You guys are doing this all wrong if it’s taking you more than 45 minutes to an hour to clay bar a whole car. In most cases I’m done in 30 minutes.
Knead the clay into a flat piece about 2” x 3”. Spray down an area about 2’ x 2’ on the roof of the car, for example. Just wet it, it doesn’t have to be soaking. With the clay flat on the surface, move it back and forth the long dimension of the car with your fingers flat on the clay, moving from the center to the outside or vice versa. Doesn’t matter where you start. You don’t have to apply pressure, just make sure as much of the clay is in contact with the surface as possible. If you feel the clay dragging or catching on the finish, you need more lubricant - just give it a spritz where it’s dragging to wet the surface down more. When you have finished the area, flip the clay over and use the remaining clean side to do the next section. When you’re done, fold the clay over onto itself several times and knead it out into another flat piece to expose a clean surface. You should be able to do the roof with four turns, that is, only having to fold/knead the clay twice. You can form the clay to fit in between trim or narrow areas of the paint. I’ll also run it along the edges of seals and weatherstripping where they meet the painted surfaces as well. If the clay is dirty looking, fold it over several times, knead it out, make another flat piece and go at it. Vertical surfaces usually don’t benefit that much from a clay bar, as they don’t accumulate near as much dirt as a horizontal surface does. Unless a finish is really, really dirty, I rarely clay bar the doors or fenders. I’ll hit one spot and see if I can tell a difference to determine whether or not to do it. You can run your fingers across the (dry) surface of the paint on a “before” and “after” area of the car and you’ll know exactly how well it did. There’s also what’s known as the ‘plastic bag test” that uses a plastic bag from WalMart or any other retailer that uses the disposable plastic bags to run over the surface, as they will “catch” on a dirty surface as well. I’ve found my fingers do just fine and I don’t have to worry about tossing them in the trash or recycling them when I’m done. -D > On May 30, 2017, at 3:57 PM, Andrew Strasfogel <astrasfo...@gmail.com> wrote: > > I tried using the clay bar once and resolved never to do this again. Way too > painstaking. > > On Tue, May 30, 2017 at 12:02 PM, Donald Snook via Mercedes > <mercedes@okiebenz.com <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>> wrote: > I second the suggestion to use a Clay Bar. I have tried it on a several > cars and it made a HUGE difference. The paint afterward is smooth and slick > and this was even before putting any kind of wax on it. All the warnings > about using a clay bar are very important. Divide your bar into several > smaller pieces so if you drop it on the ground, you throw it away! Make sure > you have some sort of lubricant -- whether it’s a specific clay bar solution > or just some nice soapy water. It takes a long time, but it is well worth > it! > > Don Snook > > -----Original Message----- > From: Dan Penoff [mailto:d...@penoff.com <mailto:d...@penoff.com>] > Sent: Friday, May 26, 2017 3:39 PM > To: Mercedes List <mercedes@okiebenz.com <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>> > Subject: Re: [MBZ] Poosing the Paints > > Wash it, clay bar it, then put a good coat of quality wax on it and be done. > > The extreme finish recoveries I’ve done are outliers. It’s very, very rare > that you’ll ever need to do something that extreme. > > -D > > > > On May 26, 2017, at 4:33 PM, Floyd Thursby via Mercedes > > <mercedes@okiebenz.com <mailto:mercedes@okiebenz.com>> wrote: > > > > I'm going to wash it in the morning and I'll take some pics. It looks like > > mostly carwash scratching and fading in general, it is all over the car, > > just dull. There might be a few spots of clearcoat (I'm pretty sure it has > > clearcoat) that look like they might fail before long but otherwise no > > failures. > > > > --FT > > > > > > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com <http://www.okiebenz.com/> > > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > <http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/> > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com > <http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com> > > _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
