Clay disaster??

[Setec Astronomy]

Now you're thinking! As I noted in another thread, this is forums at their best, turning collaborative thinking into best-practice!

[Eldorado2k]

If you watch the DIY Detail youtube channel, they claim their clay towel, even though they call it a ridiculous name, doesn't marr the paint. I call BS everytime I hear it.

If that towel really doesn’t marr like they say, then it must be milder than heck and not capable of handling any real level of contamination. Most of the vehicles they demo on look brand new.

I’d love to see them test that clay towel vs. some real contaminants. Synthetic clay this.

[raysaint]

But at least you can wash the dust off, amirite? You can't do that with clay.

But if clay subs marr like that, I'll gladly buy fresh clay to have less or no marring. That's just me.

[chilly]

LOL, this seems to be universal dislike for the clay substitutes.

I have tried several brands and varieties of synthetic clay and I haven't seen one yet that didn't mar the paint to some degree but I am also one of those people who wouldn't touch car paint with ANY type of clay product unless my polishers were sitting on the cart ready to go

I know others think differently but thats just me, claying is a step in decon prior to polishing, it's not a standalone Sunday afternoon "this will make my paint look better" deal

I think there is possibly a time and place for synthetic mitts, towels, etc and that is in a production environment when time is money and you have lots of real estate to cover and you can knock it out with a synthetic towel or mitt with sudsy water in a fraction of the time that traditional clay would take

Just my 2 cents worth

[Bill D]

I agree. For me clay is only for deconing or maybe removing stubborn tar and the like. Fortunately I havent had to decontaminate my paint

[VISITOR]

if i clay then some sort of machine polishing follows (aio or polish). there's going to be some embedded dirt in the paint which claying won't remove/pull out. sometimes there are different situations/scenarios for some...

[KirkH]

In the marketplace, I come into contact with many customers who have whiskey fungus, overspray, artillery fungus spores, leaf mold, bird droppings, mulberry stains, etc. all over their vehicle. They just want the dirt off. Most of the vehicles are old or work vehicles. Most don't want it polished regardless of what I tell them. They don't care if it is marred. They only want it clean.

I use clay substitute pads on a Cyclo Pro polisher with ceramic lube. So in the pro detailer world, we don't ALWAYS polish after clay.