Clay bar newb
 

im debating it.. its just to hot here right now tips/tricks?

There's not too much in the way of tips and tricks for claying. Just use plenty of lube (detailing spray), otherwise it can make a mess.

what brand has worked for you?

I use Meguiar's with their detailing spray, but there are a lot of good clay bar kits out there.

Adam's has a really nice kit and they are a sponsor.

Adam's Detailing Clay Bar & Detail Spray Combo

Here is a series of videos that Junkman put together. One of them covers claying.

http://www.the370z.com/detailing-was...ge-videos.html

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ok so after i clay it what is a good meguires polish? with a buffer

Lube :bowrofl:

I would go with m105 & m205 using a flex polisher or Porter Cable DA polisher.

Mothers clay > Meguiars IMO

I thought I read that all clay bars are come from one manufacturer?

in the US clay is from one place, there are different grades etc.

a good video for claying is the Adam's Detail Spray and Clay Video

yah, i felt the same from my experience too. meguair's soft clay was still too coarse/agressive for nissan paint and worked like a mild sanding block.

had to polish it all out. i use Griot's clay which is super soft like mud.

Mothers clay is great. It's the only OTC clay I would use; that or Clay Magic...plus their QD smells great!

i hope walmart will let me trade my unused clay for mothers clay XD

I don't know if you noticed but Walmart doesn't have Mensa members working the return desk.

In case you missed it earlier in the thread, all clay sold in America is made by one manufacturer, Clay Magic. Everyone else buys their clay from them and puts their name on it. There are different "grits" of clay but all clay in America is from the same company. So basically, you achieve nothing by returning it and buying it from someone else.

ah

Has anyone seen the clay bars being sold on ebay out of Hong Kong? The prices are far cheaper just for the clay then here in the US. Just wondering if anyone has used one of these bars on their cars. I know the saying you get what you paid for. Just wanted insight on this.

Clay isn't that expensive. The stores sell two bars for less than $20, meg's I think. Don't waste your money on stuff you don't know for sure where it came from.

ok im doing it tommrow so first step wash... then clay then wash then polish and wax correct?

I did wash, clay, polish, wax. I didn't do a wash in between the clay and polish. Whose system are you using?

If you want a serious shine with no in perfection use swirl and haze remover after clay. It may take longer to do but if you have a porter cable you will get them out. I use Adams products. :tup:

I use to use the mother clay bar and sometimes still do if a car is really bad. But after finding adams products I will never go back.

its been 2 yrs only waxed every 4 ish months its a DD
so it was 5 hours of cleaning but its so shiny now sadly the sun went and hid so not great pics today
Attachment 36550
before
Attachment 36551
after clay
Attachment 36552
after polish
Attachment 36553
after polish
Attachment 36554
done
Attachment 36555now all tucked away

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...ml#post1385246 <uped the pics there to lazy to re up em here but the results were great !

Looks like you achieved some very positive results. What products did you end up using?

porter cable polisher with mothers clay just to see if it would help >.> probly get better next time... mequires 2.0 swirl remover and meguires deep crystal wax all in all got rid of about 85% of the swirls so now thanks to you guys i can d o better this time next year

Well don't wait an entire year, stay on top of the damage. You don't want to have to do massive details whenever you do this, you want to do ONE big detail and then continue with little details from that point forward. You should never have to do more than one massive detail in the life of the car unless you're neglecting it in between.

so your saying give it another polish and wax in the spring and keep up with the wax right? iv always kept up with the wax :) new to polishing tho

What I'm saying is this:

1. Clay is used to remove contaminates from the clear coat.
2. Polish is used to remove any type of paint damage and bring the paint to a brilliant shine.
3. Wax is used to protect that shine.

So what you need to do is continually inspect your paint for one of the above situations. If it passes 1 & 2, then all you need to do is #3. If it passes 1 and fails 2, then you need to do #2 & #3. If it fails them all, then you need to do all 3. Once all the damage is removed from your paint by doing the initial major detail, then you should never have to use the real abrasive polishes that you used initially. You will only need to use some very light polish (since you only removed 85% of your damage, you may have to still use something heavy again).

The common sense way of doing this is to fix it once and then maintain it properly forever. For example, you don't go on a weight loosing regiment, loose 200 pounds and once your body is perfect, start slamming beers and pizza again. That wouldn't make sense, right? You identify the bad eating habits that made you a lard azz and then you never repeat those eating habits again. That is the same exact mentality that you should have when it comes to paint maintenance. That's why I tell people that this is not rocket science, it's nothing but common sense.

Does that clear it up any?

yeap this major detail was a test of the buffer and clay and to teach me what to use i guess after winter ill do it all over with good products :) i hear adams are good

You have heard well. You have seen the results that I have achieved with it.

yep now i can dump more $ into it :P