DO I "NEED" clay?

All that clay and polish will do is protect your clearcoat from peeling off your car in 5 years and looking like ass in between. If you don't care about the appearance of your car and a rough surface with oxidation and swirls are attractive to you, then polish and clay aren't at all necessary. That is as reasonable as I can get.

This isn't a 'my way or the highway' kind of thing. There is a right way to care for your car and then there is the half assed way. Washing your car at the automatic car wash once a week and waxing it once in awhile is doing the half assed job. Proper car care requires that you clay the surface to remove contamination that wax won't protect you from. Polish is required to remove scratches and swirls that you can't prevent. The brand isn't important. The important thing is that you wash, clay, polish, and wax your car regularly. This will protect one of the largest investments that most people make. $30 grand may not be much for some people, but that represents a lot of money for me and I make it a priority to protect it. I don't judge people for not protecting their investment the same way that I do, but if you are asking if the proper steps for car care are important to follow, then the answer is yes.

The clay slides over the paint using a lubricant (soapy water basically). It is not abrasive (unless of course you get some bodyshop clay and some of those are abrasive and are designed to remove paint but they are usually only available at bodyshop suppliers). The clay you get at Autozone etc etc simply pulls out micro contaminants that have embedded themselves in the paint as you slide it across. A swirl remover polish by hand will probably take off more clearcoat than a clay bar like this ever will.

The only thing you need to be worried about is keeping your clay clean by constantly kneading it (AND DON"T DROP IT) that way you avoid scratches and avoid having to repair those scratches by polishing.

IMO heavy polishing with a machine is the thing you want to avoid as much as possible and in order to do this you have to practice good washing techniques and good paint maintenance (remove contaminants like bird poop quickly) on your car so that you avoid having to polish.

OK here's my thoughts on this (and i was a noob at this but now i'm intermediate)

-Wash (wool mitt or microfiber mitt + soap + water)

-Clay (use lots of water or soapy water) The more water u hv the easier the clay slides instead of sticking to the paint. it should glide smooth and easily without much grip on the metal.

-wash again...dry with microfiber towels

-Cleaner polish (if ur cars a year old) - not needed if very new car. + light polish pad + Porter Cable

-Klasse All in one (1 coat) with light polish foam pad + PC.

-Klasse Sealant (thin coat) using light polish pad and PC

-let 1st coat of Klasse sealant cure (8 hours or so)

-apply as many more coats as you like but remember to leave cure time between each coat. (glossy finish)

-WAX if you want warm finish

of course OCD has written the book on all the above and there are plenty instructions on autopia.

ALSO take ur own soap/soap gel than using DIY shops soap which may be diluted. use a microfiber mitt to apply it after you have rinsed the car.

(wheels....i'd slip claying but would wash wipe and apply klasse sealant.)

OK here's my thoughts on this (and i was a noob at this but now i'm intermediate)

-Wash (wool mitt or microfiber mitt + soap + water)

-Clay (use lots of water or soapy water) The more water u hv the easier the clay slides instead of sticking to the paint. it should glide smooth and easily without much grip on the metal.

-wash again...dry with microfiber towels

-Cleaner polish (if ur cars a year old) - not needed if very new car. + light polish pad + Porter Cable

-Klasse All in one (1 coat) with light polish foam pad + PC.

-Klasse Sealant (thin coat) using light polish pad and PC

-let 1st coat of Klasse sealant cure (8 hours or so)

-apply as many more coats as you like but remember to leave cure time between each coat. (glossy finish)

-WAX if you want warm finish

of course OCD has written the book on all the above and there are plenty instructions on autopia.

 

ALSO take ur own soap/soap gel than using DIY shops soap which may be diluted. use a microfiber mitt to apply it after you have rinsed the car.

 

(wheels....i'd slip claying but would wash wipe and apply klasse sealant.)

same process here, but I apply the sealant glaze by hand, b/c otherwise you use too much. I would also clay the wheels, and then seal them. I did this b/c I have aftermarket wheels, and wanted to keep them nice. But it's personal preference.

The clay slides over the paint using a lubricant (soapy water basically). It is not abrasive (unless of course you get some bodyshop clay and some of those are abrasive and are designed to remove paint but they are usually only available at bodyshop suppliers). The clay you get at Autozone etc etc simply pulls out micro contaminants that have embedded themselves in the paint as you slide it across. A swirl remover polish by hand will probably take off more clearcoat than a clay bar like this ever will.

 

The only thing you need to be worried about is keeping your clay clean by constantly kneading it (AND DON"T DROP IT) that way you avoid scratches and avoid having to repair those scratches by polishing.

 

IMO heavy polishing with a machine is the thing you want to avoid as much as possible and in order to do this you have to practice good washing techniques and good paint maintenance (remove contaminants like bird poop quickly) on your car so that you avoid having to polish.

Yeah, what he said.

Clay doesn't remove paint, so there isn't any reason to fear it. What it will remove is wax and sealant, so after you clay you usually have to reapply those. You can lightly clay certian contamination without it removing your sealant if you catch it quickly. I spend several days before a car show building up the layers of sealant on my car and once I got hit with overspray from a machine shop across the street from my office just one day before the show. I lightly clayed the affected areas and it didn't seem to remove the sealant. The only way I could tell is from feeling it and the way water reacted on it when I washed it. Generally you can clay twice a year and be fine. I do it once in the spring and once in the fall, but you should clay more frequently if your car requires it. If you live on the flight path like I do and your car i outside a lot, then you'll probably want to clay more often.

Claying your wheels is just like claying your paint. Do it when there is a need, but be aware that you would have to reapply any waxes or sealants on them. I use my junk clay that I dropped on my wheels. Like it was said before, if you drop your clay, then toss it. Unless you are 100% sure that it didn't pick up something that is going to gouge your paint, then it is easier to just throw it in the 'wheel clay' pile and break off a new piece. A normal Clay Magic size bar of clay can be broken into three or four usable pieces, so it usually isn't the end of the world if you drop a piece.

I agree with the others here. They do make clay in several levels of abrasive content, just like polishes, but the clay you are going to find in the auto stores is safe for everyday use. When properly lubricated they will simply glide across your paint, clearcoat, wax and aid in removing surface contamination. Unless you get it dirty, or drop it on the ground, the clay will not even penetrate your wax (what is left of it, if any).

IMHO, if the paint stays well protected, polishing on a regular basis will not be required. Polishing should only been done when there is noticeable swirls, scratches or oxidation. It also is pretty pointless to polish by hand and unless you want to invest the time and money in a dual action random orbital machine polisher then the polishing step could be skipped entirely. The paint will not appear perfect though.

My suggestion would be to wax, clay, wash, dry, wax. Yes, wash again after claying to completely remove any left over lube. If after claying and waxing you desire more from the cars appearance, make the investment, or seek a professional or hobbiest detailer to help you out.

Oh yeah, make sure you use a separate clay bar on the wheels than on your cars body, or atleast do the car first and throw it away after doing the wheels. The Meguiars kit comes with two bars, a microfiber towel and a bottle of qd for lube.

1 bar will last you several clays, so keep a separate one for your cars body, and 1 for your wheels/windows.

Whew! I just wasahed that pearl white bastard and it was a god damn work out . Alright so I pussed out on the clay as it was my first time washing/polishing and waxing my car. I figured I shouldnt do it all at once (plus i am more laZy than al bundy).

I washed, dryed, polished, and waxed. I noticed some people ( i posted in another forum as well) said that it was pointless to wax without a buffer machine? If so is that true? If true that sucks, but what ever. So next weekend (when i am fully recovered from this) I will clay away. THX all!

Sadly, you didn't learn much from above.

First off, if you didn't have a machine, you didn't really polish the car. 2nd, you really NEED to clay before you can polish anyway (which you didn't), 3rd if you clay next weekend, you will strip off the wax you applied this week and will need to reapply your wax.

To address your question though, there's no reason you would need a machine to apply wax, so you're fine there.

You know mcsubgt... What you did is like wiping your ass before you take a dump and then figuring you can take care of the rest the next time. Here's a thought... maybe the next time you can wax the car and then wash it and see if that is any easier. :rolleyes The process is wash-clay-polish-wax for a reason. If you aren't concerned about proper car care, then skip the clay and polishing all together. Don't even bother doing them at all if you are going to do it in the wrong order. It is counter productive to spend time and energy waxing the car if you are just going to strip the wax off with the clay next week.

Pardon me if that seems harsh, but you asked for advice and people took the time and had the patience to explain something that is already well documented if you took the time to search, and you just disregarded the advice. Nobody said "Do a search, noob!" or anything else. We offered advice, as anyone who knows what the process is and cares about other people learning it would do. and you did the opposite anyway. Next time do a search.

To reiterate what we were all trying to teach you ...

There are 4-5 primary steps to proper paint care.

1) Wash

2) Clay

3) Clean paint

4) Polish

5) Protect

Ok, so why do I say 4-5, and then clearly list 5? Because 3-4 can be redundant if done together. More on that later.

1 - You want to wash the loose dirt and contaminants off of your car. This will prepare your car for all following steps.

2 - Washing your car only got rid of the easy dirt - now you need to get rid of the difficult dirt. This is anything that adheres or embeds in the paint. Examples are: Tar, Sap, Bugs, Brake dust, hardwater mineral deposits, Industrial Fallout. Using the claybar will remove all the stuff that is really stuck on the paint.

Compare Washing your car and Claying your car to washing your hands with water alone, and washing your hands with soap. Water alone will get loose dirt off, but you're going to need soap to get tough grease out of your skin.

3 - Clean the paint. Wait? Didn't you already clean it when you washed it and clayed it? Well, kind of. But a paint cleaner is a chemical cleaner, possibly with some light abrasives, that will help remove stains (again, from things like tar, sap, etc.) Most people choose to do this before polishing if they do both.

4 - Polish the car - Polishing, in it's most basic sense, is just scratching the hell out of your paint to hide scratches. Just like using sandpaper, you start really rough and get finer and finer until all those scratches become smooth. Well, swirls are just small scratches in the paint. A polish just makes smaller scratches that aren't visible to the eye until they're so fine it's a mirror finish. Polishing also usually cleans the paint about the same as using a paint cleaner. So this is why 3 & 4 can be redundant if used together. Some still choose to do both.

3 - Clean the paint (No, I'm not retarded). Some people choose to use a paint cleaner after polishing to ensure they have the best, cleanest surface for a sealant to bond with the paint. You can use whichever order you prefer. Or you can choose to clean before and after polishing - whatever floats your boat.

5 - Protecting your paint is a no brainer after you've spent a few hours doing all this work listed above. If you're going to go to all the work, a sealant is really the way to go since it does a better job of protecting your paint than wax. But either way, this is your last step. You now protect the paint.

Now, where this whole thing gets confusing for beginners, is that it's not like most processes where if you're only going to use some steps, you stop a whichever point you feel you want to stop at.

For example, if you only don't want to polish, you Still use steps 1, 2, 3, and 5. If you don't want to clay, now you do steps 1 and 5. If you don't want to wax, you just do step 1.

I've still WAY over-simplified this, and there's a TON to learn still, but this forum has all the information you'll need.

When I polished my car 2 weeks ago, I first washed the car, then clayed it, then washed it, then polished it (note: I skipped the cleaning step here), then washed it, then sealed it.

EDIT: To clarify the point of the process, I list 5 processes above. I would rank them in order of priority like this:

Level: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

STEP: 1 > 5> 2> 4> 3

or

STEP: 1 > 5> 2> 3> 4 (whichever you prefer)

Meaning, whichever level of clean you choose to do should include all steps up to the priority level of your clean. Or inother words, for a step 3 clean, you would always Wash, Wax, and Clay, but you still follow the order of the steps.

wait a second. You washed the car again after polishing it?

I normally polish then seal/wax.

Hey Brady, nice summation!

OCDetails, properly polishing by hand is not a reasonable endeavour, correct?

Also, I notice you advocate the PC buffer, I've used one before, but it's been many years, any tips other than the standard "be gentle"?

Do you have some intermittent check during the power polishing process to assure it's being done properly before moving to the next section? TIA

Detailing your own car well is like Therapy, wrapped in Zen, with a Shiny Gem as your reward.

wait a second. You washed the car again after polishing it?

 

I normally polish then seal/wax.

Yup ... I washed with dawn to strip any more gunk off the car. Specifically, I did it to prevent sealing dust to the car. To me, it was easier to wash after polishing than it was to go back and buff the residue/dust off the car when I was done. I personally felt better doing it this way. Not needed, just what I preferred.

Hey Brady, nice summation!

 

OCDetails, properly polishing by hand is not a reasonable endeavour, correct?

 

Also, I notice you advocate the PC buffer, I've used one before, but it's been many years, any tips other than the standard "be gentle"?

 

Do you have some intermittent check during the power polishing process to assure it's being done properly before moving to the next section? TIA

 

 

Detailing your own car well is like Therapy, wrapped in Zen, with a Shiny Gem as your reward.

The speed and heat that is required to break down polishes to effectively remove surface scratches is just not something you want to attempt by hand. Perhaps if you have huge shoulders from years of physical training you will have the endurance required to sustain such movements, but I don't know anybody who can do that. Machines like the Porter Cable 7424 were invented because it just isn't a job that can be effectively done by hand. I won't say that nobody can do it, but 99.9% of us can't. You need a machine and the Porter Cable 7424 is the entry level polisher for that job. I don't know of a single polisher under $100 that has the power required to remove swirls safely and effectively. Spending $100 to protect the paint on a $30,000 car seems like a reasonable investment to me.

Basically you just polish one panel at a time and check your work as you go. The first time doing this on your car may take you several hours. I spent a good 5 hours on my car the night I brought it home from the dealership, and it was practically perfect at the time anyway. It is reasonable to expect that a beginner with a polisher should spend 4 or 5 hours polishing their paint the first time. To do a whole car still takes me at least 2 hours with a polisher, so don't be surprised if this is an all day project for you. Detailing wasn't meant to be fast and easy.

Thanks OCDetails, the "activation heat" comment is what I was looking for (composition, pressure, friction, etc.). Time is a small sacrifice for thorough glossification, and besides, I've got a bit of the "OCD" too, so I'm ready for the long battle.

I am going to use your "250 watt lamp" technique, as my garage is outfitted with them for other work (fabrication, etc.). Thanks again.

lol - just washed the car tonight (first time in 2 weeks due to absolute crap weather). I decided it was finally nice today and I finally had the time. A few people in teh apartment complex commented how good it still looked after the last big detail.

Now ... it's absolutely pouring out!

Car is in a garage, but I'm hoping it stops before morning.

Oh, and I think I got soap in the intercooler.