Fear not the clay bar After a year of staring anxiously at the Meguiar's clay bar kit in my garage, I finally decided that today would be the day to clay my black car. I watched the clay bar video on the Meguiar's website and it looked pretty darn easy, and it was. It also took a lot less time than I thought. Take it from me, if you've never clayed, you can do this without scratching your car. Use plenty of lubricant. The Meguiar's kit comes with their Quik Detailer mist.
Yeah, what he said... Before I married Party A, she was one o' those detail-driven sickos who labored long over brilliant Avus Blue paint 'n' stuff. I have her somewhat on the road to recovery-for one thing, she now has a white car, which can go for months without washing!-but she retaliated by introducing me to the wonders of clay. Now I buy Griot's Instant Detailer by the gallon-not just to give a quick swipe to the dusty roadster, but mostly to lubricate the clay. She likes Mother's clay best, I think; Griot's tends to be reeeeeeeally sticky-not to the paint, but to your fingers, your clothes, et cetera. Now I, too, am somewhat addicted to the sensuous feel of a smoothly-clayed surface. Jesus, before you know it I'm going to start buffing the damn thing.
Wasn't she the one who kept a UUC exhaust for her E36 M3 on her coffee table as art until it was installed? If so, she is certainly a "keeper".
Clay definitely does the trick. Just did it this past Monday and is silky smooth. I don't care what they say, my car is SMOOTHER than a baby's bottom!
Followed yesterday's clay bar with winter storage wax job today. Ahhhhh, black paint ... a bitch to keep clean, hard to top when it is. For the record, I think all cars should be the size of a 3 series or smaller. Clay bar, washing and waxing are a breeze.
Clay Bar usage After using the Clay, you should then polish (polish of your choice). when that is finished here is the best part use http://www.wetpaintglaze.com/ You will then see how smooth and slick your car can be. bluewagon
I was also very apprehensive of clay. But I finally got myself to do the M3 last fall with clay and followed up with a polish and coat of sealant. The clay was WAY easier than I would have ever imagined, and made a world of difference in the finish. I just wish clay could remove paint chips. I swear, the previous owner drove behind dump-trucks all the time! People are recommending Dr. Color Chip, since a clean and shiny Carbon Black shows off paint chips in bright white very nicely!
He lives! Brothah Blue Box, he say: I wondered how long it would take! However, I swear, on some forum or other, I read a post from Bluewagon that DID NOT MENTION WET PAINT GLAZE EVEN ONCE! You're slippin', dude!
Clay Bar usage Satch: Try it you will like it. No more washing and drying,no special product for the plastic trim, no special product for the glass. no more trying to get the wax off of the places it should not be on. 1/2 to 3/4 of an hour and you are done. bluewagon
Yeah, yeah, yeah That's what my doctor said before the colonoscopy. You know, when I was sixteen I found a GREAT way to make my car all liquid-shiny before a Big Date: Lemon Pledge
I bet they were impressed by the lemony-fresh scent too! Satch, you were ahead of your time - during-date aromatherapy! Or, perhaps, Caromatherapy.... however, didn't it make it kinda difficult? I'm picturing a scene: Satch & date walking to car; Satch leans in for kiss, date backs up against car - date slides off car, falls on butt, while desperately grasping for a handhold that isn't slicker than liquid teflon!
Well, it did go something like that. . . Bro Garrison, he say: Except for the eventual restraining order, you're pretty close. . . .
I hate to say it but I clay my 330ci a couple times a year while washing it. I use Duragloss wash shampoo, which is very slick, to first wash the car to remove all the dirt. Then I make up another bucket of wash solution using twice the soap required. At this point you're no longer washing the car, you're using the solution to act as a lubricant. It's so easy to keep each panel absolutely saturated with that slick soapy solution and then just glide the clay bar over the paint. Been doing it for over 10 years on all my cars. It saves the cost of wasting the Griots Speed Shine product and when you are done, simply rinse and chamois the car off. Now you are ready to wax away..... I developed this method after going through the regimen of : wash car, dry off, use Speed Shine and clay to smooth paint, try to get all the excess Speed Shine out of every crack and corner it managed to get into while using it to lube the clay. With the soap method, when you're done, simply rinse and you're ready to lay down some serious wax!
It was almost 50 degrees in Upstate New York yesterday, so I dragged the hose out of winter storage and washed the 328. I took the opportunity to try the clay bar for the first time since I received the Mother's California Clay kit for Christmas. I only used the detail spray lubricant that came with the kit. It seemed to work wonderfully and picked up an amazing amount of crud off the paint. Certainly easy to do for a first-timer, and the sealent/wax goes on smooth after a nice clay cleaning. I will probably add the clay to the every-3-month detail regimen from now on.
Bro Girard, he say: Heh. It got down BELOW fifty degrees last night, but it's moving past eighty this afternoon. . . . Do I love it here or what?!
Hey, what can I say? Calabrese flew into town to fix the DICE unit in my Z4, so we went to brunch in La Jolla. Big waves: boomers! "If in doubt, don't paddle out." Chilly enough that my sleeves remained rolled down and buttoned, but at least we didn't have to run the air-conditioner. So how're things in the Midwest?
In s.w. Ohio, temps have been above normal, and even though we had a snow event blow in last week, it was only snowing in the a.m., and went away quickly through the day - (in my neighborhood, snow accumulated on the ground, but melted on the roads & driveway) - with the exception of that, there's been no snow here. That event caused a few local problems tho - on one of the highways that had some slick buildup, there was a 30-car pileup. I haven't put on the snow tires yet, and the last two days were shirt & light jacket, no-sweater-needed days, daytime temps in the upper 50's, sunny and dry - tomorrow I think should be about the same.
