Should paint be perfectly smooth after claying?

[jem7sk]

The paint on my two month old subaru looks perfect but the Baggie test revealed a lot of contaminants. I had an unused bar of Zaino brothers clay bar left over from ten years ago and my Corvette days. After claying the paint was much smoother but the Baggie test still revealed a very slight bit of roughness. Do I need to keep claying or move on to polish? Am I not claying correctly? I used a lot of left over blue magic clay lube.

 

[zerix]

Get some new clay and/or clay substitute.

 

[DogRescuer]

Get some new clay and/or clay substitute.

okay but his question was " Should paint be perfectly smooth after claying?"

Yes, with my limited knowledge get it as smooth as you can.

 

[BobbyG]

Other than possible painting defects, runs or sags, yes, the paint should be glass smooth after claying.

 

[MattPersman]

Is it the entire car or just panels? One of our last cars had one of the fenders I never could get smooth, like it was repainted along the line somewhere and not sanded buffed the same as the other it matched color wise but didn't feel the same.

 

[jem7sk]

I just did the hood. With the bag on my hand it feels like a small few sand granuals on the paint. I'll clay again and get it smooth. Should I use the Baggie while paint is still wet with lube to check it while claying?

 

[MattPersman]

No when it's dry you can try to clay again or try zaino all in one if you have some of that

 

[Quiksilver5882]

Have you tried Ironx? Makes claying a heck of a lot easier.

 

[jem7sk]

Have you tried Ironx? Makes claying a heck of a lot easier.

No, just spray it on and rinse? Is it smooth after that?

 

[GenesisCoupe]

No, just spray it on and rinse? Is it smooth after that?

I applied IronX after claying. I let it sit for 3 minutes,agitated that very gently with a wash mitt and rinsed off. Yes, the paint was even more smoother after IronX.

To answer the question; Yes that paint should be smooth after clay. Seems like 10 years is a lot of time to store a claybar, you should get a new one.

 

[HateSwirls]

Other than possible painting defects, runs or sags, yes, the paint should be glass smooth after claying.

I agree unless the paint is gone but in your case it should be super smooth.

 

[Kamakaz1961]

Paint should be perfectly smooth. The baggie test will confirm. If you still feel roughness with a baggie keep on claying. I would get another NEW clay bar and redo it. IMO

 

[jem7sk]

Thanks everyone! I think I will get a nanoskin autoscrub. Should I get the fine or medium grade for a brand new car?

 

[Kamakaz1961]

Thanks everyone! I think I will get a nanoskin autoscrub. Should I get the fine or medium grade for a brand new car?

That I do not know. However, please give a review on the Nanoskin as I am looking into that but do not know much about that. That would be really cool to know from someone who is going to use it

 

[Klasse Act]

Fine grade is all you need, medium is too much for a brand new car for sure.

Sent from my SPH-M930 using AG Online

 

[oldmodman]

A neighbor saw me washing one of my cars and came over to ask my advice on his.

It was a one year old BMW and had never been cared for other than a simple garden hose wash with cheapo car was soap on an old T-shirt. It had tons of swirls so I wasn't worried about using my most aggressive clay (Red Clay Magic) on it.

I had him bring it by and it was just about the roughest surface I have ever encountered.
I started with a good wash just to get the surface dirt and bird crap off of it.
Then I test clayed a spot with fine blue clay. It was still quite rough afterwards.
Then I tried the red aggressive clay and it was better but not perfect. So on the next spot I washed it with Iron-X first, then the red clay. It was almost perfect, but almost is not good enough.
So for my final test spot it was washed, gone over with the red aggressive clay, then washed with Iron-X, then gone over with red aggressive clay again. Finally it was perfectly smooth.

I can only assume that the Iron-X just could not get down to the actual paint surface unless some of the crud had been lifted out first with the clay. And I did look at the surface with a surface microscope and it was peppered with rusting rail dust.
After all that it was then time to correct the paint and teach the owner how to properly wash his car to keep from re-installing all the swirls.

Just remember that the aggressive clays WILL cause swirls and marring that MUST be polished out afterwards.

Only a long ignored and unprotected paint surface will need this extreme a solution.

 

[GenesisCoupe]

Thanks everyone! I think I will get a nanoskin autoscrub. Should I get the fine or medium grade for a brand new car?

Fine grade is all you need, medium is too much for a brand new car for sure.

Sent from my SPH-M930 using AG Online

Fine. I've never had to use a medium or heavy for anything.

 

[Kamakaz1961]

Thanks klasse act and genesis coupe! I will be getting the FINE nanoskin scrubber as well as their sponge. I am curious to try them out and see if it is better than clay. Again, thanks for your input!

 

[sethr]

Keep in mind there may be paint nibs in it that clay will never get. But it should be pretty smooth.
BTW--Clay is pretty much clay. I don't buy all that kit stuff. Amazon has the basic blue Simoniz clay in a cellophane bag, chaper than all the brand stuff. In fact, it got my wife's car down to where I actually saw filler rings in the roof from a repair 2 years ago. (They just repainted that for free last week!) I hadn't noticed them before.
And the cheapest lube I have found is the large maroon squirt bottle of Megs detailer on sale for $10 +/-.

 

[addysdaddy]

Thanks everyone! I think I will get a nanoskin autoscrub. Should I get the fine or medium grade for a brand new car?

IME, the paint is never perfect after using the nanoskin mitt or towel. I use Glide but I typically need to use a paint cleanser to get it 100% per the baggie test. Perhaps it's me, but I couldn't get the paint perfect with traditional clay either.