If you have ever clayed a car, you immediately feel the difference on the paint. I would say you could do a clay once every 2 years, unless the car was hardly driven.
How often do you need to clay?
- Thread starter buster
- Start date
I did my new car. It definitely made a difference. It’s been years and I haven’t seen the need since. I’ve kept it up all that time however.
I bought my car new and have washed it once a week for the last 9 years and it is garaged about 90% of the time. I've only had to clay it about every 2-3 years, and even then it was not that badly contaminated. Too many scenarios to give a definitive answer, but the best answer is "only clay if you really need to"
Yes it's just a matter of to what degree and how visible it is. Think about it: if you pick up a bonded contaminant in inch 2 of your stroke and your stroke goes out to inch 12, that's 10 inches where it was on the bottom of the clay and that's not even accounting for the multiple back and forth passes before you knead the clay. Not to mention the clay itself is mildly abrasive even though it's smooth to all outward appearances.
JHZR2
Staff member
Ive used Iron x on the last few new cars Ive encountered, to try to objectively observe this claim, and never have I been able to prove that cars are loaded with rail dust. Maybe it’s the case with some, but Ive not seen it.
Agree. To me, rarely has the juice been worth the squeeze with clay. It can’t get all of the stuck on stuff off, work it too hard and it can do more damage than it’s worth. Not denying that it will lift some stuff, it certainly will... but so will a buffing pad, which if cleaned and swapped a few times doesn’t seem to be worse for marring.
I only clay once a year. But if you want perfection, use a zip lock bag and run it light on the paint, if it feels like sand paper. You need to clay.
I discovered the same on the Buick LaCrosse the first time I washed it in 2019. The paint looked glossy, but I could feel the roughness. It was August and hotter than the hinges of Satan's summer home, so I washed, clayed, and waxed one panel a day until the car was done. Made a tremendous difference in the feel and even in the looks.
I clayed it in February of '20, which it did not need as much as it had in August of '19, and then again this month. With the Collinite 845 atop the finish, I shouldn't need to do the claying and waxing again until next March.
I use Optimum No Rinse when I clean the vehicle and spray it as a pretreat. Since using this method I almost never have to clay any more. I find that Optimum as a pretreat also keeps water spotting in check. Been doing this method on all vehicles since 2014. They all look new. Optimum is also used on the interior. If I need to clay for whatever reason I use the Optimum as a lubricant.
I also use a clay bar every spring. I strip the old sealant with paint cleaner, use the clay bar, then I use the paint cleaner again. Finally, I apply sealant. This year, because of the dirty air from all the fires, I actually just repeated the process before our wet season. I found fine ash even in the glove box and under the trunk liner.
Right before you put it up for sale.
I've clayed my Honda Accord three times in the 13 years I've owned it, each time followed by machine compounding, polish and wax. I hand polish and wax at least once a year. The car gets hand washed every month or two and I spray on a Wet Wax before I dry the car. The car has never been garaged and the finish came back nicely this October when I did a full paint correction, almost like new. I think my car looks better than 95% percent of the cars I see around here and my wife thinks I'm compulsive about how our cars look. This would probably pass for the bare minimum on these boards!
Once you go to a clay mitt you'll likely never use a clay bar again!
I use 3 decontamination methods:
Chemical (Iron-X)
Mechanical (clay mitt)
Mechanical (clay bar)
Each step gets a little more aggressive. Each step removes contaminants.
IronX is great stuff. I have a clay mitts with different levels of aggressiveness, just like clay bars you can get them in different levels.