relatively cool (but not cold shop), and I used Clay Magic clay and a bit of 50:50 QD--only need a handful of squirts. I did the claying after washing, while there was still soap and water on the car, vertical panels first, then horizontal. Then I rinsed down.

I was wrong for doubting. No streaks, and a clay in 1/3 the time.
 
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