Clay bar vs polishing compound?

[Dirtman]

Im gonna give all the cars a bath tomorrow since its gonna be almost 70. The rangers paint is the worst, lots of little swirly scratches and stuff like that. I clay barred it once but good god is that alot of work. It really made the paint shine but didnt remove any of the swirls. Amazing what the clay pulls out of the paint though.

So the question is. If i use a polishing compound with a buffer do i still need to use clay first?

Im not really the car cleaning type...

 

[Curious Hound]

Im not really the car cleaning type...

Neither am I.

Just give it a quick wash and call it good. there’s more fun stuff to do.

 

[adsm08]

If you are really going for high quality the proper way to do it is clay bar and then buffing.

I don't know anyone who clay bars cars anymore.

 

[Snoranger]

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

 

[Dirtman]

Someone gave me a car cleaning kit a while ago that had clay in it. So i did it one body panel at a time. After I finished one fender I was kinda impressed so I muscled through the rest of the truck. I really dont wanna do it again but the trucks paint is 11 years old and neglected. I just wanna get it clean and get a good coat of wax on it.

 

[Dirtman]

Ok who wants to make 20 bucks... i dont wanna do all this crap.

 

[JohnnyO]

If you are really going for high quality the proper way to do it is clay bar and then buffing.

I don't know anyone who clay bars cars anymore.

I do.
If I'm doing the full treatment, it's wash, rub the sides out with tar remover, clay bar, wax with Mother's or Meguier's Gold Class, and top that with RivStar Showcar Glaze. It takes all day, 4 to 6 beers, and 2 cigars, but it's my idea of fun. I do that twice a year and just a coat of wax once in a while in between. Doing the same to the wife's minivan takes 3 days.

 

[Grumpaw]

Dirtman, forget the claybar...go make a "Gumby" out of it.
If you have a dual action , and have a mild case of "swirlies" get some Meguiars #9 Swirl Remover and some Meguiars #3 Machine Glaze. Go over truck with the swirl remover (fine cut), and then go over it with the machine glaze (very fine cut). And then go ahead and wax it.. The #9 will remove the swirls, , and the #3 will give it a glass smooth finish, better than a piece of clay.
I could do both to the Ranger while your still playing with a 4" piece of clay.
I had to make sure the areas where I had the vinyl applied was "clean", and the above process got those panels glass smooth.
Why spend all that time with a piece of clay when someone had the fore-thought to invent a dual action polisher machine ?

Grumpaw

 

[Dirtman]

I got nothing left.

 

[97RangerXLT]

I saw on Chris Fix youtube that a good cheap clay for claybar cleaning your car is plumbers putty. works as good and is only a couple bucks per tub.

someone needs to confirm this lol

AJ

 

[Bgunner]

The purpose of the clay bar is to remove dirt and road grime so that the buffing pad does not pick it up and then scratch the paint while it is still on the pad.

Not clay baring before buffing can lead to the paint having more swirl marks in it when done and also cause you to need to clean the pad more often causing the use if more compound. In the end it will cost more.

This info comes from experiance because I went t hi is route before and learned the hard way the best way to do it.

If you have deeper scratches, not trough the clear, use a wool pad and a cutting compound on those sections and a foam pad for light swirl marks in the clear. The wool pad will cut more than the foam so it works great for deep blemishes but light swirls are just surface scratches and you only need a polish and foam pad to remove them.

 

[sgtsandman]

I agree. You use a clay bar to pull all the crap out of the paint before you wax and polish. If you are going to use polishing compound as well, I can’t say for sure where is the steps you would use it. Maybe after the clay bar but you’ll want to wash again if you do.

Another thing I do before using a clay bar is clean with dawn dish soap to strip everything possible before. Less junk to pull up with the clay bar. The paint comes out looking awesome and the wax holds up longer doing that. Plan on spending the whole day start to finish.

 

[Curious Hound]

I do.
If I'm doing the full treatment, it's wash, rub the sides out with tar remover, clay bar, wax with Mother's or Meguier's Gold Class, and top that with RivStar Showcar Glaze. It takes all day, 4 to 6 beers, and 2 cigars, but it's my idea of fun. I do that twice a year and just a coat of wax once in a while in between. Doing the same to the wife's minivan takes 3 days.

Oh great. We have a volunteer who's shoulder is wrapped in an armadillo.

 

[JohnnyO]

Plan on spending the whole day start to finish.

That's why I get beer and cigars first. Rocky Patel or Nub 460 Habano.

 

[97RangerXLT]

something else from my days of owning a black 96 Monte Carlo (first car that I ever bought new, 2nd biggest POS I ever owned) the black paint showed swirls very well... the best way to get them out after washing it and if waxing didn't take them out, use a little bit of corn starch with the wax. that usually took them right out.

I will never own another black car again, unless it is a beater and I don't care what it looks like lol

AJ