Just washed my car and tried a clay bar for the first time. FANTASTIC! Now it feels and looks likes a concept car. Everytime I went to the NYC car sow and look at the concept cars, their paint job always seem better than the reel cars. Don't know if it's because they are hand built, but the paint always felt like a mirror and no swirls. I'd recommend a clay bar to anyone. Also tried clay on my wife's 3 year old Eclipse and now that feels like glass. Great stuff!

 

clay bars are great. as an aside, concept cars are known to have outrageously expensive paint jobs... IIRC, the Firepower concept car has a $40,000 paint job. :O

 

i "discovered" 'clay magic' clay about 5 years ago and it is my favorite detailing product. you don't see clay advertised much and most people aren't aware of its usefulness. usually, automotive stores stock it somewhere out of the way on the bottom shelf where it doesn't get much attention. i think the professional car detailers like it being somewhat an obscure product because they use it routinely and the customer thinks the detailer went through some complicated process to make the finish so clean.

i just clayed my alabaster crossfire for the first time a couple weeks ago.

 

I started detailing cars on the side about 4 years ago and it took me about a year and a half to discover the clay bar. I had guys on my main forum at the time tell me about it and I was very reluctant to try it for some reason. Once I tried it though, there was NO looking back! If you've never clayed before its a MUST IMO. What your doing after you wash and wax your car is applying wax to an unclean surface that has small particles of "grit" in the paint, thus not letting you get the best job you can do. Here's what I'd do to a car that has never been clayed before to get the best results:

- wash the car real good.
- clay bar the car.
- apply a paint cleaner as this product goes below the surface.
- apply polish as this brings out the color of your car.
- apply a "finishing wax" to protect everything you just did previously.

Griots and Meguiars has everything you need, especially with the finishing wax, they both have several choices. www.meguiars.com www.griotsgarage.com

 

Don't forget: if you drop your claybar on the ground, it is recommended that you throw it out as it has become contaminated with small particles that could scratch your paint! Or, just use it to clean windows and wheels!

 

Since our Crossfires have a CLEAR COAT finish all you're cleaning & polishing & waxing is that!

 

Well, with enough polishing, you could go down to the primer!

 

I think if you do clay too much you could easily go thru the clear coat be careful on the edges!

 

I rubbed on my previous car, a 2000 Contour SVT, well over 150 times in the 5 years that I owned and no, I'm not kidding either. This car had a clearcoat and with my methods, it looked brand new 5 years later which is why I got $10K for the car. I can't see the clay bar wearing out a clearcoat finish, its not abrasive at all. If I had to guess, I'd say that I clayed the car about 10 times in its life. You really don't need to clay more than 3 times a year in most cases, unless you live in an area with alot of smog/garbage in the air, then maybe 4-6 times. As far as not needing to use the paint cleaner and polish on the clearcoat, well, to each his own but I've gotten alot of compliments on my previous car for its finish, even having someone ask who wet sanded the entire car and rubbed it out because it didn't look "factory".

 

Dan, the clay bar cannot go through clearcoat because it is not abrasive enough, it's that simple. In most cases, a paint cleaner is used to remove whatever wax is on the paint surface, and polish, the abrasive stuff, will, if overused, go through the clearcoat.

 

I really only use polish when, I detail peoples cars on the side that have never seen any wax. I don't see ever needing to use a pure polish on the Crossfire, just clay twice a year and keep the Griots and Meguiars applied. Its used in combination w/ the clay bar, paint cleaner (which cleans below the paint surface) polish to bring out the color and hide swirls and the "finishing wax" to protect the above steps. Detailing cars for me is more of a "labor of love" for me. I just happen to make a little extra money on the side doing it.

 

How do you use a clay bar? Bought McGuires clay bar with spray. If I use too much spray the bar slips over the service not accomplishing much of anything. To little and the clay stick to the surface. Any suggestion would be a help.

 

use one spray of the claybar spray, then just glide the clay on the surface of the vehicle. Keep spreading out the lubricant until the claybar starts to "grab" excessively. When this happens, just spray more lubricant onto the surface. Pretend the claybar is a knife and the lubricant is butter...when the knife starts to chatter over the bread, you would need more butter. If this does not help, just ask some more. Where are you located? I am in NY if you want to meet so I can show you some wash, dry, and polishing techniques.

 

make sure you use enough lubricant. you really can't use too much. but too little (e.g. when it sticks) will definitely scratch your paint. the lubricant is what minimizes the abrasively of the clay to enable it to safely clean your finish. with adequate lubrication you can rub back and forth while applying pressure to remove just about any contaminant. to help conserve lubricant, clay your car in the shade. otherwise, the lubricant evaporates quickly. you can always buy more lubricant (any quick detailing spray should do). also, some recommend even using soapy water. they key though is to use enough lubricant to make sure the clay always slides instead of sticking.

my suggestion is to go here and check out holly:

http://articles.autopia.org/index.ph...2&id=31&c=root

now do you see why proper lubrication is so important?

 

Thank you for the advice. I live in Scotland and the weather here is pretty tuff on the paint.

 

The entire process is no more difficult then your instructions. I just "clayed" my wife's Bonneville yesterday and the results are truly amazing.

 

just get zaino and be done with it ... z-claybar, z3 and z5 ... if you want to do multiple coats of z3, use zfx ...

 

What's Zaino ??

 

it's the end-all be-all of car waxes ... period. nothing has ever shown to be as good as zaino or last close to as long. water just drips away like it's glass ...

here's my TT with zaino, the more coats you add to it the better. it's the gift that keeps on giving. each coat just makes it more glazed over.

https://www.crossfireforum.org/forum...ead.php?t=8226

 

i forgot to mention ... www.zainobros.com ... that's where i got it, get the claybar from there and wash off the nasty waxes you've put on your car and all the dirt. then start applying zaino, instructions are on that site also ...