Spent hours using a clay bar on the paint, has it worked??
Discussion
When I got the car last feb the paint looked o.k nothing brilliant, after a decent year of polishing and trying out new brands and methods I think ive managed to get the paint to a very good level, but had undoubtedly reached my limit on ability with these things.
So it was now time for the next step, as a xmas present to myself id invested in some detailing quality products and decided to give it a go, considering the weathers been beyond sh*t the opportunity to try it out has evaded me until today.
Anyways I started off with a ph neautral pre wash, I borrowed a friends lance and gave it a very good coating of snow foam to drag as much muck off as possible, then using a 3 bucket method I washed the entire car using a citrus based shampoo and sheepskin wash mit to protect the paint as much as possible, after rinsing the car off 3 times to make sure no residue was left it was then dried using a very large microfibre towel.
Once dried I got on with preparing the paint before using a clay bar using some paintwork cleaner which had to be polished in and then back off. Id made a decision to only do a few panels with the clay bar to see the actual difference, after many tens of minutes carefully using the thing to not damage the paint and then buffing off the residue and re-applying a new polish the difference is, drum roll please ....................... absolutely f*ck all lol
In fairness running my hand from an un-clayed panel to a clayed one the paint is undoubtedly smoother to the touch but doesnt look any different at all, what im thinking is once clayed and polished a few times it should come up very good indeed as it took time for the original methods and products to take effect.
Overall results of todays exercise, once these products have ran out the next time I think about spending hundreds on cleaning gear im basically going to employ a bloke with a rather large machine polisher who knows what hes doing and sit back and save the time ive spent on it, personally I will simply do the usual polish every other week to keep it up to standard, thats the plan anyways!!
So if your a mega freak and like touching your paint buy a wardrobe full of clay bars, if not think twice before spending hours messing about with them!
So it was now time for the next step, as a xmas present to myself id invested in some detailing quality products and decided to give it a go, considering the weathers been beyond sh*t the opportunity to try it out has evaded me until today.
Anyways I started off with a ph neautral pre wash, I borrowed a friends lance and gave it a very good coating of snow foam to drag as much muck off as possible, then using a 3 bucket method I washed the entire car using a citrus based shampoo and sheepskin wash mit to protect the paint as much as possible, after rinsing the car off 3 times to make sure no residue was left it was then dried using a very large microfibre towel.
Once dried I got on with preparing the paint before using a clay bar using some paintwork cleaner which had to be polished in and then back off. Id made a decision to only do a few panels with the clay bar to see the actual difference, after many tens of minutes carefully using the thing to not damage the paint and then buffing off the residue and re-applying a new polish the difference is, drum roll please ....................... absolutely f*ck all lol
In fairness running my hand from an un-clayed panel to a clayed one the paint is undoubtedly smoother to the touch but doesnt look any different at all, what im thinking is once clayed and polished a few times it should come up very good indeed as it took time for the original methods and products to take effect.
Overall results of todays exercise, once these products have ran out the next time I think about spending hundreds on cleaning gear im basically going to employ a bloke with a rather large machine polisher who knows what hes doing and sit back and save the time ive spent on it, personally I will simply do the usual polish every other week to keep it up to standard, thats the plan anyways!!
So if your a mega freak and like touching your paint buy a wardrobe full of clay bars, if not think twice before spending hours messing about with them!
Clay bars dont make the car shine. All they do is remove the bonded contaminents from the paint making the paint smooth. This helps a wax to last longer as it cures to the paint instead of the crap bonded to the paint. I think it also helps machine polishing as the polisher is less likely to hop and grab.
gsd2000 said:
you really need to machine polish to remove any fine swirl marks, thats when you see the paint finish improve. A wax doesn't add alot to a well prepared surface, its main job is to protect the paint.
you could try a few layers of something like autoglyn srp polish as that has fillers in it,not as good
as using a machine polisher but will make it look better.
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