What is Blackfire Clay restorer and cleaner?
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Setec Astronomy
Well-known member
- Aug 31, 2010
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I never understood the point of this product. I usually clay while washing, and I rinse off the clay in the wash water if necessary. It seems to me that if your clay is so dirty it needs a special product to clean it, it's probably time to toss that piece of clay.
Jaretr1
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- Jan 29, 2011
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I to was intrigued by this a while back, got a sample with an order, tried it, but it seemed to do absolutely nothing and could not figure out a way to use it where it had any effect on the clay. I to have since stopped using clay, so its irrelevant at this point.
Setec Astronomy
Well-known member
- Aug 31, 2010
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My memory banks are telling me this was a David Fermani idea that Todd Helme added to the Blackfire line back in the CMA/TID days. But my memory has failed me before.
Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
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Just to comment....
While I don't use this product... mostly because I don't clay as much as I use to, when I have used it, my experience was it worked great. The thing is it adds more steps to use it correctly.
Correctly used, AFTER you clay contaminated paint and you have a clay patty that is visually contaminated, you don't knead the clay, which is what most people do as a normal habit, you must STOP what you're doing, walk over to a sink, spray the product onto the gunk on the clay patty and then under running water rub the face of the clay patty and the gunk will wash off leaving mostly clean clay.
Then benefit of course is you don't knead all the contamination into the clay where you'll never be able to remove it.
The only time you can remove the contaminants is to stop and wash the clay before kneading. My experience is most people don't do this including myself. But if you do it... my experience is that it works.
Here's an example of a dirty clay patty... if you STOP and clean this gunk off it only makes sense your clay will last longer versus kneading all of this gunk INTO the clay where you can then NEVER remove it. So the product makes sense and if used it works. It's a matter of choosing to make it a discipline or best practice when using detailing clay.
Now I have used it to clean contaminated Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads from heavy contamination and even wrote an article on it and shared the dramatic before, during and after pictures of the product in action.
How to clean your Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads
Next time I clay and have a horribly contaminated clay patty I'll take a few pictures of this product in action.
While I don't use this product... mostly because I don't clay as much as I use to, when I have used it, my experience was it worked great. The thing is it adds more steps to use it correctly.
Correctly used, AFTER you clay contaminated paint and you have a clay patty that is visually contaminated, you don't knead the clay, which is what most people do as a normal habit, you must STOP what you're doing, walk over to a sink, spray the product onto the gunk on the clay patty and then under running water rub the face of the clay patty and the gunk will wash off leaving mostly clean clay.
Then benefit of course is you don't knead all the contamination into the clay where you'll never be able to remove it.
The only time you can remove the contaminants is to stop and wash the clay before kneading. My experience is most people don't do this including myself. But if you do it... my experience is that it works.
Here's an example of a dirty clay patty... if you STOP and clean this gunk off it only makes sense your clay will last longer versus kneading all of this gunk INTO the clay where you can then NEVER remove it. So the product makes sense and if used it works. It's a matter of choosing to make it a discipline or best practice when using detailing clay.
Now I have used it to clean contaminated Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads from heavy contamination and even wrote an article on it and shared the dramatic before, during and after pictures of the product in action.
How to clean your Nanoskin Autoscrub Pads
Next time I clay and have a horribly contaminated clay patty I'll take a few pictures of this product in action.
Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
- 6
Whitewater25
Member
- Feb 14, 2015
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Will it still clean the Nanoskin if it's been a few days since it was used. I tried cleaning my fine Nanoskin with APC & a small nylon bristle brush and it came about halfway back to the black color it was when new. I used it on white paint if it matters. Your pad in the pics looks much cleaner than my pad does.
I got a sample and tried it on an old clay bar that needs to be thrown out. it actually cleaned the clay quite a bit. Not sure if it makes the clay too soft though. I also read somewhere that it could be a alternative solution for cleaning foam pads? anyone have insight to that?
That's good to know about using it to clean the Clay towels/mitts/pads. I always assumed that anything stronger than car soap was bad of for the rubberized surface.
The cleaner does work on the claybars, I'll give you that. Its just that if you routinely clean the clay after each panel like your suggesting then I found it to cause the claybar to fall apart by the time you've finished the car.
It has sat on my shelf since about 2006 or 2007. I will try it on my clay towels/mitt now. I hate throwing things away.
The cleaner does work on the claybars, I'll give you that. Its just that if you routinely clean the clay after each panel like your suggesting then I found it to cause the claybar to fall apart by the time you've finished the car.
It has sat on my shelf since about 2006 or 2007. I will try it on my clay towels/mitt now. I hate throwing things away.
