How do you shorten your clay time?

[Kristopher1129]

I don't clay glass and wheels on particular packages. My higher up services, I will. That cuts down quite a bit of time. But, if you are charging enough to do windows and wheels...then it will take a while.

 

[kms254]

God bless that mans arms. Overspray sucks the big one. Especially when it is major overspray.

Overspray can be a major pain to remove especially if the overspray paint has had the time to literally cure!! :nomore:

No

Since I am just a hobbyist I can afford to take a bit more time than you pro's but that clay time was intense. I was doing this as a favor to a friend who has helped me out a lot so I did not mind. I did a usual wash with apc and then tarx'ed the bad spots I didn't have Ironx so that was not done and then started claying. That went on forever.

Would you pro's have realized how long it was going to take and then just wet sanded the entire car or would you have just spent the time to clay it and charge the person accordingly?

 

[Kristopher1129]

Since I am just a hobbyist I can afford to take a bit more time than you pro's but that clay time was intense. I was doing this as a favor to a friend who has helped me out a lot so I did not mind. I did a usual wash with apc and then tarx'ed the bad spots I didn't have Ironx so that was not done and then started claying. That went on forever.

Would you pro's have realized how long it was going to take and then just wet sanded the entire car or would you have just spent the time to clay it and charge the person accordingly?

I personally would not wet sand a vehicle due to surface contaminants. At that point you are removing clear coat, which is unnecessary IMO.

Plus, you don't want to include those surface contaminants in your sanding. To me, those two procedures are not related.

If you run into something that is going to take a lot longer than average...you need to charge for that. Time is money.

 

[shoeless89]

Since I am just a hobbyist I can afford to take a bit more time than you pro's but that clay time was intense. I was doing this as a favor to a friend who has helped me out a lot so I did not mind. I did a usual wash with apc and then tarx'ed the bad spots I didn't have Ironx so that was not done and then started claying. That went on forever.

Would you pro's have realized how long it was going to take and then just wet sanded the entire car or would you have just spent the time to clay it and charge the person accordingly?

I'm not a pro by any means but I guess it depends on the extent of how much longer its going to take. If its a bunch of overspray that I didn't notice when I met with the customer I'll talk to them and let them know what the problem is and I will be charging more due to the problem that came up. I've spent 2 1/2 hours with 2 of use working on a BMW that got industrial overspray on it. Man was it a PAIN. The whole car felt like sandpaper and you could see the paint all over the car. But under normal circumstances, no matter how bad the customers car is, its not going to add more then 30 min to my clay time.

Oh yeah, in my wash and wax package I only usually clay the horizontal services. Thats were its the worst anyway. If I clayed the entire car I would have to up the price a bit. But when I do any correction work its a MUST to clay the entire car.

 

[Shawn T.]

Sorry for not responding sooner guys. My life is extremely busy, hectic and stressful right now and I'm just overwhelmed.

Thanks for all of the responses. Maybe I'm just wasting time. In the spring when Im back from college I will try and clay quicker seeing if my results are any different.

 

[Hoytman]

Twenty to thirty minutes on a sedan size car that's never been clayed before? In my view there are lots of variables in many of these responses.

1. How old is the car?
2. Does it live outside 24/7
3. Clayed before...yes/no.
4. How well the car has been maintained.
5. How much fall-out/contamination is on the car.

And it's likely I'm missing a few things.

I'm as meticulous as I want to be. More often than not, I err on the side of being too meticulous (not my words, rather other peoples comments). My answer to the question posed is that it takes as long as it takes. Regardless whether or not I do it for a hobby or I decide to go full-time. I refuse to lower my standards for a few extra dollars. Besides, at the point time would become a factor the additional time will be factored in the quote to the customer. The baggie test gives me an idea of what I'm up against.

I clay everything...paint, glass, wheels, painted trim, rubber trim. It's not uncommon for me to probably spend 20 minutes or more total, just kneading the clay from time to time.

 

[buddhadog]

high tech magna sponge will cut your time in half!

So much better and faster !rops:

 

[TRILLIS]

First post so bear with me.I'm sure everyone won't agree but this method saves me a hell of a lot of time and have had no adverse effects from it. 1.wash car as normal. 2. remove any tar 3.refill bucket with clean soapy water. 4.use two clay bars an older one for the glass and my best one for the paintwork. Wash mitt one hand clay bar the other,one panel at a time.Soap,clay and rinse one panel at a time or if your confident that your getting good results do the upper portion of car in one go,then upper parts of side panels then lower parts of the side panels and bumpers last.(usually the most contaminated obviously)Then all windows are done with the older bar. This method has saved me a fortune in specialist lubricants and find the soapy water in my opinion works fine. 25mins car done. Note: I use this for high volume claying, for a one off I would suggest just sticking with traditional lubes but as I wrote i have not had any problem using normal car wash as lube. Always work clean and never drop the clay in the wash water for obvious reasons. Constructive critisism welcome. Cheers from Down Under.

 

[tuscarora dave]

I guess you could always lure a friend over with some pizza and beer and convince him to clay half the vehicle as your clay the other half

I've tried having helpers do this and they never get the job done to my satisfaction. I liked what the one poster said in that it takes as long as it takes to properly clay a vehicle. With all the possible variables there's no real way to estimate a general time taken for me to clay a vehicle. The average car that I get to detail has been sorely neglected all of it's life and usually is chock full of contamination. I find the Iron x to be a huge time saver and well worth the money and the Elastrofoam from Ultima saves time for me but I am always polishing the paint after I decontaminate the paint so the marring is something that I don't even consider. If I need to clay and go right to wax or sealant, the car gets a presoak with degreaser before it gets washed and gets clayed with Meg's Smooth Surface Clay kit.

I can say that over time I've developed more of a systematic approach to everything that I do detailing related so it takes less time now than it did years ago.

 

[Flash Gordon]

Paintwork Clay Pad Applicator

Try this stupid looking thing ^

 

[weavers]

Paintwork Clay Pad Applicator

Try this stupid looking thing ^

I would like to try this. but 20 bucks seems like a lot.

I have read reviews that it tends to cause swirls. the clay picks up contimantes then the speed of the DA will instill swirls. i suppose you could stop and kneed the clay every 12x12" section. that seems to be a pain tho. I have already read that the clay doesnt stick well to the pad it tends to fall off.

 

[tuscarora dave]

Ultima needs to make an elastrofoam decontamination pad for a dual action polisher.