Clay a must!!!!

[dougaross]

If the car is really contaminated claying takes a lot longer because you have to wipe the contamination off and QD the area again and knead the clay repeatedly. I did one so bad last month I had to rewash the car after the clay, cause the lady parked the car under a tree that must have been home to pterodactyls.
Has anyone used the Ultima Elastrofoam with any success?

This is great stuff. See Gary Dean's comments

 

[timaishu]

I will admit, when I first clayed my car, as an enthusiat detailer, it took me over an hour for a through job. ie, me going super slow.

I did my moms car recently and I was able to clay a panl in about, like you said, 2-3 minutes. I ended up claying her car for 45 minutes because I ended up going over the same spots multiple times trying to pick something up. Her car is washed only at the oil change place and has never been clayed. And suprisingly, there were very few contaminents. If I didnt go OCD trying to pick up something that just wasn't there, I could of clayed her whole car in 10.

 

[dtuna42]

If a car obviously needs clay, I recommend they let me use it. But if they don't want the extra expense, I just use a dedicated "cleaner wax".

Also, if it's someone who's car I already clayed, and the car been kept protected, I don't think it "always" needs it. I just use a wax with at least some cleaning properties.

The way I see it, if someone is paying for something, they get to pick what they're paying for...

 

[shoeless89]

Most of my business is wash/wax/interior detailing. I always clay the flat surfaces ie. hood, trunkl id, roof and tops of quarter panels. It take me about 10 min. and letting the customer feel the difference before and after really makes a big difference. Since I do this for free it usually keeps them coming back and/or I get pretty decent tips. When I do correction I clay all the panels of the car just to make sure EVERYTHING is off them before I start the correction.

 

[dtuna42]

Most of my business is wash/wax/interior detailing. I always clay the flat surfaces ie. hood, trunkl id, roof and tops of quarter panels. It take me about 10 min. and letting the customer feel the difference before and after really makes a big difference. Since I do this for free it usually keeps them coming back and/or I get pretty decent tips. When I do correction I clay all the panels of the car just to make sure EVERYTHING is off them before I start the correction.

I should probably specify- I'm not a business. I'm talking about doing a few cars per year for friends / neighbors, etc. I ask what they want done- offer my recommendations- and ultimately do what they are paying for. I don't make much from it as it is, so I'm not giving away my clay (and energy) to someone that declines it when I explain to them how important it is.

In cases like you're referring to, what you're doing makes perfectly good sense.

 

[FlawlessJ]

If the car is really contaminated claying takes a lot longer because you have to wipe the contamination off and QD the area again and knead the clay repeatedly. I did one so bad last month I had to rewash the car after the clay, cause the lady parked the car under a tree that must have been home to pterodactyls.
Has anyone used the Ultima Elastrofoam with any success?

We use the elastifoam kit at our shop and it's great! Makes claying much faster and it passes the plastic bag test to, but if a car is really heavily contaminated I will still use clay.