Review and How To: Griots Garage Brilliant Finish Synthetic Clay

[Mike Phillips]

Review and How To: Griots Garage Brilliant Finish Synthetic Clay



Gloss comes from a smooth surface
If you love a shiny finish then the first step to restoring a high shine finish is to remove any contaminants that doesn't wash off during the washing process. Contaminants like overspray paint, tree sap mist, industrial fallout, traffic pollution and other airborne contaminants build up on the exterior surfaces of your car and form a bond that is strong enough that normal washing simply won't remove. That's why after washing off loose dirt the next step to restoring the factory fresh appearance is to remove any bonded contaminants.


Griot's Garage Brilliant Finish Synthetic Clay




New from Griot's Garage!
Griot's has introduced an easy to use synthetic clay pad. It has an easy to grip, ergo foam handle built-in which makes it super easy to hold on both horizontal and vertical sides. In fact, it's real easy to drop a normal piece of clay patty when working on vertical sides and if this happens you must through normal clay away to avoid scratching your car's finish. But not so with this new synthetic clay replacement for regular detailing clay. First the easy-grip foam handle ensures you don't drop it and if you do, unlike normal detailing clay you can simply rinse this synthetic clay off and go back to claying.


Polymerized Rubber Surface
The important part however is the face of this Synthetic Clay as this is where the magic takes place. Like normal clay, this polymerized rubber surface contains a paint safe abrasive which as you rub the surface over contaminated paint it safely abrades off the contaminants to leave smooth clean paint behind. The diamond pattern creates channels for contaminants to reside until you rinse it off helping to prevent any scratching or marring since particles are not trapped between the paint and the surface of the diamond patterned surface.


Perfect size
The face of this synthetic clay pad is 4" in diameter and this is large enough to do entire large panels and even more perfect for working thin panels like you'll see me do on the 1970 Cuda I tested this new product out on.

Versatile
You can use the Griot's Synthetic Clay with the Griot's Speed Shine or with Griot's Brilliant Finish Car Wash when washing your car.


The SECRET to decontaminating paint during the washing step is to first wash and THOROUGHLY RINSE your car BEFORE using the Griot's Synthetic Clay to remove contaminants. Because the handle is made of soft foam sponge material it safe for use around clearcoat paints and when using it during the washing process you can squeeze it while rubbing it over the paint to release more soapy car wash solution to lubricate the surface as you remove contaminants.


Technique tip...
Break in your brand new Griot's Garage Synthetic Clay by rubbing it against clean glass with a spray lubricant. This will create a more perfect surface and help to prevent any marring to more scratch-sensitive surfaces.



How to use with Speed Shine

Step 1: Wash and dry car.

Step 2: Spray Griot's Speed Shine over a single panel. For large panels only tackle a section at a time.

Step 3: Rub the Griot's Synthetic Clay over the paint using a back and forth motion. After a few moments or after you feel the synthetic clay glide effortlessly over the paint, wipe off the excess residue and move onto a new section.

Step 4: Periodically rinse the face of the Griot's Synthetic Clay off under clean running water or in a bucket of clean water to remove any contaminants lodged in the diamond pattern face of the polymerized rubber face.



How to use when washing your car with Griot's Brilliant Finish Car Wash

Step 1: Working in the shade, wash your vehicle as you normally do.

Step 2: This is important - THOROUGHLY RINSE the vehicle to completely flush off all dirt loosened during the washing step.

Step 3: While the car is still wet, dip the Griot's Synthetic Clay into your bucket of soapy water and then rub in a back and forth fashion over a panel at a time. Rub for a few moments or until you feel the Griot's Synthetic Clay glide effortlessly over the surface.

Step 4: Rinse the panel you just decontaminated and then rinse off the face of the Griot's Synthetic Clay.

Step 5: Dip the Griot's Synthetic Clay back into your bucket of soapy water and clay the next panel repeating the process in step 3 and step 4.

Step 6: After using the Griot's Synthetic Clay over all the painted panels and any other smooth surface give the vehicle a final rinse and then dry off any standing rinse water.



Here's the Griot's Synthetic Clay removed from the packaging.





Here you can see the diamond pattern imprints on the surface of the pad and the channels it creates surrounding the diamond shaped nubs. These channels provide an escape for particles to flush into instead of being rubbed against your car's paint.





Easy to grip ergo foam handle makes removing contaminants easy PLUS helps to prevent you from dropping the synthetic clay when working on verticals sides.





Break in new pads
When using Griot's Garage Synthetic Clay for the first time break in the surface by rubbing it against clean glass using Griot's Speed Shine as a lubricant.







Rub the Griot's Synthetic Clay in a back and forth motion in the direction of the length of the panel to be decontaminated or in the direction of the length of the vehicle for larger panels.




Spray plenty of Speed Shine for lubrication while removing contaminants.






Results = Clean, smooth glossy paint
After using both the Griot's Synthetic Clay and the Griot's 6" Surface Prep Pad to fully decontaminate this 1970 Cuda the gloss has been restored.









On Autogeek.com


Griots Garage Brilliant Finish Synthetic Clay

Griot's Speed Shine - 35 ounce

Griot's Brilliant Shine Car Wash - 64 ounce

All Griot's Products

[Mike Phillips]

Just to note...

I did the baggie test to this car to determine if it actually needed to be clayed, or mechanically decontaminated. The baggie test showed the paint was rough.

While my experience is these types of tools, that is this Griot's Synthetic Clay works better than clay, one thing I like about clay is you can "sometimes" get an idea of what the contamination is on the paint because it will show up on the clay.

For example if you clay a car and see red colored contaminants coming off the paint and onto the clay you can guess that it's possible the contaminants are read overspray paint.

So before using the Griot's Synthetic Clay on this car I took the liberty to use some white detailing clay and here's what it looked like after using the clay on just a section of the paint on the hood.



I like to use clay when I'm curious to see the color of the contaminants on the paint. Other methods work great to remove contaminants but clay can show you what's coming off the paint.









Sometimes I like to place the clay on a white microfiber towel to show the contrast...





So the paint was indeed contaminated with something, but hard to know exactly what.

[The Guz]

Great write up Mike. Looks like a nice clay alternative. Not sure if you know, but would this be similar to the yellow clay mitt that Griot's offers?

[Mike Phillips]

Great write up Mike. Looks like a nice clay alternative.

I'm a better how-to article writer than a walking talking version of Consumer Reports but I do my best when it comes to writing product reviews.

Not sure if you know, but would this be similar to the yellow clay mitt that Griot's offers?

Yes in that it's the same technology. As for the aggressiveness level or NON-aggressiveness level between all the Griot's products I think what Jeff Brown told me was the new Griot's Synthetic Clay and the new Griot's 6" Surface Prep pad are both similar to the FAST Surface Prep mitt and not the FINE Surface Prep Mitt also offered by Griot's Garage.


Griot's Garage Fast Surface Prep Mitt

Griot's Garage Fine Surface Prep Mitt


I would note that both the Synthetic Clay foam is red as is the foam used for the 6" Surface Prep Pad and this matches the color of the foam core used for the Griot's Garage Fast Surface Prep Mitt.


So there's a trend there...

[Mike@DedicatedPerfection]

I really like the idea of the hand grip on this clay alternative. Sure it takes more time to shape the foam so it contours your hand but the thought, feel, & performance of holding something that is more contoured to your hand than just a block of foam speaks quality about the company and making the task at hand easier.

Well done GRIOTS.