i BATHE in detail spray-so dont feel bad...:excited:

:icon23:

I have a fear of picking up dirt particles and scraping it across the surface. In theory, the dirt should embed itself into the clay, but I get paranoid.

I don't have the expertise in paint repair like you do, so I go the slow route to try and avoid anything weird from happening. I tend to have the luck of "if something is gonna go wrong, its gonna happen to me".

Too bad you can't stick a clay bar onto a porter cable....

whaaattttt?? Are you mooning me Junkie?:p

I have never scratched my soft paint and new paint on my 370Z with a clay bar and detail spray. But the next step is to use your PC or hand buff to remove swirls and the like. Anything you could have possibly done with a clay bar and lube will be removed then anyway. Does that help?:tup:

Actually you can. They have a device that allows you to do that but it works like crap.

As long as you are claying on a clean car, you have nothing to worry about unless you drop the clay. In that case, you throw it away. Other than that, keep the area lubricated and clay away. Any marring that may happen is easily removed with the PC, as Sandra said.

guys have an good advise working around the clear bra areas with the clay an PC'er?

Masking tape, 3m green tape works pretty good.

Yes, tape up the edges of the clear bra with painter's tape. Do not buff up against the edges of the clear bra or polish will get under it and cause to not only show, but it could also cause peeling.

Junkman....enjoy your posts. I have a 370Z magnetic black paint that has these real fine scratches and swirl marks that you can see when the sun is on it. will the claying remove these scratches? I cant believe how soft this paint is, the car only has 2k miles and is always garaged? do I ask my detailer to Clay the car first then use swirl mark remover and polish? Your response would be much appreciated.

Claying does absolutely nothing to remove scratches or swirls. As a matter of fact, claying will make the scratches and swirls show even more as it will clean out any filler that may be in the scratches which is used to hide them by most detailers.

The process of claying does exactly what it says in the initial post of this thread. Please take a look and read the entire first post.

If you want to remove the scratches and swirls from your paint, the process is documented in my thread, "From Clay to Wax" on this forum. Have a look at it and all of your questions will be answered in detail.