How much lubricant?

[pork chop]

Hi Mike, This is Scott aka(Pork Chop) How much lubricant should you use while Claying ? I used Meguiars auto cloay system And SCRACHED my hood and have been afraied to use it since!!. I dident use alot of presher because I wasent sure how it would work. I just joined AGO and have been watching your videos on detailing and I have learned lot by them,I even baught my DA kit online. I have a older two hand polisher but it dont seem to put that POP that I want although the paint has a good shine on now. Thanks for your time.

[t5er]

Hi Mike,
I'm a junior member too, so perhaps someone will have better advice. I think those 16oz bottles of clay lube that are included with the big box clay kits are enough to do one sedan one time. You should use a lot of lube, several pumps per panel. If the clay drags at all, then add more. Don't try to make the bottle stretch.

Also, you should be using almost no pressure, if your fingers are going thru the clay then that's too much pressure.

[KneeDragr]

Its pretty common to mar or scratch the paint when claying, especially when you are new to it.

Thats why I only clay when I am going to polish. Even a finishing polish should remove any damage caused by the clay.

[Ray@Autogeek]

I'm never too shy with Clay Lubricant. For my motorcycle detail I actually took pics of how much lube I use. I never used the pics but now I'm glad I took them! By the way, this was after using Iron X to help dissolve contaminants.









Full saturation


Goodbye contaminants!


Iron X + Clay Bar = Contaminant Killa Combo

[Evan.J]

You should be placing the clay closer to your palm than the finger tips. I always use ample amount of lube per panel.

Did you happen to drop the clay on the ground at any point in time? I ask this cause if that is the case maybe you got some larger dirt or debris in the clays that may have scratched the paint?

Are you sure the scratches were not there prior to claying?

[pork chop]

Thanks for advice guys.Ill use more lube, I watched some of Mikes videos to see how he did it so Ill give it a shot.

[ihaveacamaro]

I'm a trigger wh*** when it comes to clay lube

With UWW+ Ultima Waterless Wash Plus+ Concentrate, concentrated waterless auto wash, waterless car wash You can make 5.5 gallons of clay lube!!! Excellent quality clay lube too!

[The Moose]

i also use what some would consider to be an "excessive" amount of clay lube... but it works and makes the job easy.

I've been using Poorboys spray and gloss as a lube lately. Its crazy slippery. Before that I used Mothers Show time and Meguiars Ultimate QD and they were both pretty decent, although the Megs QD was a little streaky on wipe off.

take a picture of the scratch you put in the paint. and people may be able to give you some more feedback on what caused it.

[Blackthorn One]

You should use enough lube to keep the clay sliding easily. You don't put much pressure on the clay at all. Just glide it across the surface and allow the clay to pick up the contaminants until the area feels smooth. If you use too little lube or you apply pressure like you are polishing the paint, you can scratch the surface.
By the way, Ray uses about 5 times as much clay as I ever use. I use a small piece, so that if I drop it, I'm not upset that I wasted a whole $20-25 clay bar. You can use a razor blade to slice off the area of clay that touched the ground if it falls, if there is enough clay to be worth trying to save.
I guess Ray works at Autogeek and gets free clay or something? No offense, Ray, but I wouldn't risk that much clay. I wasted 1/3 a 220 gram bar once by dropping it. Never again.