clay after or during wash?

Bamaboy007 said:
Here, I'll make it easy for you. Any real enthusiast/professional detailer will tell you that you wash it, dry it, then clay it. Don't half ass it to save time. Take the time to do it right and you will be happier with the process and the results you get.
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claying the car before you dry is not half assed, but smart. If your doing this for money, time is money.

The water will aid in claying, it adds to the lubercacity along with some other benifits. Its not cutting corners by any means. Its smart bussiness
 
To the OP,

The issue surrounding the topic of claying during the wash process is the risk of instilling swirls and scratches into the paint.

Here's where the potential for the problem comes from...

You need to do a killer job of thoroughly rinsing the car after washing but before claying, to ensure any loosened dirt particles are completely flushed off the car, or you risk accidentally picking up stray dirt particles, getting them trapped between your clay and the paint and potentially putting scratching into the paint.

It's kind of a production oriented way of claying the paint while cutting out a step and cutting out the use of a dedicated clay lube.


:)
 
I don't think there's a right or wrong way. I've seen people clay while soap is on the vehicle. I've also seen people wash, spray off suds then clay while it's still wet.

Me personally, I wash, rinse, then bring the vehicle inside. While it's inside I blow out all the cracks and crevices with the air hose....then clay. I don't necessarily dry it...just get the water out of the cracks. But, each panel I clay...I wipe down with a microfiber which in turn dries the vehicle as I go.

I don't have a hardened rule as to why I do it this way...just always have. I feel it kind of gets all the steps done without any of them being redundant. :dblthumb2:
 
Just refine what I posted

I wash my car
Than I rinse it
Than I pull the car into the garage I don't try it
I use a simple claylube like Dodo Juice BS or Meguiar's QD (red bottle) to clay the car
After I'm done claying I pull the car back out and wash it again
Pull it back into the garage and dry it
 
Here's my "non-expert" opinion...

I dry before I clay because I usually get a few stray water drips from seams and emblems after I dry. I'll wipe them up while I'm claying. If I clay while the vehicle is still wet and then dry, those stray drips tend to show up while I'm trying to apply the LSP.
 
Widetrack said:
Here's my "non-expert" opinion...

I dry before I clay because I usually get a few stray water drips from seams and emblems after I dry. I'll wipe them up while I'm claying. If I clay while the vehicle is still wet and then dry, those stray drips tend to show up while I'm trying to apply the LSP.
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that definately makes sense. u could also try compressed air or a wet dry vac to get the hidden water out of cracks, crevices, and emplems.

i like it when people have reasons for what they do :dblthumb2:
 
How about these steps:

1. Rinse
2. Wash
3. Rinse (Pooling Rinse/Sheet) to remove most of the water
4. Clay the whole car (without wiping dry the ONR clay lube)
5. Rinse again (using a pressure washer)
6. Wash again (new soap solution)
7. Dry

Haven't tried these steps but I'm planning on doing these next week to prep the paint before applying Klasse AIO and Klasse SG.

The reason I'm planning to do these is because the usual "wash-dry-clay" method (which I did during my first experience claying) requires a lot of drying towels (which I don't have).

Any opinions? Thanks!
 
For a long time I would wash/strip, completely dry, and then clay. Just recently I tried washing and then clay without drying and it IS the way to go. The other way just doesn't make any sense. That is of course assuming you are going to polish.

If you are using a very mild clay and aren't causing any marring and aren't going to polish which can be the case on occasion for a perfectly kept car: then you don't want to leave water on the whole car that long unless it is deionized or some such water that won't spot.
 
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