Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 7
Just to note, some forms of above surface contaminants will be harder to remove than others. For example epoxy overspray paint will be much harder to remove than most tree sap mist.
The more difficult the contaminants are to remove usually the more pressure you want to apply to the clay and also note, you hand should be moving pretty fast as you work the clay, not slow like a turtle. Moving the clay over the paint is a rapid motion just like working a hand-applied compound to remove swirls, it's not slow.
What's taking place is the abrasives in the clay are sanding the contaminants off the paint, somewhat like how a piece of sandpaper would work if you were to sand the paint. The difference between claying and sanding is that clay is only intended to be used to remove contaminants sticking up on the top surface of the paint, not actually be used to remove paint, this is why you can't use clay to remove swirls. Sandpaper on the other hand is non-discriminatory, it will abrade both contaminants sticking on top of the surface and it will abrade and remove paint also.
Keep in mind that if you cant' remove the offending contaminants with detailing clay then your next options usually just get more and more abrasive, so do try to remove the contaminants using detailing clay first.
The more difficult the contaminants are to remove usually the more pressure you want to apply to the clay and also note, you hand should be moving pretty fast as you work the clay, not slow like a turtle. Moving the clay over the paint is a rapid motion just like working a hand-applied compound to remove swirls, it's not slow.
What's taking place is the abrasives in the clay are sanding the contaminants off the paint, somewhat like how a piece of sandpaper would work if you were to sand the paint. The difference between claying and sanding is that clay is only intended to be used to remove contaminants sticking up on the top surface of the paint, not actually be used to remove paint, this is why you can't use clay to remove swirls. Sandpaper on the other hand is non-discriminatory, it will abrade both contaminants sticking on top of the surface and it will abrade and remove paint also.
Keep in mind that if you cant' remove the offending contaminants with detailing clay then your next options usually just get more and more abrasive, so do try to remove the contaminants using detailing clay first.