Clay Marring! Help

Where did I go wrong!? I washed the car in the garage with ONR, and then clayed with Ricardo Yellow and a higher tad higher than normal dilution of ONR clay lube.

The car is a 1999 CRV, black (This clear is seriously fu**'d) After claying a panel I notice not scratches, but sort of a dull surface in a way in the lines that I clayed.

Does ONR not suffice with proper lubricity!? I notice its not really slick at all... Or is this clay bar not as lightweight as people take it as? I mean it cleared the surface up way faster than meguiars, and mothers clay, but there was marring!

Nonetheless, I just hand polished the panel and everything was good as new. It was very lightweight damage. But is it the clearcoat? or the clay lube?

 

I never never never never clay without following up with polishing the surface. I don't care what people say, it always causes some kind of marrring. And obviously with soft, dark, non-metallic colors it'll only be more obvious.

 

Yes, I finally see why. But I guess the meguiars and mothers are much more gentle- but they took over 2x as long to get the surface as smooth as can be. Think is, I guess I will just correct the car after the winter, document the work, make some business cards, and work on getting myself out there.

The hobby is a learning process! I just hate the CRV many edges, thin pilars and stupid plastic right by the edge of the paint. Its going to be hell taping it up, but the results will speak for themselves!

 

it could also be the honda ultimate soft paint

 

Just make sure you use a ton of lubricant and use a mild clay with soft clears.

 

The Honda paint is quite soft and that is probably the issue in this case. A lot of detailers now won't clay unless they are polishing because of this. I personally don't like using ONR as lube as it's not slick enough.

 

Agreed. ONR is just barely stick. I think I'm going to stick with my CG Synthetic QD

 

What was the ratio you used with the ONR?

 

i use Optimum instant detailer and gloss enhancer as my lube/qd (it actually streaks quite a bit i have noticed)
you can try a higher concentration in ONR and see if it sticks better.

 

I used a pretty concentrate mixture. 0.5oz to 16oz. Something about it just doesnt feel slick.

 

I've used it REALLY strong and still didn't find it slick enough. Just my two cents.

 

add some #00 megs high tech wash next time, 5-10mL to a 32oz bottle with the onr mix.

 

Wish I had some to use... but frankly I have MSUG, CWC, OPT Car Wash, and Glossworkz... I think some OPT or MSUG would help it out, but I dont want to ruin the clay. I heard car wash shampoos do that...

 

Considering that clay is a very very fine abrasive, I'm not exactly sure why you are surprised. You have to realize that even on harder paints, I'm fairly certain that the marring is still there. It might not be visible to the naked eye, but its there. Please remember that clay is generally known to "shave" off contaminants bit by bit until they are removed or leveled with the paint. Thats why sometimes you still see IronX working after a "perfectly" clayed surface that was contaminated with Iron particles.

Just some food for thought :graduation:

 

Same here.

 

Well im surprised since this is not my first time claying this car. Last year I did the car with Mothers and no visible marring, and 2 months ago I did the roof with Meguiars, and neither of them showed this much visual impact. With Mothers I used a QD, and with Meguiars I used ONR.

Regardless, it did the job much faster, Ricardo was easy to use and I only used 1/3 of a bar. (not that it really matters since I have 30 :giggle

 

Ohh, for sure. You got to remember that most of the OTC stuff sold in those kits are very fine grade clay, hence why they cut a lot slower. Thats why most of us skip the OTC bars when we have to polish later

 

yep ive always been puzzled how some members come on here with pics/threads saying they clayed and went straigh to wax

i dont get it, everytime i clay, regardless of how much lube, how much i turn over the clay, it leaves the paint in worse condition than when i started

so ive only ever clayed before polishing

i used a claymagic blue bar on my GTR which does have soft japanese clear and it did a real number on the paint, it looked worse than had i of washed it with a broom at the local car wash. So i bought the ricardo yellow on reading that is a very mild clay

as for lube, ive been using DP 4in1 mixed at QD strenght. I do have CQ Synthetic Detailer so will give that a shot when i use the ricardo

 

would the sonus non lsp stripping clay be a lie?

 

Now that I know more about clay, I think that Sonus is just another waste of money... Who clays without rewaxing/sealing anyways? And while it may not leave marring, its insanely light duty. Might as well just go out locally and get a mothers kits for less money.