Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 7
Clay mars soft paint - 2020 C8 Corvette - Soft Paint
This is called clay marring - 2020 C8 Corvette
When the 2020 C8 Black Corvette Stingray was here, I needed to test out some clay to see how aggressive it is and how it performed. After doing a waterless wash on the old 2-door Chevy, (you can read about the waterless wash here), I did the BAGGIE TEST on the Corvette and while there were a few dots of contamination on all the panels, (and the glass), it was not what I would consider horribly contaminated.
So I tested the clay for clay marring, not so much contaminant removal. This is the FIRST C8 I've worked on so I didn't know what to expect. Historically, ever since the C4 Corvettes, I would say generally speaking, the factory paint on these Corvettes from the C4 to the C7, the paint has been on the HARD side of the soft paint/hard paint spectrum.
After claying a few panels on the C8 Corvette, and then later when I polished this Corvette, while I would not say the paint was soft - it's definitely not hard. If I had to make a committed statement on where I think it lands I would say out of this range,
Soft - Medium - Hard
It's on the soft side of medium.
Do I need to polish after claying?
This topic comes up a lot. That is, if a person is going to use detailing clay or ANY type of clay substitute on their car's paint, after this step, do they need to then polish the paint?
For me personally, the answer is "yes". I know from experience that rubbing a material with pulverized abrasives in it over scratch-sensitive paint that chances are very good there is marring of the paint at least to some level. Now on lighter colors and white paint you may not see this marring. But on darker colors and black paint it's a lot easier to see.
The BIG PICTURE is this - if marring from claying is happening on black and dark colors, (paint you can easily see marring on), then it's also happening on light colors and white paint it's just the human eyes have a more difficult time seeing the marring - even with special lights.
So - as a professional and in keeping with the Professional Detailer's Oath, to first do no harm, and then when you must do harm, (abrading the surface), in order to repair the surface, my own personal "Best Practice" is that if I must use any type of mechanical decontamination step to remove any type of above surface contamination - afterwards I will do at least one machine polishing step.
The one machine polishing step can include,
That's just me and what I think about the topic, everyone can decide for themselves how they will address this topic and the practice of mechanical decontamination.
And of course "yes" I did remove the isolated marring from the clay testing and then machine polished the Corvette.
This is called clay marring - 2020 C8 Corvette
When the 2020 C8 Black Corvette Stingray was here, I needed to test out some clay to see how aggressive it is and how it performed. After doing a waterless wash on the old 2-door Chevy, (you can read about the waterless wash here), I did the BAGGIE TEST on the Corvette and while there were a few dots of contamination on all the panels, (and the glass), it was not what I would consider horribly contaminated.
So I tested the clay for clay marring, not so much contaminant removal. This is the FIRST C8 I've worked on so I didn't know what to expect. Historically, ever since the C4 Corvettes, I would say generally speaking, the factory paint on these Corvettes from the C4 to the C7, the paint has been on the HARD side of the soft paint/hard paint spectrum.
After claying a few panels on the C8 Corvette, and then later when I polished this Corvette, while I would not say the paint was soft - it's definitely not hard. If I had to make a committed statement on where I think it lands I would say out of this range,
Soft - Medium - Hard
It's on the soft side of medium.
Do I need to polish after claying?
This topic comes up a lot. That is, if a person is going to use detailing clay or ANY type of clay substitute on their car's paint, after this step, do they need to then polish the paint?
For me personally, the answer is "yes". I know from experience that rubbing a material with pulverized abrasives in it over scratch-sensitive paint that chances are very good there is marring of the paint at least to some level. Now on lighter colors and white paint you may not see this marring. But on darker colors and black paint it's a lot easier to see.
The BIG PICTURE is this - if marring from claying is happening on black and dark colors, (paint you can easily see marring on), then it's also happening on light colors and white paint it's just the human eyes have a more difficult time seeing the marring - even with special lights.
So - as a professional and in keeping with the Professional Detailer's Oath, to first do no harm, and then when you must do harm, (abrading the surface), in order to repair the surface, my own personal "Best Practice" is that if I must use any type of mechanical decontamination step to remove any type of above surface contamination - afterwards I will do at least one machine polishing step.
The one machine polishing step can include,
1: A dedicated polishing step using a compound followed by a polish or only a compound or only a polish
2: A dedicated polishing step using an AIO or cleaner/wax also to include the new categories of AIOs ceramic infused AIOs.
2: A dedicated polishing step using an AIO or cleaner/wax also to include the new categories of AIOs ceramic infused AIOs.
That's just me and what I think about the topic, everyone can decide for themselves how they will address this topic and the practice of mechanical decontamination.
And of course "yes" I did remove the isolated marring from the clay testing and then machine polished the Corvette.
