what up
i bought a mothers clay bar to detail my car (along with wax) when i was asking one of my friends for tips on claying, he told me that claying your car removes (or thins the clear coat) is this true, does it harm the paint or clear in any way??

also if u have any tips post em up

thanks

 

its perfectly safe to use on clearcoat finishes, you just have to MAKE SURE TO NOT LET IT GET DRY. you need to keep the bar wet at all times, i would reccomend getting a big bottle of quick detailer and use that to keep it lubricated, do not use water. if you dont keep it wet it can harm the clear. make sure you rotate the bar often and if you drop it on the ground, throw it away and get a new one. The amount of clearcoat removed is miniscule and unless your car is beaten to death you wont mess anything up. Cleaner waxes remove more of the top coat than the clay bar will. Like i said, its ridiculously miniscule the amount of top coat that is removed during clay barring. Its like brushing your teeth. your getting the impurities off the top of the surface, but your not ruining your enamel in one brushing. Get it ?.

If you have a factory clear, or a low quality paint job. use a good wax afterwards to provide some u.v protection to protect against u.v damage and to provide some protection to the clear coat. id also reccomend a good sealer as well.

 

thanks, that was very informative!! i actually planned on claying, than waxing after. whats a sealer do? and would it be applyed after i wax it?

 

sealer goes on after waxing,yes. in my opinion anyhow.

most people either choose on or the other when its comes to waxes/sealants because of how long they last. i use both, wax first, than a lite coat of sealant across the car.

 

Sealer typically is used before wax...for example the Mothers 3-step is Polish (They call it cleaner I think), Sealer/Glaze, Wax. I've had very good luck with their system, especially when preceded by the Clay Bar. I use a spray bottle of water with a few drops of car soap as a lubricant.

 

if its called "cleaner wax", than its not actually a sealant. Cleaner wax does exactly that, cleans the surface of smaller particles and stuck on road debris and films. cleaner wax also will remove a miniscule amount of top coat so it makes the it look like there wax is the bomb dig stuff when applied. I dont use water but if you do, bakertime def does it the right way, definitely add some soap to make it super slick, itll help out the claybar and keep you from drying it out. Sealers last longer but dont shine up like most waxes do, thats why i use wax first, than a very lite coat of sealer to seal the wax in. but almost everybody has different methods of bringing the shine to a car. A high speed buffer and some good compounds and polishing pads are very, very handy to have as well.

 

The process I described, uses a "cleaner" (a.k.a. polish...it's just what Mothers calls it) FIRST, then a sealer SECOND, and then a pure carnuaba wax (non cleaner) LAST. It's just a relatively fine polishing compound labeled cleaner, and it is the first step. I never said anything about a cleaner wax.... It is a good point that you bring up though, that you must not use a cleaner wax after a sealer or glaze.

Do that after a VERY thorough clay bar and the paint will be about as smooth as you can get it by hand. Absolutely insane shine for an off the shelf product, IMO. It takes me about 4 hours to do on a car that's pretty clean (not including wash/dry time), and I do it a lot on customers cars that I detail on the side. For a first time, it wouldn't be unreasonable to have the better part of the day to do all 4 steps well. Once it's done once, if you keep up with it it's easy...and claying the car when you wash it will keep a buildup of tar and other things from being difficult to get off in the future. A coat of spray wax after that and you'll be in excellent shape. If you're really paranoid, instant detailer (the stuff that comes with the clay bar) can be used to clean the car dry with a microfiber, in between washings. The reason I use the water/soap instead of I.D. for the clay is because it's nice to have those bottles around for touchup, and they're pretty expensive otherwise! I've found the water with soap to be just as effective and safe, and you can use a lot of it and not feel guilty about the cost!