Hand Polishing & Waxing After Claying

[Shakey1980]

Hey all,

I have my first order of Poorboy's products on the way for the weekend (I'm excited) and I'm really in two minds as to whether to use a clay bar before polishing. I think both of our cars would benefit from it as they haven't had anything like that kind of attention for years. However, I have read from some sellers of Poorboy's clay bars that they only recommend Poorboy's clay bar if you intend to follow with a machine polish, which I don't.

Now, I've never used a clay bar before but I'm pretty careful with this kind of thing and I'm not 'ham fisted'. Do you guys think I should just go for it? Or can you confirm that it isn't a good idea to use a clay bar if polishing by hand afterwards.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Poorboy]

well my friend there is a lot of bad information among the good ... I have never heard of this before and there is no problem working by hand after claying?

Where has this misinformation come from?

 

[sscully]

Follow with polish or "machine polish" ?

I am of the group that anytime clay touches paint it needs to be polished.
- I assume at the very least micro marring will happen from the clay process, but that is not a fact proven 100% of the time. It is more of a belt and suspenders tact on detailing that I use.

How the polishing is done is up to the individual.
It can be done by hand. If you are in good enough shape and / or have a small vehicle hand polishing can be done.

I would not want to do it today, but back in the 80's I hand polished my Ford F-100 at least two times per year.
It was an all day process with that much sheet metal, and old school products.
I think if I tried it today, I would have a rotator cuff injury that would take 2 months to recover from, but I am old and slowly falling apart.

Or

"Machine Polish" as in the M company product or Polish ( like ProPolish ) ?

If this is the case, yes it needs to be polished, but go with ProPolish, it is a superior product than the M company "machine polish" product.

 

[Shakey1980]

Hi guys, thanks for the replies. Just to clarify, I was asking whether it is ok to polish (with Pro Polish or whatever) by hand following the use of a clay bar.

I had figured that it might be a few sellers of clay bars who are wary of people damaging their paint and who wanted to avoid any potential 'come back'. I found the sellers giving this information while Googling for UK sellers of Poorboy's clay bars:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Poor-Boys...ional-Detailing-Detail-Poorboys-/160729107180

http://washwarehouse.co.uk/poorboys-clay-bar-elasticated-poly-clay

http://www.prestigepolish.co.uk/ite...orboys-Poly---Elastic-Clay-Bar_0_0_107_0.html

As the wording is very similar from different sellers it just caused alarm bells to ring that maybe this was 'official' advice that I'd missed. Anyway, thanks to this wonderful forum I stand corrected and I think I'll give the clay bar a go!

P.S. I'm 31 and in in half decent shape, hopefully I wont regret it once I've started

 

[sscully]

I think that is just a CYA ( or is it CYB in the UK ? :smt003 ) for someone getting the clay.

I have seen posts ( not here ) by people that go straight to wax after clay. I cannot say if it looks good or bad doing this.

If you plan for the polish step, you won't run short on time.
Even without any marring ( before and / or after the clay step ) a nice follow up polish will help the condition of the paint prior to going to the glaze step or wax / sealant step.

I generally fall back to work working analogies.
You can have the best lacquer or stain ( wax ) but if you do not take the time to sand the work correctly, the finished product is not going to look it's best.
Clay would be similar to the 120 grit sanding step, polish with a black pad is the 320 grit sanding step.
You might need a 220 grit sanding step in there ( defect removal / correction with a white pad, etc ), but you need to see what you have when you get done with the 120 grit step.
Some projects might not benefit from the 320 grit step, other projects you might want to go all out with a 600 grit sand ( polish on a red / gold pad ) before going on to stain.

Hope that analogy does not come up short...:smt037

 

[Shakey1980]

Well a Poorboy's clay bar is comiong tomorrow So the plan is to do the following by hand (in order):

Wash
Clay bar
Pro Polish
Black Hole Glaze
Natty's Blue

This is the first time I will have gone further than a wash and a wax on a car so I'm hoping for a good day and even better results. I'll be working on my wife's car and then mine hopefully when I get a chance in a few weeks.

 

[BigLeegr]

If you are still apprehensive, do a small section first and see how it turns out. Actually, polishing by hand, I would do a section at a time anyway, as I'm not in that great of shape and would tire out before fully finishing all the steps. By completing sections at a time, I would be able to finish off an area and come back to the car at a later date if needed, while still leaving the work I'd done protected.

 

[Shakey1980]

Thanks for the great advice Bigleegr. I think I'm more apprehensive now about how physical it'll be to clay bar and 'polish' all those layers It'll be good for me

 

[sscully]

Bigleegr gave you some good advice. You can do a panel at a time. Depending on the condition of the paint when you start, and get a good look, you might find there are more defects than you thought, and removing them by hand could take some time.

If you go panel or even up to the front clip on one day, that might be a lot of work. The polish part is the step that could take some time. working in BH is not as bad, and the Natty's Blue will be on and off in no time flat.

Good luck, if you can get some before and afters of a few panels, that would be great to see. I was not "on my game" when I was polishing by hand, so if I looked at it today I might cringe at the results.

 

[Shakey1980]

To be honest, a panel at a time was always going to be my approach anyway as that way if nothing else I can make sure I don't miss anywhere. I will try to take before and after pics as I've seen so much great stuff here I'd liek to share what I get up to. However sadly the car isn't as cool as many on here, no amount of polishing will change that!

I have no expectation of getting the paint back 100%, but I will be happy to have started learning a new skill and to hopefully have a car that looks possibly better than when we bought it 2nd hand 4 or 5 years ago!

Fingers crossed for good weather this weekend, it's looking 50/50 at the moment :/

 

[sscully]

the type of vehicle is not as cool as how the paint turns out.

Another detail site I am on, Tom did paint correction on a 14 year old red Ford Lorry ( just the cab, the dump body hauls paving material, so it gets washed with fuel ( straight gas ) to remove the paving material from it.

 

[Shakey1980]

Thanks man. Awesome looking job on the truck! Cleaning with petrol?! Sounds pretty crazy, I think I'll give that one a miss, besides with fuel the price it is over here it'd probably be the most expensive detailing product around!

 

[sscully]

We have it very easy with the price of fuel.

Need to use it to clean the tar off the truck dump body, not much else is going to touch it. Kerosene might do the job, maybe that is what they used ??? forget what Tom said, it is not like I needed to remember that one :mrgreen:

 

[Poorboy]

I would do some type of polishing after claying ... .. claying to me is part of a process ... wash, clay, polish, defect removal, polish, glaze, sealant and/ or wax ...

I do not remember seeing too many people who just clay and wax, but there is no mandate to do so if you find no defects after claying.

Working by hand with PP is what we usually recommend ... use a foam hand pad or cotton cloth and work small sections as you and others have noted .. just use a very small amount and work it until it basically disappears

 

[Shakey1980]

No worries, like I said before, my plan is as follows:

Wash
Clay bar
Pro Polish
Black Hole Glaze
Natty's Blue

All the stuff has arrived, now its down to my polishing arm and some good weather! Looking forward to tomorrow

 

[sscully]

....<snip>... Working by hand with PP is what we usually recommend ... use a foam hand pad or cotton cloth and work small sections as you and others have noted . just use a very small amount and work it until it basically disappears

ProPolish on the paint or the tendons in your shoulder ?:smt044

 

[Poorboy]

ProPolish on the paint or the tendons in your shoulder ?:smt044

it will do wonders either way

 

[Shakey1980]

Ha looking forward to getting one Popeye arm by the end of tomorrow

 

[Neston_Vasey]

This is how I've been beating the UK weather, if the rain is sideways I get the side panels out

SS&S, Clay, SS&S, SSR2, SS1, PP, BH, EX, Natty's Red.

Oh and it looks nice when wet.....

 

[Poorboy]

looks nice in the rain too