ML Clayton

Sorry I'm new at this and appreciate some advice.

Does the clay bar take the place of a polishing compound before you wax? Or should do you do both?

Or do you clay bar just once a year, and use polish at other times during the year?

s2ksimon

I only clay around the front bumper area..


I clay after physically seeing bugs, and stuff on my bumper prior to a wash. During the summer mths its kinda hard to decide a strict regiment of "claying"

all other times, its DACP orange pad, then white pad AIO , then grey/black pad SG

wanabe

polishing is what we did before clay to get contaminants outa the paint...
(or paint cleaners)- but today you clay to remove the contaminents first (if you need to) and then polish (also if you need to).
you need to polish when you want to bring back the new car look to the paint (when it is showing dullness or swirls).
i just polished a car that did not need clay, oddly enough- but it did have swirls and oxidized paint.
be sure to protect the paint after claying and/or polishing cause both of those will remove all wax or synthetic that you have on the car!

btw, polishing is prob the most difficult of all detail steps... just take your time and do it more than once if you need to. be sure to make the product do its job (polish is not a wipe on wipe off sorta product- you gotta work it until is does its thing!)-
and i would never polish by hand, by many do (it is a heck of a workout!). more info:
http://www.properautocare.com/unbeautinyou.html
or
http://www.autopia-carcare.com/inf-polishing.html

and good info on claying:
http://www.bettercarcare.com/articles.php?articleId=14

ML Clayton

Wanabe thanks for the great info, I checked the sites and think I have the general idea now. It all seems so complicated .... (I have a 5 year old Durango that's never been clayed polished waxed or detailed if you can believe that).