Any good walkthroughs for Claying & polishing a car?

[Graham_A_M]

Hey guys, I have a car brite clay bar thats been sitting here for eons, and I may as well use it.

Whats the best way to clay a car? any links or walkthroughs? thanks a lot!

[King Banana]

Youtube has over 1000 videos on clay bar use.....

dude,


kneed the clay, roll into a ball and flatten out so its between 1/4 and 1/2 inch thick.

spray a lot of solution on the car, you need something to let it slide along the surface, water does not work great, you need something with some slide to it, usually comes with the bar.

move the clay bar along the surface, you wanna put a bit of pressure on it so that it gets into all the little pits.

when it gets dirty fold it into itself and keep working.

When you are done a section, wipe it off with a micro towel and feel the paint with your hand to see if you missed anything.


and I didn't even need to type that out because google and youtube have any information you could ever need.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=clay+bar&search_type=&aq=f

[Cos]

make sure the body stays wet and once you get some gunk start to work the clay bar a bit more.

I enjoyed claying my car, going to do my truck soon.

[syeve]

As a side, I always thought I kept my paint in pretty good condition. After claybaring it I was WRONG. The paint on my S4 feels/looks like a brand new car.

[2EFNFAST]

1 - wash car

2 - use some form of clay lube (i usually use either ONR (optimum no rinse) or some 50/50 form of qd and water); spray lube on area to be clay

3 - take clay, gently rub it back and forth until it glides across the surface

4 - after several swipes, if clay is dirty fold into a ball and press it back flat out again and continue to use

5 - pick out any large gunk that gets stuck in it and if it drops on the floor chuck it immediately.

gentle pressure always - btw, if your clearcoat is soft or medium you will need to polish it out after claying, otherwise you'll have a lot of micromarring showing.

[Graham_A_M]

K thanks guys. Yeah I should have checked youtube first. :facepalm:


That vid answered my questions of what to use for Claylube, and waxing the car afterwards.

Thanks a lot for the insight from everybody regardless though, much appreciated!

[2EFNFAST]

Originally posted by Graham_A_M
K thanks guys. Yeah I should have checked youtube first. :facepalm:


That vid answered my questions of what to use for Claylube, and waxing the car afterwards.

Thanks a lot for the insight from everybody regardless though, much appreciated!

unless you've got some hard clear, you're going to have to polish first, then wax. Unless you like looking at all the micromarring the clay will leave behind (micromarring being swirls et al; however, because you are moving clay in a back&forth motion, you'll have back&forth 'lines' from it vs swirls)

So basically wash, don't bother drying, clay, re-wash, polish, wax

[Graham_A_M]

Originally posted by 2EFNFAST


unless you've got some hard clear, you're going to have to polish first, then wax. Unless you like looking at all the micromarring the clay will leave behind (micromarring being swirls et al; however, because you are moving clay in a back&forth motion, you'll have back&forth 'lines' from it vs swirls)

So basically wash, don't bother drying, clay, re-wash, polish, wax
Define Polish? Sorry Im not too knowledgeable regarding detailing. I'm assuming that means removing any existing wax with a good cleaner wax?

[King Banana]

A proper polish is done with a high speed power polisher unit, a buffer usually doesn't spin fast enough.

The power polisher will warm the paint slightly and soften the clear coat just enough so that the ever so small scratches are smoothed out and the color is able to shine through better with more clarity in the clear coat.

This should be on youtube too.

You would wanna practice this on a honda civic before you give it a go on a car worth money ;)

[Graham_A_M]

^ Okay, so it basically boils down to a light, mildly abrasive Cut & polish. Okay, that I've done before, thanks again

[97'Scort]

Third one down:
http://www.eshine.ca/articles.php

The guy that runs this site is the man. E-mail him questions, he always has great advice (and product!).