Interesting Clay Bar Experience

[The Critic]

This happened about a month ago, but my mom's 2010 Altima V6 needed a wash/clay/polish/seal because the surface has felt slightly rough ever since we purchased the car new. The car is garaged nightly and spends most of the day inside a garage.

When I clayed the car, I used Pinnacle's Ultra Poly Clay, which is supposed to be a fine detailing clay. I used an overdose of Optimum No Rinse New formula as the clay lube.

After claying the car, the paint now feels silky smooth. However, the clay bar stayed clean throughout the entire process. In other words, the clay stayed clean and I never saw any debris or dark spots on the clay at any point. Even so, I still kneaded the clay 2 or 3 times to be safe.

So, why did the clay stay "clean?" The clay certainly did its job by removing the contaminants that made the paint feel rough, but shouldn't the clay be dirty? What do you guys think?

 

[demarpaint]

Odd, my clay got dirty. Maybe your car wasn't as bad as you thought it was, or maybe I used a more aggressive clay?

 

[hounddog]

Maybe debris was of a light color.

 

[demarpaint]

Originally Posted By: hounddog
Maybe debris was of a light color.



Good point, tree sap would make paint feel awful, and would be harder to detect in the clay. If the paint feels smooth, and is clean the clay did its job!

 

[Craig in Canada]

Originally Posted By: hounddog
Maybe debris was of a light color.


That's my opinion. My car is almost always garaged too but some seasons it still always seems to pick up a layer of something that feels rough. Other times it goes 12 months and still feels silky. The stuff I remove usually looks like light tobacco staining. Depending on the colour of the clay it might not be visible. On Claymagic blue it stands out pretty well.

 

[Scienceman]

That car must be super clean
We hardly ever wash our cars
I've never heard of a clay bar untill this site.

 

[daman]

If the paint is clean you will not see much,,i don't always "see" things in my clay.

 

[rclint]

Also when I worked at a dealership we used a sealer on ever new car/truck etc sold.. This so called sealer was just a light based wax, they told us that it was used to give the paint time to fully cure. Also any vehicle that came from Mexico, or was shipped from Mexico, parts etc, and overseas as well had a coating on these in certain areas ( pretty much all over it in a light form) heavy on the top surfaces that we had to use a special chemical to remove.. this was to prevent insects from migrating into our country, state... etc to in turn prevent infestation of a non native insect.. To me this sounds like what you removed from your car/mothers car.. it's clear, and rough texture almost glue like... but very very thin in places.

 

[casperfun]

Don't think too much. You said it went from rough to silky smooth, obviously it works.

It's bad enough that we micro-manage our oils. LOL

 

[Malo83]

Regular wash and wax jobs would eliminate that rough feel on the paint, spray detailers work wonders for maintaining the paint

 

[FZ1]

I think you over did it. I washed and waxed my 02 Accord today. Meguire's gold class wash and 2 coats of Meguire's liquid gold class wax. Looks stunning. I do this every Fall and Spring. Car is garaged at all times.

 

[HangerHarley]

Will Clay Bar get "laquer chipped" old dry paint back nice? I put some Rubbing compound on part of paint that was old and had china cracks in it and it felt smoother, so there was some improvement (It was brown Turtle Wax.)

In an application similar to OP's where paint feels rough, and is deteriorated, shall i keep using Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound (Called "Rocks in a bottle" as slang?)

Or, Clay Bar from Meguiar's? And what kind of Clay Bar?

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: HangerHarley
Will Clay Bar get "laquer chipped" old dry paint back nice? I put some Rubbing compound on part of paint that was old and had china cracks in it and it felt smoother, so there was some improvement (It was brown Turtle Wax.)

In an application similar to OP's where paint feels rough, and is deteriorated, shall i keep using Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound (Called "Rocks in a bottle" as slang?)

Or, Clay Bar from Meguiar's? And what kind of Clay Bar?

If the clearcoat is indeed damaged and chipping, no amount of clay barring or polishing is going to correct the problem.