Does claying remove sealers as well?

[michelliot]

Morning Mike et al.,

I recently laid 3 coats optiseal and one coat Signature II on my TCH. If I was to clay an area of a fender that I might have missed when claying earlier, would it remove the sealer as well as the top coat of wax?

Thanks and be well,
elliot

[Darion]

I have seen this debate a number of times over the years. General thought seems to be clay removes at least some of the protection, not all, applied to your finish but may remove all of it depending on the product. This has left me in the thought that if I need to remove all product I use a paint cleaner on well maintained paint or a polish to be sure.

Others will check in,

PC

[jfelbab]

I have seen this debate a number of times over the years. General thought seems to be clay removes at least some of the protection, not all, applied to your finish but may remove all of it depending on the product. This has left me in the thought that if I need to remove all product I use a paint cleaner on well maintained paint or a polish to be sure.

Others will check in,

PC

My thoughts, exactly.

[forrest@mothers]

If you applied the sealer and the wax over the contaminants, and now want to remove the contaminants you missed, won't you have to remove the sealer and wax in order to get to the contaminants, which are under the sealer and wax?

[hernandez.art13]

Is there a way to precisely measure. If claying removes sealers?

[mfrickman]

So if you don't strip wax or sealant, technically you aren't removing contamination?
Whenever I do clay, the car is foam gunned with a mixture of apc+ and CG CWG but if you miss a spot I would think you could clay until it passed your test whether it be the baggie test or whatever and go from there. I think some experimentation is in order.

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[forrest@mothers]

So if you don't strip wax or sealant, technically you aren't removing contamination?


The OP mentioned putting the sealer/sealant and wax over a possibly contaminated area.

In that instance, how can you remove the contaminants, which are under the products, without removing the products?

[swanicyouth]

Clay works through abrasive technology. Different grades of clay have different levels of abrasiveness. However, you mitigating some of that abrasiveness with clay lube. Throw into a blender all these factors:

1. LSP: synthetic sealant, carnauba wax, or hybrid.

2. Aggressiveness of clay (abrasiveness).

3. Slickness of clay lube.

4. Downward force (pressure) operator puts down on the clay when going back and forth.

5. Number of passes operator moves clay over surface.

6. Size of clay patty

I believe the answer is clay can remove LSP. But, there are too many factors to make a blanket statement without doing a test spot.

[Rmd]

Makes sense logically, Forrest. Was OP asking if the clay bar itself would remove his sealant/wax combo as well as the bonded contaminants. (Clay would technically take LSP off first during the process).

[hernandez.art13]

4. Downward force (pressure) operator puts down on the clay when going back and forth.

^ this, probably determines a lot. What do you guys think?

[mfrickman]

The OP mentioned putting the sealer/sealant and wax over a possibly contaminated area.

In that instance, how can you remove the contaminants, which are under the products, without removing the products?

That's what I'm getting at. If you tackle a vehicle and don't strip LSP before claying the vehicle are you not getting to those contaminated surfaces as well as you could?

Most vehicles I come in contact with for the first time usually aren't waxed regularly so I guess I've never really dealt with it. I have a garage queen scheduled for Thursday so I'll spend a little time experimenting. He's maintained some OTC wax on his car for a while but the car has never been properly deconned.

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[GTPpilot]

Anybody else use BugSquash or similar to strip everything off the paint ?
I mist each panel with it during the initial wash and seems to work great.

[stilltipping3]

cant u just iron x the part u missed and then repeat the sealer process as u desire?