claybar your car
 

i clayed my car when i bought it, it was pretty good, not much at all, so i was happy.
detailed the car today fully, interior, carpet, floormats,under the car, exhaust tip,dressed bumperettes and windshield thing by windshield wipers with back to black, tires, wheel wells,leather, polished the car with meguiars products with random orbital, and sealed with zaino. love the final results, it was never better looking.
but just take a look at what the claybar looked like after i was done :eek:
so no matter how clean you think your car is, think again.
http://i12.tinypic.com/6bt2j43.jpg

Hi,

WOW! Your Clay should never look like that. About 10% of the way to that, you should throw it out or else you're just using pliable sandpaper. It will scratch the paint like crazy...

Happy Motoring!... Jim'99

...did you NEVER fold that piece of clay or something?

dj-
OMG....poor thing...this is your daily driver car and those cold/snowy winter months she's been thru. Get rid of that bar....

Not to hijack your thread but how long should someone wait to clay his or her car after it's been resprayed from the autobody shop?

What in the world?! That's the dirtiest clay bar I have ever seen!

MN and eslai, my thoughts exactly. That better have been from a tail pipe and not used on paint. Looks like a steak. lol

i cut the claybar in sections, and used seperate piece for seperate panels.
thats why it looks like that.
funny thing is that it was clayed when i got it, i think that when i was painting the wheels all that dust and stuff went on it, even though the car was FAR from where the action was, down the driveway.
so every section i did, i threw out the bar, so new claybar for every car i detailed, so no worries.
i believe this one was the top of hardtop, but right now the car is soooooo glossy, probably better than new, since its been polished and zainoed.

funny, i had about good 8 or 9 layers of zaino on it, and still..

but my point was that even though it looks veryyy clean, it can be cleaner/smoother, so get a claybar and give it a whirl

Looks like, even though you used different pieces of clay, you didn't turn it while using it. Every clay bar usage instruction I've ever seen says to fold it and mix it up frequently.... people are right, if you let it get loaded like that, and keep rubbing that surface against your paint, you're dragging all those particles across your paint!

Anyway, I haven't clay barred my Boxster yet, but as soon as I get a weekend with nice weather, it's in the plan.

Wash, clay bar, wash, polish, wax, wax...

Dang thats one nasty clay bar, looks like Neopoleon Dynamites steak dinner, or like someone put Gumby in the mircowave for 10 minutes on HIGH.

that was probably going back and forth about 8 times or so, and then turn over, i took the pic halfway trough guys.
hehe
and no worries about swirlmarks/scratches, didn't leave any, and even IF it did, i polished the whole car after anyways so now its completely scratch free and swirlmark free. love it

wait...you mean that's not a steak? I was about to ask if you had pics of the spinach dip, the berries and schlag...

p.s.
whenver I clay I keep a small tray or bowl of warm water with some Optimum No Rinse.
When the surface gets caked i rub it off in the bowl and then I fold the clay.

hahah, yea it does look bad, but no AS bad as pic makes it, although at that point it was thrown out.
car is safe guys hehe

Sorry for another noob question, but what is a claybar and what do you use it for?

dj, what polish machine did you use, is it the griots or the porter cable? im deciding which of the 2 i want to get....

I bought the air compressor already to blow off excess water :D

I just bought a claybar over the weekend. Going to try it out for the first time this week. I've heard of Zaino but never used it.

Is it a lot better than say Mothers or Maguiars? Any cleaning and polishing tips are very much appreciated.

A clay bar is a very very mild abrasive, that can remove contaminants and small particles from your paint that regular washing cannot. Find a clay bar kit at an auto parts store, like a Mother's kit. It will have instructions.

Once you use one, you can feel your paint (rub your finger along it) before and after... you will notice a difference!

SoCalBoxster, just keep the bar lubricated, and rub gently. Turn the clay often and keep it moist. Plan on washing your car after clay barring, as the residue will look like soapy water dried on the car. I'd probably also wash with dishsoap before clay barring, since dishsoap will strip wax off.

SoCalBoxster,
zaino will give you much better results than Meguiars, and will last longer (coming from a person who is sponsored by meguiars), it will give it that nice shine.
although i use everything meguiars and then top it off with zaino z2.
zaino goes on soooo easy, its instructed to put light coats, lighter the better, and it whipes of so easy as well, no effort whatsoever. that is why people end up with crazy amount of zaino layers (ask Bmussat how many he has), and i did have about 8 or so on mine, but when using a claybar, you would want to wash the car with Dawn, it will strip all the wax and protection off it, giving you a good start on claying the car, after that you want to polish and seal it.

unklekraker,
i used the griots garage one, with pretty much every single meguiars product.
i was suprised how long it took me, and kinda forgot how small a boxster is compared to a full out 4 door saloon mercedes i recently did, phew.
so pretty much i went over the car with diff pads and diff chemicals/products 6 times, then zaino by hand :)

I haven't claybar'd my car in over a year. I are a bad owner.

Actually, somehow I've managed to get swirl marks all over the car so it needs more than a clay bar. I'm lazy so I'll have to have it detailed.

I have three chinchillas that live in my garage and if anyone knows chinchillas, they'll be familiar with the volcanic dust bath that you have to let them have. My car gets covered in very very fine dust every day. *sigh*

^ Chinchillas and a BOXSTER!!!
That's not a good combination. Like peanutbutter in your engine oil.
You might be better off parking outside. That's one deluxe and expensive cage!
I guess if you aren't claying you arent using that FK1 425 either. The dust would just slide off the paint with a quick rinse. Now that the grass is growing again the landscapers have been out in my complex and I noticed the clippings all over the next guys cars but not mine :cheers:

Here's a great site, Charles has alot of good info.

http://melncal.com/detailing/