How Often to clay, polish and or wax?

[skiwez]

Hi,

I'm relatively new to detailing, but have been learning alot from this board, but the more I learn, the more I seem to get concerned.

The concern I have is that it seems that all of the products except for carnuaba waxes seem to be a abrasive of some sort, Be it a clay bar, polishes, All-In-One synthetics like Klasse.

In the end what I'm trying to do is make my car look the best possible and protect the finish. But all of these products while they fix the finish now eventually they are going to break through. How often can we safely clay, polish and wax before it completly destroys the paint.

Thanks

[Z06-Goose]

Clay when used properly i.e; lots of lube, shouldn't damage your paint. It's also dictated by the enviroment whre you live, driving habits, and if the car really needs to be clayed
That said, you can check your finish using the baggie test to see if the paint needs to be clayed. I think polishing your paint too much using abrasive compounds, can eventually reduce your clearcoat protection...not claying

[Bert31]

When it comes to claying, paint cleaners, all-in-ones, sealants and waxes you don't need to worry about damaging/removing clear or paint.

When it comes to polishing, if you don't go crazy using compound polish, you should be OK. Try to limit your compound polishing to once a year at most. Finish polishes are not near as aggressive as compound polishes so you could probably use a finish polish twice a year if you wanted and be OK.

To answer the question of the thread: How Often to clay, polish and or wax? I detail my car twice a year. Detailing for me is wash, clay, AIO, sealant. If my paint starts showing swirling, I will include polishing to a detail which would come after claying and before AIO. In between my details, I will clay and put another coat of sealant on my car.

So to review, I polish once a year at most. Use an AIO (or atleast a cleaner) twice a year, clay and apply sealant four times a year and wash every weekend.

[makdaddy626]

While agree with the above posts that clay doesn't remove clear coat, be aware, it can induce marring which can mean more polishing which can mean less clear...

I think the right answer is, as often as it's needed... and as Goose pointed out, that depends on many variables such as the environemnt, is the car driven daily, is it garaged, etc. I think more harm would be done to the paint by leaving many of the contaniments on than by claying and, if necessary polishing.

As for over polishing on a personal vehicle, try to keep in mind that it is in part a personal choice... are you happy with some minor swirling on a daily driver parked outside or are you talking about a show car that needs to look it best... some people can't stand to see any marring on their paint and wouldn't be happy if it was there.

I just try to keep my paint well protected and up the standards where I'm happy, if I did end up needing to repaint sooner (which I doubt) then that's fine compared to driving around with paint I hate anyway. I mean you could never polish and not worry about taking off to much clear coat but would you enjoy the car? I'm not sure I'm explaining it well but hopefully you can understand my point.

[Bert31]

While agree with the above posts that clay doesn't remove clear coat, be aware, it can induce marring which can mean more polishing which can mean less clear...

I think the right answer is, as often as it's needed... and as Goose pointed out, that depends on many variables such as the environemnt, is the car driven daily, is it garaged, etc. I think more harm would be done to the paint by leaving many of the contaniments on than by claying and, if necessary polishing.

As for over polishing on a personal vehicle, try to keep in mind that it is in part a personal choice... are you happy with some minor swirling on a daily driver parked outside or are you talking about a show car that needs to look it best... some people can't stand to see any marring on their paint and wouldn't be happy if it was there.

I just try to keep my paint well protected and up the standards where I'm happy, if I did end up needing to repaint sooner (which I doubt) then that's fine compared to driving around with paint I hate anyway. I mean you could never polish and not worry about taking off to much clear coat but would you enjoy the car? I'm not sure I'm explaining it well but hopefully you can understand my point.

Have you ever experienced marring from using a fine clay? I have only had marring when using a medium clay and in those cases I was planning on polishing anyways so I really didn't worry about it.

[makdaddy626]

Personally, I haven't needed to clay a vehicle that I wasn't going to polish anyway. I'm not arguing against claying AT ALL, in fact, I think it's one of the most important steps. My point, regarding claying as well as polishing, was that the answer to the question, "How often should I...?" is "As often as it's needed" - If it's not needed, don't do it, if it is, do... pretty simple.

[skiwez]

Thanks for the info guys.

Basically where I'm at is that I have my first brand new car. So I'm a little anal about keeping nice. I've haven't polished yet well cause its a new car and had no swirls but I have clayed, sealed and waxed.

My overriding concern was that in 3 or 4 years of of this I would chew throught the clear coat. I plan on having this car for a long time and don't want to damage it in the process of keeping it shiny.

Thanks for the help

[makdaddy626]

Your arm will fall off and you'll die of old age before you chew through the clear coat with clay if you're using it even close to correctly. ;)