So I let my friend help me clay my car today and apparently he didn't use enough of the lubricant spray and got dry clay all over the hood. It rubs off a little with a towel and a lot of pressure. Any way to safely get this off?

 

Did you try to use some detailer spray? If its just the claybar dryed it would loosen up with the spray.

 

~ the other choice is a quality adhesive remover (goo gone) or a bug/tar remover.

 

Ask Mike- in-Orange he will know how to fix this. Great member

 

use lots of water, liquid car wash. Rub lightly, use the same clay bar, the clay on the car will try to recombine with the clay bar. use lots of water ,flush. Be careful.

 

I'd recommend a "Prep Sol" cleaner. Used by body shops to clean surfaces prior to painting. Removes all types of wax or sealant.

Good Luck,

 

All good advice, I would just re-clay with plenty of detail spray.

 

I guess you've never clayed before. You can use car wash soap if your cheap but detail spray is better. You have to keep the surface lubricated or the clay will grab. (not what you want) You figured this out already. My guess is that re claying with plenty of detail spray would do the job. I doubt you damaged the paint, just made yourself more hours of work.

Les

 

And let this be a lesson to you..............NEVER.............NEVER.......... ...NEVER...... let ANYBODY else touch your car!

 

 

Ditto. Reclay with plenty of detail spray will do the trick.

 

+1 , Just spray it down good with detailer(keep it very wet) and reclay it will come off easily....

 

Hate to say it, Les, but if he is putting a lot of pressure on it wiping it off, the damage is already done and no amount of claying would help with scratches/swirl marks this kind of pressure would guarantee.

My guess, if you care (are able to see) swirl marks (depending on the color of car and how much you notice) I would think after all the clay is off, you will need to rotary buff the car where any serious pressure was applied...

Good luck

 

Don't forget to smack the **** out of your "friend". It won't help get the clay off the car but you'll feel better.

 

That was some determined friend. If you run the bar outside the detail spray for any time at all the friction will jerk the clay out of your hand. The bar hits the ground and now you have a contaminated bar and a bigger problem. That was one dedicated dude to keep pushing that bar.

 

Someone mentioned Goo Gone - it will dissolve a clay bar so spraying some onto a clean microfiber towel and going over the car with that should remedy the situation pretty quickly. A friend of mine did this once and I recommended using just a simple cleaner wax to correct the problem and he told me it worked like a charm.

My concern is that if you didn't use any quick detail spray as a clay lube that you might have scratched the paint a bit in the process. Most likely just some very light micro marring, but geez, claying should be one of the simplest detailing steps you can do to a car!

joejet - thanks for the kind words!

 

A question on the topic of enhancing the finish: which is better, the clay bar or an orbital polisher? A friend gave me an orbital polisher and I thought about using it or maybe the clay bar, I'm not sure which would yield the best results. Keep in mind I have never used either of these and my Crossfire is BLACK... any comments?

 

I think it says that in the owners manual

 

These two are totally different in what they do. A clay bar is used to pull things OFF the paint, items like sap and will result in a smooth as glass finish, however, it will not do anything to help with scratches, swirls, etc.

An orbital polisher will help, somewhat, with lighter abrasions and may help hide some blemishes, but to truly get a perfect finish, you will probably need to use varying types of pads and abrasives with a rotary polisher.

There are MANY threads on all these different detailing tools and the search feature here is wonderful. Good luck.

 

Yep I agree, re-clay with lots of detail spray.