BMW Blog

I'm wondering if I did something wrong when claying my wife's Infiniti. I used the Meguiars Clay Kit, and I honestly felt like I was rubbing a rock over my paint because it wasn't very soft. Here is the process I used, did I do anything wrong?

1) kneaded the clay bar
2) sprayed the detail spray that came with the kit onto about half of my hood
3) rubbed the clay bar over top of the hood...and made what I felt like was a mess with the runoff from the detail spray
4) used this same process all over the car

A few times the clay was fairly dirty, but not near as dirty as I expected. Anybody see anything wrong? In the meantime, I'm off to apply Klasse AIO.




did you wash the car thoroughly first? did u wipe off all the runoff after claying each area? it should feel like u are catching all the contaminants in the clay when you run over the area. so are you saying you just dont see a difference?
did you wash the car thoroughly first? did u wipe off all the runoff after claying each area? it should feel like u are catching all the contaminants in the clay when you run over the area. so are you saying you just dont see a difference?

I definitely washed the car first. It just felt like it was sliding over the paint. In a couple of areas especially around the bottom of the car, it felt like I was catching contaminants, but everywhere else it was just sliding over the paint. Is it possible to use too much detail spray for it to work? The car is a 2001 model and we bought it used about 1.5 years ago, so it's not like it wouldn't have had any contaminants...
If a surface doesn't really need to be clayed, it won't feel like you're doing much. On a surface that needs it badly, you will feel it and hear it as you slide the clay across. You should also feel the difference with your hand (sliding it across the paint), before versus after.

If you ended up with junk in the clay, it worked. You most likely will not see a difference unless you removed obvious contaminants like tree sap and stuff. Tiny particles are not really visible in the paint.
If a surface doesn't really need to be clayed, it won't feel like you're doing much. On a surface that needs it badly, you will feel it and hear it as you slide the clay across. You should also feel the difference with your hand (sliding it across the paint), before versus after.

If you ended up with junk in the clay, it worked. You most likely will not see a difference unless you removed obvious contaminants like tree sap and stuff. Tiny particles are not really visible in the paint.

So, it's not really likely that I used too much detail spray? Don't get me wrong, I didn't use a ton of it or anything, I'm just making sure I didn't do anything wrong...
So, it's not really likely that I used too much detail spray? Don't get me wrong, I didn't use a ton of it or anything, I'm just making sure I didn't do anything wrong...
I think it's fairly difficult to use so much lubricant that the clay doesn't work...I think if you use too much, you waste it, but you won't defeat the effectiveness of the clay.
Claying is supposed to make a mess. Typically one will either wash the car or quick detail it after claying. Since the next step is to polish the car anyway, there isn't really a whole lot of point in washing it really. I wash it because I use a homemade clay lubricant that makes more of a mess than most and I like to be able to see the paint I'm polishing.

If it is chilly outside then that could account for the clay being harder. It doesn't like low temperatures. It may also be because the Meguiar's clay is a plastic clay that is pretty hard by nature. I would suggest using the Mother's clay or the Clay Magic clay. Those are elastic clays that aren't as crumbly or hard. I'm usually pretty happy with Meguiar's products, but their clay has always been pretty sub-standard.
Maybe your paint didn't have much contaminants.

I don't worry about the clay liquid drips. They just polish or wax right off.
sorry to go a little off topic, but polishandwax.com, you said you polish the car after claying. is this fully necessary or can i go straight from claying to a wax(with a wash in between of course)?
sorry to go a little off topic, but polishandwax.com, you said you polish the car after claying. is this fully necessary or can i go straight from claying to a wax(with a wash in between of course)?
It depends. Even though clay companies say their products don't scratch, I still get some scratches. So, I end up polishing unless the finish is light enough (or has enough metallic) to where you can't tell. Maybe if I was super-careful, I wouldn't get any scratches.

For me claying is part of a detailing routine that includes polishing, so I polish every time I clay and don't really care if I get minor (like you can only see them in the sun) scratches when I clay. However, I take very good care of my paint and my truck is garaged, so I go at least one year between my polishing jobs. It's been one and a half years on most of my truck, although other sections have been used for demos more recently.

If someone had an environment that required that they clay their paint every month (like next to a freeway or factory or some big pollution source and not garaged) I would probably not recommend polishing every time they clayed because polishing removes paint and you have a finite amount.

So to answer your question 'is it fully necessary?' I would say no.
I don't care what clay companies say. I've never clayed a car where I haven't been able to see the light lateral scratches afterwards. They are super light and only the mildest polishing is required to remove them, but they are still there. I personally wouldn't clay a car unless I planed on polishing it afterwards. It is sort of like drying the car. Don't wash it if you don't plan on drying it. It is an important part of the process.