n8236

I've put off claying my car since I've gotten it over two years ago....and let me tell you, DON'T PUT IT OFF, especially if you own a light colored IS. Let my pain be your wake up call to do it more often!

I don't have the luxury of a garage or car port. And the fact that I live on a semi-busy street, doesn't help w/ the dust and industrial fall out.

In all my previous cars, they were black and the dirty stuff was hard to see, so it was easy to get away with an half-assed clay job. But w/ the pearl white IS, it was just DISGUSTING....I would clay, clay hard, clay very hard. The water droplets around my claying would turn yellowish, and at times almost brownish. I would say I did a 75-80% job of removing all the tree sap, industrial crap and whatnot. It took me a whole 5 hours to finish claying and my whole body is aching. My wrist feels like it's broken.

The susceptible parts of the IS to gather gunk, include all the shoulder areas of the door and rear bumper due to it being very flat. I have to do another clay bar pass next weekend to get more gunk out. The stuff on my car is very stubborn and requires multiple passes of the clay, sigh.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

So all you were able to do was wash and clay. Were you not able to add wax/polish/sealant's yet?

n8236

Did a wash > clay > wax > polish. Didn't have a sealer...i'll re-clay some areas next weekend and do the whole works on those areas as well as sealing the whole car. The 90-100*C heat in Fremont will destroy me otherwise.

karasha

iTrader: (5)

I did my boyfriend's last generation Camry a few weeks back and was able to only get the windows clayed... After that, my clay bar was destroyed.

Clay barring is something that needs to be kept up on. I do it every six months to my IS350.

Also... WTF? 90-100 degrees CELSIUS?! Are you living inside of a boiling pot?

n8236

LOL, sorry, I meant Fahrenheit.

I didn't realize claying windows was necessary hmmm, maybe I should do that next.

Koz

What grade clay were you using? Were you using clay lube? That seems like too much time. Next you need to polish then sealant/wax (Unless you just wax it). I make a day of it with a BBQ and a couple "Shock Tops" (Beers).

Koz

n8236

Not sure what grade, but the clay is red and I bought it from one of the more popular vendors. Have to look to know. I also have the yellow clay, which is the Mother's. I know those aren't nearly as intense. I didn't realize I had clay lube until I've finished claying >.< But I used running water to help w/ the clay.

GSE25

I've tried both the Meg's and Mother's claybars and found that the Mother's yellow clay was more effective in taking out contamination. The "lube" runs out quickly if you get them in the combos, so I usually just use soapy water instead.

Infra

iTrader: (1)

If your car is white, rail dust is a pita and very tough to remove, much more so than a dark colored car.

Meguiar's is pretty soft clay, a medium clay works much better... but it still takes a lot of time to get all the rust off the paint.

Koz

There are three grades of clay that make a difference. Depending on how aggresive you what to get and/or how often you clay it. Using anything other then some kind of lub will degrade the clay. You should be able to do the car more then once with the same clay. Just remember when you clay you strip all wax/sealant leaving the paint bare. Also being too aggesive with the clay can mar the paint (Will need to polish). Make sure you do a test spot before attacking the whole car. Claying the windshield will help the wipers work better and last longer.

Koz

DavidIS3

wish me luck, im going to clay my car sometime this week

BaronvdB

i feel your pain...i spent about 2 hours yesterday and 9 1/2 hours today detailing my car...wash, clay (the whole car-paint,windows, headlights, etc), polish, & wax...I also polished and waxed my rims...It looks amazing so it's totally worth it.

sktn77a

iTrader: (2)

Does a clay bar get the "haze" off headlight covers or do you still need sandpaper and polish?

acefalcon2

iTrader: (20)

sandpaper + Polish works best

Andre

Koz

Try to just polish the headlight first. They sell kits specific to restore headlights.

Koz