Well, after being on here for awhile, reading what you guys have done,I decided to clay my wife's Explorer. I used it as a guinea pig before doing my truck, and her paint has been somewhat neglected over the last year or so. She had a lot of crud built up, especially from road tar and bug-strikes.

I started out with a bug & tar remover I picked up last week, and this was by far the best one I have used yet. It didn't take all of the tar, pine droppings, and bugs off, but did a great job of prepping the worst spots for the rest. I followed that up with Meguiars Crystal car wash, two bucket method, then sat down to clay the Ex. I took my time, didn't rush, and got a glass-smooth finish. Even my wife could tell the improvement, and she had been doubtful,

I finished up with a coat of Meguiar's carnauba...her car has been reborn!

Guess what I'm doing next weekend...the FX4!

Thanks for all the tips and info, guys...made a world of difference...

 

Heh. This seems to be a regular occurance with guys here.

Good to hear you got great results. You think it looks good now, you should pick up a DA and pads, a good set of polishes and some good MF towels and see what you can accomplish. You might get a REALLY good reaction out of the wife then.

 

Well, the truck is done! Went the extra step of using Scratch X on some tree limb marks down the sides of the truck. I had to work harder on the truck than the explorer, though...my bright red shows EVERY nick and scratch, where her silver masks a lot of defects.

Now that I've done it once, can't figure out what took me so long!

How often do you guys clay bar your vehicles, though? Once a year? Every time you wash? Any opinions?

 

When it needs it. As you get more experience, you'll start to be able to feel it while you're washing to an extent. You could always use a plastic baggie, put your hand in it and spray some detail spray on the panel and feel for contamination. It kind of just a feel for it that you develop. I tend to do it, even if it's just a quick trip around the truck, everytime I wax.

 

It varies on the environment the truck is in. Here's a tip, take zip lock bag and put your hand inside it. Move it along various parts of your truck. If you can feel bumps gathering, time to clay to remove the contaiminents in the paint.

 

Wow! I opened this window to read a few minutes ago after I read sime other new threads, and by the time I posted ESF had said the same thing, oops.

 

so NC FX4 Scab what were all the steps you did on your truck?? do you have any photos

 

I started off with a good Bug & Tar remover I had found made by Gunk...it doesn't take near the elbow grease other formulas require. That was able to remove 75 - 80 & of the junk off the truck. Spray, let it soak, then rub it off with a terrycloth towel.

I then washed the entire truck with Meguiar's Deep Crystal car wash, two-bucket method, one panel at a time. I used a shammy to dry the truck. Then I started clay-barring the truck, using Meguiar's kit and a bottle of Quick Detailer. I started with the hood and front fascia, since they took the biggest beating. What the B&T didn't get, the clay bar took care of.

I took my time, and 2 hours later, I found the light scratches from tree limbs. Used Scratch X 2.0 with a terry cloth towel to polish out the scratches, then started waxing with Meguiar's carnuaba, using a cotton diaper to apply, and a microfiber to remove. Unfortunately, I found different spots where rocks had dinged the paint, and a long scratch where someone keyed my tailgate.

Finished up cleaning the fender flares, wheels, and tires...it was a great stress reliever!

I don't have a gallery set up yet...as soon as I do, I'll post pics...

 

Careful with the shammy/chamois. They don't have anywhere for any left over dirt to get trapped out of the way and they can drag dirt across the paint creating swirls and scratches. A quality microfiber towel would be a better drying media. Waffle Weave microfibers are actually designed with drying in mind although I don't use them much anymore as I find I get better results with a regular mf and a QD of some sort.

 

NC you need to buy one of those 79 dollar Porter Cables from Auto Geek. You will love it. The results are amazing. I don't know how old you are but my 42 year old body sure thanked me for buying a machine.

 

X2. I couldn't imagine doing everything I do by hand!

- NCSU

 

The $79 PC deal is over.

 

Thanks for the ideas, guys...I had already decided to start looking for a PC. Hate that I missed out on that deal. The only machines on ebay for a decent price are refurbished...

 

Once you get a pc or like item you will wonder how you ever did it before.

 

Just remember, Mequire's clay bar is rated at 3500 grit. There much better clay bar products out there rated at much finer grits- so if you are comfortable and believe your paint needs to be wet-sanded, and that is the only and safest way to correct the flaw/issue, then do so but rmember, for 90% for all paint contamination issues there are products designed to relieve/remove/neutralize the contaminents without reducing the mil thickness of the clear coat.

Ford/GM/Chrysler/MB/Porsche all have service directives that specifically refer to paint correction/contamination procedures and clay bar is not a referred procedure and specifically identified as a method which only removes the surface level paint contaminents and as such, the "root' of the contaminent remains continues to destroy the paint from underneath the surface layer of the paint.

These procedures date back to 1990 and are still published in current oem paint maintence publications/service manuals.