Tiger, from my previous post... question on the clay bar....
Tiger, I am going to do this this week with a detailer.. will this claybar ruin the finish????
He tested it, it worked, smoothed the surface but dulled the finish.. but the clear coat looks dulled...hazy...
Oops.. refresher... I have tiny spots of paint overspray on the car.. perhaps from the street-stripe-painters....!
No... it will not ruin the finish if you lube the surface with the bottle it came with or car wash mix as if you were washing the car... before you use the claybar...
You see... you need to provide lubricant for the clay bar to slide over the surface easily. It need that soapy mix to glide over the surface to take out the imperfections.
Who tested it? What car do they have? How old was the car? You see it all depends on condition of the paint to begin with... and where did he buy the clay from? He didn't use the clay that is used to make pottery right? That is totally different stuff.
In the end, you will need to wax the car... This claybar also takes out any existing wax if any left on the car.
Personally I'm still using a product from my Porsche days called P21S. It's a very fine rubbing compound that comes in a tube. I've never had any trouble with it dulling any surface. The tube contains the wording, "Multi-Surface Finish Restorer". If you Google for it you'll get lots of hits, including some Forums where you may learn more about it.
Hi, Tiger...
Thank you for the info.. I appreciate it, really...
Here goes: It was my car we tested it on... 98 ML320, good finish, now oversprayed...
I stopped at PepBoys yesterday, got Mother's Gold... the guy there was very familiar with it and confirmed what you said.. here is what he thinks happened.. the detail guy who looked at my car and is going to use it, sprayed the clay not the car.. pepguy things what I am seeing is due to a dry clay bar... he needs to keep the car lubricated... as you mentioned... the bar this guy used is blue, btw... mothers is gold... if that matters...
Anyway, that might be the issue.. he's not keeping the car surface lubricated enough.... which is why I posted....and then pinged!
Thank you Jim... I am off to Google it right now!
Color doesn't mean a thing... there are several grades of clay bars... body shop can get all different grades from fine to course.
MotherGold is good... I used them. Even if it is kinda dull now... redoing the clay will fix it up. Like I said, must be fully lubricated and work back and forth... don't by shy rubbing it...
It won't scratch... The rule is this, you must make sure no dirt on car... you must kneed the clay bar to expose clean surface ever so often... just look at it... if it look dirty, kneed it.... clean clay will come out. Don't ever drop that thing on the ground.
I suspect the guy didn't kneed it... so he grabbed some dirt or the overspray and kept rubbing your car with it. Basically, he doesn't know what he was doing. MotherGold instruction is very clear on this subject.
Thanks Tiger.. that's what I thought...
bottom line, you knead to listen to your mother...!
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