Clay Bar marred paint, Looking for advice

[Aaron@P2PQD]

Hi All,

        I had an interesting experience on the weekend while removing overspray from a customer's vehicle, and I'm hoping to get a better understanding of why. I had a black Nissan Skyline come in with large amounts of industrial overspray on the roof and hood, and quite alot on the side panels also. I cannot confirm how long the car had the overspray on it, but it took alot to move it off the clear. I began with Adam's Claybar and Detail Spray and struggled to move the contamination, I tried using Adam's waterless wash with the clay and had good success moving the contamination from the really heavy area's. While using the waterless I noticed a very slight marring to the clear coat, I thought possibly the waterless wash wasn't lubricating sufficiently and switched back to the Adam's Detail spray. Even with the detail spray I was still experiencing the same level of marring which lead me to believe that possibly one of the following was occurring

 

- Unusually soft clear coat

- Clay was loading up with contamination (Switching to new clay still marred paint though)

- Exerting too much pressure on panel (Again, Tried different levels of pressure but still same result)

- Is this possibly normal and I've not noticed it before

- Any other ideas?

 

I ended up going over the car once with Paint Finishing polish and white foam on the cyclo which removed the marks and made the car look great, But I guess I want to know if the marring is normal or not? If it's not, I need to pinpoint where I went wrong!

 

 

 

Thanks in advance

Aaron

[HFX Detailing]

Did the clay stick to the paint at all?

[Aaron@P2PQD]

No, It did not stick at all. 

[DaveVY]

In my experience, using a couple different brands of clay, having some marring is normal and is heavily dependent on two factors:

1) what the clay bar is picking up from the paint and how hard that contaminant is will have an influence as it is then embedded in the clay bar and will then be able to drag across the paint introducing marring

2) frequency of folding the clay bar - want to continually fold the clay to get a "clean" clay surface to use again

3) softness of clear coat - my Mazda6 has a clear coat so soft that is seems to mar if I sneeze or look at it while just holding a towel, hence claying will almost always introduce some marring on this soft clear coat - the Vette with its rock hard clear on the other hand hand doesn't seem to get any noticeable marring from claying

 

Other thoughts not from my experience - since this is a customers car do you know if the marring was already there before you started, maybe just hidden from view by a glaze or filler?

Edited August 4, 2014 by DaveVY

[Aaron@P2PQD]

Thanks Dave, Good food for thought! I'm fairly certain the damage was not there prior as it was only present where I had worked already, having said that the paint was pretty hammered when I got to it and it's possible I just did not notice it. Wondering if it's normal for Japanese cars to have super soft clear? Thanks for the input, definitely helps me make sense of it

[Chris@Adams]

Are you sure that it wasn't residue from the clay? If you don't use ample amounts of DS that will happen.

[Sizzle Chest]

Yes, claying can and will mar a finish.  Sometimes not too noticeable aka micromaring, however from reading what you were dealing with, yes it is perfectly normal. 

[mc2hill]

I have a client with a black Infiniti and his paint will mar from a hard look.  The first time I clayed it I thought I had grabbed a mislabeled package of clay.  The last time I worked on it I used the new Adam's clay which had worked fantastic on other cars and it STILL marred the paint.  Both times it corrected fairly easily, and looks great when it is done.

[Ricky Bobby]

Infiniti and Lexus have the softest clears known to man.  Always need to follow up with at least a finishing polish after claying either of them

[Team Adam's]

Infiniti and Lexus have the softest clears known to man.  Always need to follow up with at least a finishing polish after claying either of them

 

Bingo!

 

Some marring is almost always going to happen after the claying process on these very soft paint systems, even with fine-grade clay.  A quick hit with some Paint Finishing Polish will make quick work of the marring.

 

Using plenty of lubrication and almost no additional pressure with the clay are the keys to minimizing the marring.