Clay Question

[suttonri]

Got the truck stripped and sealed today. After wheel washing, Meguiar's Wash +, Iron X, and drying, the horizontal surfaces flunked the plastic bag test. This is a daily driver that lives outside 24/7, last clayed about 3.5 months ago. I clayed a test spot and it got noticeably slicker, but, there was no gunk on the clay! The clay looked and felt brand new. The test spot looked about the same. Would you go ahead and clay the entire truck?

I skipped the clay. I figured 3.5 months ago was good enough, and the truck will need to get clayed in the Spring anyway. I already took 5 hours to wash, Iron X, dry, test clay, test polish, and machine seal. That's about all the time I have. I'll glaze and put a 2nd coat of seal on tomorrow and that will have to be good enough until the 1st weekend above 40 degrees in 2018.

Thanks for your opinions and advice,
Rich

[Bruno Soares]

I’d you already polished and sealed then the clay is no good. Clay can cause some marring and require polishing again. Moreover, it will remove the sealant. Skip it for now and start with that in the spring.

[TiCaLLioNStaLLyN]

Agree with above. I am looking at it as you are I'm the middle of process.

Really you should clay every time you want to wax or seal. If the bag was sticking, you need to clay. regardless of what is visible on the clay, you should still do it. You said it yourself you noticed it was slicker.

Now you did say you used iron x. Granted that you did clay 3.5 months ago, maybe the iron x is enough to get what has built up since the last clay. I'll do both but I am ocd. I find iron x is fine for light Contamination on its own. Anything mild to moderate i always iron x then clay mitt.



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[suttonri]

Agree with above. I am looking at it as you are I'm the middle of process.

That's it exactly. After the Iron X I made a test spot for clay and polishing. Based on those results I opted not to clay or polish and went straight to sealant, with no intention of claying until Spring. I just want to hear what more experienced people would have done based on the clay results.

Thanks,
Rich

[PaulMys]

Honestly, I think you'll be fine. You have it cleaned & sealed for the winter.

You mentioned the truck is a DD that lives outside. So is mine.

I gave up on that "Everything has to be 100% perfect" stuff a long time ago.

The fact that you clay, decon, and seal the truck is awesome. The more you read here, the more products you may try and like, and you may adjust your technique/process.

Myself, I do the whole regimen and quite honestly a few spots (like the horizontal surfaces as you mentioned) could be worked a bit more to be 100% instead of 99%, but I tell myself it's my DD truck and not a show car.

I still have the best cared for and shiniest truck in town, and I know the paint is protected.

Just my 2 cents.

[SWETM]

If you are going to decon with chemicals I would go with a tar remover and a traffic film remover and then an iron removal. When I put the tar remover on I go from the bottom of the car up to a bit from the windows. Cause the tar remover can desolve the protection in the doors and in the chanels where the rainwater runs thru and I also avoid the wheel wells too. Then I do a 2 buckets wash with carpro reset wich does not contain any wax polymer or gloss enhancer in it. This way I get the tfr and tar and ironx really washed away. If the clearcoat is very rough after this still I would consider claying. Most of the time I consider it to be lsp ready. I can do a test spot with a ultrafine grade clay and see if it get any better. And if I need to step up to a mediumgrade clay polishing will then be needed. I like to do the polishing in the spring when the roads no longer is beeing salted or sanded. If I have swirls from the summer washings I use a glaze or something like carpro essence or Ultima paintprep plus to hide the swirls to spring polishing. This is just the way I do it on my dd. There are many ways to do it and depends on what kind of level you want your car to be in. I struggle if I would to polish the car now in this autumn as I have only owned the car since february and it need some paintcorrecting.

[suttonri]

If you are going to decon with chemicals I would go with a tar remover and a traffic film remover and then an iron removal. When I put the tar remover on I go from the bottom of the car up to a bit from the windows. Cause the tar remover can desolve the protection in the doors and in the chanels where the rainwater runs thru and I also avoid the wheel wells too. Then I do a 2 buckets wash with carpro reset wich does not contain any wax polymer or gloss enhancer in it. This way I get the tfr and tar and ironx really washed away. If the clearcoat is very rough after this still I would consider claying. Most of the time I consider it to be lsp ready. I can do a test spot with a ultrafine grade clay and see if it get any better. And if I need to step up to a mediumgrade clay polishing will then be needed. I like to do the polishing in the spring when the roads no longer is beeing salted or sanded. If I have swirls from the summer washings I use a glaze or something like carpro essence or Ultima paintprep plus to hide the swirls to spring polishing. This is just the way I do it on my dd. There are many ways to do it and depends on what kind of level you want your car to be in. I struggle if I would to polish the car now in this autumn as I have only owned the car since february and it need some paintcorrecting.

I think the Meguiar's Wash + went a long way toward removing tar and film. Got the idea from the YouTube Dallas Paint correction guy. Here are before and after Wash + pics.

Finished it off today with UWW+ to clean off overnight pollen. Then Poorboys Blackhole Glaze, and a 2nd coat of Wolfgang Deep Gloss Sealant 3.0.

[SWETM]

Wash plus will do the trick. Where it's rough try 2-3 sets of wash plus next time you doing it. It's a smart product and I whant to get of hold of it. Where I live they don't import meguiars whole line of products. So I have to order it online and will get a order big enough to make it worth it with the shipping cost.