I know a lot of you guys swear by clay bars. I tried it one time, way back, on my car, and it SUCKED ! Don't know what the problem was, but no matter what I tried to use for a lubricant (detailers spray, etc) it just wouldn't slide across my paint easily. I fiddled around with the crap on just my hood, for about an hour, then gave up, and never used it on my car, or truck, again.

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Then, last week, I did the Rustoleum rattlecan bedliner on my front bumper. Came out pretty good. I guess about an 8-9, out of 10.
Except for 1 REALLY stupid thing......
I ended up getting a fine mist of overspray on my hood, and front fenders ! {yes, what a dum-bass I am}
I was able to get it off of about half of my hood, with a little bit of Meguiars 105polish, that I had left..... which is nice to know that if I have too......

But then I read that clay bars will quickly and easily remove overspray ? Granted, a lot of accounts do not specifically say "paint overspray"..... or maybe worse yet, "Bulldog adhesive promotor" overspray"......

But I guess I'll find out.

Planning to do a 3 step process of;

1) clay
2) Meguiars 205 polish
3) high tech yellow wax (I really like this wax better than NXT 2.0)

Any additional advice ?

Thanks,
Fish

 

are you pushing down on the clay bar? all you have to do is "kneed" it well and moosh it flat and it should slide across the paint with the detailer spray.

 

Do NOT use pressure on the clay bar - just glide it. Use the detailing spray liberally, you have to keep the surface wet.

 

Last summer I did some bodywork (rust repairs) on my '97 and ended up with a fine mist of clearcoat overspray all over the truck. I had covered the adjacent area, but just didn't expect the overspray to travel that far.
Anyway, I thought I had a real mess until I hit it with Clay Magic a couple of weeks later. It truly was like magic. I had never used clay before and I was absolutely amazed. It took me about 30 minutes to clean the entire truck. I can't remember the last time I found a product that performed so far above my expectations. I even used it on the glass.

 

Thanks guys.

Str8t and GLC, I don't know what I was doing wrong, that other time.... but that was like 2 years ago....

Wrongdave, that sure sounds good. Hope I'm so lucky. I certainly have PLENTY of detailer spray... I didn't look close to see that the clay bar kit already had a bottle in it, and I ended up buying another BIG bottle of it as well.

I guess on the brighter side > It was about time for my truck to be polished and waxed anyway So this little screw up is just kind of giving me the kick in the **** that I needed anyway LOL

Peace,
Fish

 

Look into M34, I bought a gallon of it and it's pretty cheap for QD

 

X2

 

You can also use ONR, the bottle tells you proper dilution for rinseless wash, quick detailer, and clay lube.

 

I have yet to try my onr as a lube yet, which do you think is better?

 

It's not really a point of "better", it's cost. I just looked at the label - for clay lube it's 2 oz ONR per gallon of water. At 35 bucks a gallon, that's about 50 cents for a GALLON of clay lube.

 

Okay, so here's what I found out;

That clay does a "pretty good job". I mean, it still tried to stick a little, but I just kept spraying the heck out of it with details spray, and made it work.

Next, I found out that it didn't quite take my over spray off "like magic". It still took some elbow grease, and several passes.....

But once I finally got all of that crap off, it did leave my paint feeling as slick as glass.

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After that I hit it with Meguiars 205 polish, followed by Meguiars High Tech Yellow wax #26, and made my hood, and two front fenders look absolutely dripping wet and glossy, without so much as a micro-scratch anywhere !

So, the hood, and both fenders (along with some other assorted stuff... glass, trim plastic, etc) took me about 3 1/2 hours.

I plan to do the rest of the drivers side (clay, polish, and wax) next week.... the passenger side, the following week, and the roof, bed cover, and tailgate the week after that. Basically, I'm splitting a 14-16 hour job, into 4 sessions of 3-4 hours each.

With all of my stereo work lately, I might as well have the truck looking as good as it ever has, if it's sounding as good as it ever has, right ?

Peace,
Fish

 

Fish Chris, you have inspired me. Like you I had messed with it before and I guess just missed the right method? I'm gonna do the clay bar deal on a couple cars this week.

I try to learn a new word every day and now I already got mine for Tuesday ...
... and it's only a few seconds past midnight!
Already knowed what "kneed' meant ....

"MOOSH"

 

im glad i could add to your vocabulary tbear

maybe mash would be a better word to use. haha!

fishchris, glad you got it figued out!

 

That reminds of the obituary for the Pillsbury Doughboy > He never knew how much he was "kneaded" LOL ......oh, didn't you hear ? He died of a yeast infection LOL His funeral was held at 350 for 20 minutes

Seriously though, I found that you just about have to hold the clay bar in one hand, and the detailer spray in the other, and just spray really often. The detailer spray does go a surprisingly long ways though.

Peace,
Fish

 

yeah, you are supposed to do a small area about 2'x2' then wipe the detailer spray off and continue on.