Is Claying Always Necessary?

Is claying always necessary?

For example, if the vehicle in question has lots of swirls/ waterspots/ etc, and I plan to use a polish like PowerGloss or SIP, would I really have to clay the paint?

I do understand that if I always do, the polishes will work better to correct the flaws without having to remove the surface contaminents.

So, what say you?

 

I would like to know the same thing, So, what say you?

 

The thing I always thought about claying before polishing is that it lessens the risk of the pad picking up those contaminants and smearing it all over the paint.

Also, I've noticed that the pad becomes black when I polished once without claying. That was enough to make me do it every single time

 

Depends on the paint contamination. If there is contamination, ie rail dust ect, than yes you should. Feel the paint, if its smooth without anything snagging you mf, you should be good to go. There are other things to look for as well, tar, road paint and bug guts are thing that come off nicely with clay. Nothing wrse than swirling around a bunch of tar on the finish. So in short, is it always necessary, no. You should however rid the paint of contaminants before spending you time buffing. Its like an IPA wipe down, do you need to do it, if you want perfection yes. Less than perfeciton, not really, you can use a QD but you never no how good the correction is going to be.

 

The clay picks up debris out of the paint compounds/polishes will not. If you do not use a clay before polishing it does take alot longer and the paint never feels as smooth as it should. It also helps your paint to glide over the surface alot easier which in turn will provide you with a much better finish.

 

the polishing and compounding will break up the debre but in some cases it can make it worse.. one time when i didn't wlay it was easy to see the particle smearing the polish.. or smearing whatever the particle is made out of leaving a line with the polish.,. those particles from what i understand aren't uniform and can make swirls and such in the paint when polishing depending on how bad it is and in a few thousand miles you would be surprised to see what your clear coat can hold on to.. keep in mind i am not a pro by any means but that is what i have noticed personally and what i hear from others.

 

:thumb::thumb::thumb:I really hate buying clay it's such a rip off. I wish someone instead of making wax would make clay.:thumb::thumb::thumb:

 

Try looking into that rubber clay. You know, that sponge with a rubber side type of thing. That might be cheaper, iono since I haven't tried it yet

 

how are they a rip off? because of the price i guess..right? try megs clay kit.. it's not the best but it's cheap (at walmart anyways) $14:thumb: and it does the does the job well.

 

yes, I know what you mean. I saw it once and it was 2 for like 12 bucks and on back order. Whadia know. autodetailingsolutions.com Thanks :thumb:

 

Nice. Post a good lengthy review on it when you get it. I can get it locally so it'll prolly convince me to buy it or not lol :thumb:

 

O-kay I will let you know. Mr. I can get it locally. you're killing me here.

 

Locally is about 1.5-hours-away-from-me-and-I-only-go-there-once-a-month type of thing

I've heard good things about it, but he is sort of a vendor for it so I can't really trust him :duh:

 

Before I knew better I tried polishing without claying and all I can say is the results were far from pretty

You never know what kind of crap is going to pop up and start dragging itself across your clear if you don't clay... even if you just go with the $12 Meguiars stuff, it's worth it IMO

Trust me, you're better off taking the time to do the full prep. There are no short cuts in this game.

 

Since I always clay before polishing, the actual claying process itself doesn't really take me that long. I also clay as I wash to cut down on time if I know I'm going polish afterward. I can clay a mid-size sedan in about 15 minutes using this method.

However, if I'm just doing like a clay and wax, I always make sure I take my time on the claying process. Sometimes I clay as I wash very carefully or I clay as a separate step depending on my time constraints.

 

For what its worth I always clay whenever i'm doing a full detail with any type of correction. Also even on a regualr detail if it fails the plastic bag test, I will still take the time to clay and do a light polish before I put on any LSP.

 

I would like to apologize to Slanguage for hi jacking his post. I'm very sorry. Clay just does that to me. I will try to make it up to you.:worship2:

On the other side of that I would like to thank him for starting this thread. I did learn more and I do feel better about clay and the process of it. Thank You!!! :worship2:

 

Polishing and detailer's clay are very different processes. One good reason to clay before you polish; polishing can result in smoothing and rounding the surface contamination it making it significantly harder to remove later. Although a polish / compound will remove the contamination there is a risk is that the abrasive particles will become embedded in the foam pad, which will cause surface scratches / marring by making the foam /polish more abrasive than necessary and may cause deep scratches


See article DetaiingWki - Automotive Detailing Clay - http://detailingwiki.com/index.php5?title=Main_Page

 

That's sum up this thread.:thumb:

 

I just clayed my S2000 last night. This is a car that I maintain feverishly, but I haven't done "the whole thing" in about a year. The car has looked great to me for that entire year. I was *astonished* at the amount of debris the clay picked up.

I'm also now convinced that just any old clay is *not* as good as any other clay. The one I used yesterday was from the local outfit, Majestic Solutions. It was bloody expensive, and I imagine I got taken, at nearly $30 :doh:. BUT - this stuff really amazed me. Along the driver side rear fender up top, there's always been this roughness to the paint - almost like the car had been repainted there (it has not been). The OTC clay bars - Mother's, Meguiar's - didn't do anything to correct that, so I figured there was no correcting it. Not true. This stuff made all that roughness go away completely.

For whatever it's worth, there was a LOT of contamination all over the rear bumper of the car. As I understand it, this is typical, and caused by the turbulent air that falls off the back of a car as it travels down the road.

EDIT: What I meant to convey here is this. What I've now found is that some clay is better than other clay. The stuff I bought from Majestic corrected that roughness on the driver side rear fender better than either the Meguiar's or the Mother's OTC stuff. Hope I didn't confuse anyone.