Claying Your Car

[Mr Cali]

have any of you guys tried clay on your cars paint?

Well I've been a lazy ass on my car and as some of you know you can't neglect a black car.

Anyway I haven't waxed it in over 6mths and there's all sorts of stuff stuck to my paint. The worse was tree sap and I had a bee infestation above where the car was parked and it left honey dots all over my car.

The other bad thing was industrial fall out, sticks to your paint and feels like grit, being black it bakes in.

Well I decided I needed to do something about it today and spent about 2hrs on the front end of the GTR (bonnet and guards.

First off I use prepsol grease and wax remover to get all the sap and honey off. I then used a polish which took ages and didnt do much due to the industrial fall out. Was a bit pissed at the result so I remembered I had a Meguiar's Clay Detailing kit, so I thought I would give it a go.

Once you spray on the quick detailer you pinch off a piece of the clay and start rubbing with it, you will feel how gritty your paint is, so continue to do it until it feels smooth.

Once I finished that I then used the polish again to get the light scratches off, this time with much better results. Then finished it off with Meguiars carnuba wax and microfibre buffing cloths. I gotta say I'm very impressed with the results, it feels even smoother then glass and doesn't even leave finger prints. I ran my fingers over the paint and it doesn't mark it. Quite happy with the results.

So if you still have that gritty feel to your paint after polishing and waxing, go get the clay and give it a go, you wont be disappointed.

[vidospace]

+2 for claying!!!

Best investment for your paint bar none (excuse the pun!)

Overall you wont get a finish like it with any other method (other than with a power buffer)

[Excess]

How much is one of these kit cost?

[HEKT1K]

sounds good.. who's up for making a DIY tutorial?

[thrtytwo]

How much is one of these kit cost?

~ $25 - 30

[Mr Cali]

Spent another couple of hours on it today. This time doing the roof and boot, I wouldn't want to do the whole thing at once would suck ass.

Well I ran out of the polish and wax I was using so decided to get some new stuff.

For use after claying, Scratch X. And then NXT Generation wax.

The finish is a little better then the Carnuaba wax I used, but will be interesting to see how the NXT performs when wet. Its supposed to be water repellent.

Here's some blurring pics cause it was getting dark, and being black damn hard to keep focus.

[Tyson 1990]

Wow your car looks great. I'll have to try that some time but my car is getting resprayed and once i get it back i think the paint should be good for a while so i won't need to use any products on it to begin with.

[Doobs]

I used the meguiars clay on my car after living next to

a cement works for 6 months.

Awesome results.

[grum]

sounds good.. who's up for making a DIY tutorial?

I'm up for linking you to an existing one...

http://www.carcareproducts.com.au/tips

Very easy to follow

There are much better clay bars on the market, the Megs bar is only 80grams where as something like the Dodo Juice bar is 200grams for about the same money. They are also a lot softer and easier to use.

[nvsA4]

i always clay my car and my parents cars, had to do it at work once and it came up awesome so i've been doing it ever sence

[NISMO]

+1 for soap water.

I do my cars every 4-6months and have had no problem with soap water. The spray is there for nothing more than to lubricate the panel.

Also once you get into it, you can get different grade clay bars which have different levels of abraisivenes.

mmmmmmm claaaaaaay

[babyskyline]

Will have to give this a go over the weekened. Can feel lots of crap on my bonnet and roof especially.