If you're gonna do paint correction, can you skip claying ?
- Thread starter Oz_TCH
- Start date
irvsmith
New member
- Nov 8, 2014
- 611
- 0
If your paint has the above surface contamination and you don’t clay you will reduce the effectiveness and longevity of your pads while doing the correction.
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Klasse Act
Well-known member
- Feb 21, 2012
- 27,705
- 2,710
I'd atleast do chemical decon once a year 
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FUNX650
New member
- Dec 1, 2010
- 21,057
- 1
As to Claying...
•IMO:
-It’s far better to do it and not need it;
than it is to need it and not do it.
-(As mentioned earlier: “The Baggie Test”
determines “the need”.)
•Perhaps you’ll find the below scenario
to be, at the very least, thoughtworthy.
1.) you didn’t Clay; and, that:
2.) during your correction step(s) your
buffer and pads (unknowingly) picked-up
some contaminates; and, then:
3.) those contaminates wound-up marking
the living hell out of your paint!
Just think of the misery you’d probably
wind up putting yourself (and the paint)
through. Not worth it; amiright?
Bob
•IMO:
-It’s far better to do it and not need it;
than it is to need it and not do it.
-(As mentioned earlier: “The Baggie Test”
determines “the need”.)
•Perhaps you’ll find the below scenario
to be, at the very least, thoughtworthy.
1.) you didn’t Clay; and, that:
2.) during your correction step(s) your
buffer and pads (unknowingly) picked-up
some contaminates; and, then:
3.) those contaminates wound-up marking
the living hell out of your paint!
Just think of the misery you’d probably
wind up putting yourself (and the paint)
through. Not worth it; amiright?
Bob
Markymapo1
New member
- Jun 26, 2018
- 663
- 0
I typically will clay as so not to pick up any fine “gunk” that would mess up a panel (I do clean n change pads often), just my process. Baggy testis a must do
Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 7
No.
Allow me to clarify and be specific.
Whether you need to clay or not depends on,
The contaminant itself. There's a difference between DOT highway paint and bug poop and how tough it is and how strong of a bond it has on the paint.
The pad you're using and even the tool. There's a HUGE difference between cutting paint with a wool pad on a rotary buffer and an aggressive compound and ANY tool or product when using foam pads.
Foam pads, even foam cutting pads can simply GLIDE over some bonded contaminant and have ZERO effect.
So what I've been TYPING for at least 17 years now online is this little quote,
The most effective way to remove above surface bonded contaminants is by claying the paint - Mike Phillips
When I first started typing that the Nanoskin towels, pads and wash mitts and all the copies of their products had not been invented yet.
I can also tell you from first hand experience, if you don't clay first, and there are bonded contaminants, on dark color paints as you move a foam pad on ANY orbital polisher over the paint, in the residue you see behind the path-of-travel (of the pad over the paint), you will see what looks like Comets, that is a dot with a trail behind it. That is the contaminant and the trail is how the residue visually forms on the surface after the pad moves over the surface.
Been there, done that and seen it.
Try to find the above info anywhere else.
:laughing:
Allow me to clarify and be specific.
Whether you need to clay or not depends on,
The contaminant itself. There's a difference between DOT highway paint and bug poop and how tough it is and how strong of a bond it has on the paint.
The pad you're using and even the tool. There's a HUGE difference between cutting paint with a wool pad on a rotary buffer and an aggressive compound and ANY tool or product when using foam pads.
Foam pads, even foam cutting pads can simply GLIDE over some bonded contaminant and have ZERO effect.
So what I've been TYPING for at least 17 years now online is this little quote,
The most effective way to remove above surface bonded contaminants is by claying the paint - Mike Phillips
When I first started typing that the Nanoskin towels, pads and wash mitts and all the copies of their products had not been invented yet.
I can also tell you from first hand experience, if you don't clay first, and there are bonded contaminants, on dark color paints as you move a foam pad on ANY orbital polisher over the paint, in the residue you see behind the path-of-travel (of the pad over the paint), you will see what looks like Comets, that is a dot with a trail behind it. That is the contaminant and the trail is how the residue visually forms on the surface after the pad moves over the surface.
Been there, done that and seen it.
Try to find the above info anywhere else.
:laughing: