Woodrow

My wife's car get tiny little bumps in the paint ( I think where she parks at work). It feels like a grit on the paint, and it's only (or at least mostly) on the horizontal surfaces. You can actually see them when you really look, and you can remove them with your fingernail. I think it's some sort of sap that is airborne, because it doesn't just wash off. Today, I removed the bumps with clay (actually a Nanoskin pad), and it seems to have worked just fine.

I assumed the clay also removes the sealer I put on when I detailed the car a month or so ago, and put on another coat of sealer. Was this necessary, or was I wasting sealer?

BTW - the Nanoskin pad worked just fine, and it really easy to use! It seems to take more passes to remove the more stubborn stuff from the paint, but it still works well on a car that isn't too bad to start with. If I was doing a car that was in bad shape, or had never been clayed, I would use normal detailers clay. For normal maintenance on a car that already gets care, the pad is great and it's much quicker

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iTrader: (17)

I would put another coat of sealant after claying for sure. Heck, ideally you want to polish the section over after claying to remove any clay induced marring.

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

^This... when possible, it is best to follow up with at least a fine finishing polish and finishing pad to ensure you have removed any possible marring left from claying. Either way, I would definitely add another layer of protection.

Woodrow

Thanks! Like I said, I simply assumed I needed another coat of sealer, but the re-polish didn't even occur to me. It seems to have come out with very little additional marring. In fact without a light to see the swirls, I can't see any at all.

Because of how quickly the sap accumulates, I was thinking I need to do this process every 6 to 8 weeks, depending on how annoying the sap gets. The re-polishing make that a bit more involved than I was hoping, but I can see the value. I'll give it a try.

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iTrader: (17)

Re-polishing isn't really necessary.

On black cars or dark colored cars with soft paint, the marring will be more obvious, but on something like silver or white, you will not notice the marring, even with a light, you might not see it. It obviously also depends on the grade of the clay you used and your technique (how often you folded to a new side, how much lube was used, how much pressure you used if any at all, etc.)

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

If you have that much sap on your car on a regular basis, it sounds like you need to find a new place to park to me. No point in making you do so much work and subjecting your paint to possible damage like that.

jfelbab

Clay does compromise your sealant. It may not remove all of the sealant as the clay hydroplanes over smooth surfaces but it will take it's toll on areas where there are above surface contaminants. I always recommend resealing after a clay. Since you have the clay in hand why not evaluate the paint after the clay and see if you have swirls that need re-polishing. Sealants and waxes bond better to pristine clean paint.

To avoid the contaminants in the future or to at least delay the process of clay and polish, I'd suggest frequent washing and add a coat of new sealant with products like Meguiar's D156 or Ultimate Quick Wax. If you wash every week or two adding the spray sealant takes only another 10-15 minutes and makes the paint very slick which makes future cleaning easier and dirt, sap, bugs, etc. don't stick.