MannyZ28

iTrader: (1)

A customer of mine has a detail shop, and he's got 20+ years experience in detailing. I am going to have my swirls polished out and then take the car home with me and apply multiple coats of Zaino Z2 Pro. Now before bringing the car to have the swirls polished out, should I still clay the car before hand or is that a unneccessary step since the polisher will probably cut down the clear coat a bit thus probably will get most of the deep dirt that a clay bar removes.

Am I wasting my time claying, or should I still do it? Last time I clayed the car, it took me 9 hours... I am funny that way.

Suggestions?

Thanks,
Manny

ZaneO

Always clay before polishing. You wouldn't want the polishing pad to get contaminated with junk and drag it all over the finish.

It should only take 30 minutes to an hour to clay.

kyles2000z

iTrader: (8)

yes clay it. the contaminents could get on the pad and cause more scratches from what i hear. claying is very easy and takes a little less time than does a wax.

MannyZ28

iTrader: (1)

Not the way I clay. I use some saran wrap and put and feel for bumps in the paint and keep claying until all the bumps are gone. So that's why it takes me so long to do it. My first time claying took 9 hours, that was when the car was new!

But thanks for the advice, I'll definitely clay it then before I bring it there.

Z28-CTYHNTR

9 hours!? Good God man, thats insane.

meissenation

iTrader: (2)

Took me about a week to clay my car last time I did it, half hour to an hour is insanely fast. I spend about an hour alone on the bottom half of my door.

kyles2000z

iTrader: (8)

yall must live on dirt roads or somethin

MannyZ28

iTrader: (1)

No, not really, car is in the garage all week long, and is only used friday, saturday and sunday nights on it's weekly pilgrimage to Hooters.

Ling_650vette

iTrader: (1)

lol. Its not funny but just alone hearing "It took me a week to clay my car" most people outside of car guys would at that.

Last time I clayed a car, it took about 2 hours. It was my buddies mustang, and he was a newbie so I wanted him to understand what to do.

jargan04

iTrader: (1)

Yes, you must clay. If the car never been done before, I normally spend a few hours. If it's still very clean then 30mins to an hour.

meissenation

iTrader: (2)

I had tar all over my car, it was unbelievable. It honestly look like someone took a fine bristle paintbrush, dipped it in black tar, and then flicked it at my car. They were all tiny and not even noticable from more than 4 feet away, but they were noticable to me and that's all that mattered, so I sat my **** down and spent a week (about an hour to two each day) claybarring.

Ling_650vette

iTrader: (1)

How the hell did you manage that? You happen to live/drive by a road where they were doing some road or roof construction? Thats crazy.

Z28-CTYHNTR

At the most it takes me about an hour to claybar my car top to bottom with the plastic bag test. You people must have really small hands. Course I can understand like in Meissen's case where he has tar on his car, but a simple routine claybarring shouldnt take an insane amount of time to do.

ArcticZ28

iTrader: (14)

an hour at most, and I don't have a garage so my car sits out in the weather all year long.