Washed the truck and clayed it for the first time this weekend. Background. It's an 06. I've owned the truck for 1 1/2 years. It had 20k on it when I bought it. It is garaged except while I'm at work. Truck has been in Kansas it's entire life.

In the time I've owned it I've polished and waxed it 4 times with 105 and NXT2.0 using a Ultimate Detailing Machine for polish/minor paint correction and then I hand wax.

I decided before I did the spring detail I would go ahead and clay it since I never have. Either the truck didn't need it or I didn't do it correctly. The surface before was smooth after the wash with a slight "sandpapery" feel. Hardly at all. I used Megs detailing spray for the lube and pressed firmly in a back and forth motion but hardly any contaminates were coming up. The clay was virtually still white. Only slightly discolored. Nothing like pictures or videos I've seen of others.

I'm wondering if I'm just fortunate the truck really isn't exposed to fallout in my area or are the layers of wax that are on the truck prohibiting the clay from doing it's work? Should I completely strip the wax off before I clay?

Thanks

 

The clay will remove any wax on the truck as you clay. The other thing is you may have to step up to a little more agressive clay like Meg's blue clay to get some of the tougher contamination.

 

Maybe I did it wrong with the Megs I used here last weekend, but I only used about 1/5 of a bar (from the kit, not the blue stuff), sprayed the hood after a very good wash and dry.. and then did it in sections with circular motions. Its a 97' and has never been clayed and I noticed a gritty sound as I was doing the circular motion and even after about a 10th of the hood it wasn't like hardcore black or anything, just the very edges turned a darker brown color and had little bits of stuff in it. I could feel the difference with my hand on the clayed part vs the unclayed, big difference. Notice that this truck has been an outside truck forever, rarely parked in the garage.

Try doing it in a circular motion (small circles) almost like your waxing and see how that turns out, that way you get the contaminants from all angles. It is possible with a truck thats been properly waxed/washed/garaged that you might not have a whole hell of a lot of stuff to get out of the clear coat/wax. Try the circles and keep going in an area until you hear the gritty sound subside a bit (assuming the piece of clay your using is perfectly clean).

 

Thanks for the input. The paint feels perfect when I run my hand/palm lightly against it. I just don't think there was hardly any contaminants in it. Just wanted to make sure the wax wasn't causing a barrier. I might give it another go on my next detail.

 

Maybe by some chance, the person before either clayed it or had it professionally detailed? Either way, paint doesn't always need claying. After I did it for the first time on each vehicle, claying every couple of years gets whatever happens to stick to the paint, off, which is almost always very little at all. Each area/environment is different.

 

My truck was nearly 4 years old when I clayed it the first time and other than around the wheels it also was not very dirty. Waxes and polishes also clean your paint so you just may have done a good job keeping the contaminants in your paint to a minimum. M105 is a very aggressive compound. It would remove any surface contaminants.

If paint is very dirty the clay will drag a bit over those spots until it's clean if you properly lube as you go. If you do back and forth and circular motion and the surface feels smooth and the clay is clean. The job is done.

More aggressive/abrasive clay like the blue will slightly mar/scuff your paint and you may have to polish afterwards. Unless you are trying to remove paint or some other hard to remove substance you can't get out with white clay, I would stay with the white.

 

The blue shouldn't really mar the paint, as it is a mild clay. It's just a bit more aggressive than the "fine" grade white clay that comes in the kit. It's the red and the Hi-Tech sponge things you have to watch out for.