Shampooed, claybared, and polished on a 94 miata

[yhelothar]

When I bought this car, the owner was recommending me a bodyshop he knew to repaint the car.
I politely declined.

Here's the paint after a good wash.

After some claybar.

And some rubbing compound with a random orbital polisher

 

[jlee]

Wow. I'm wondering if it might be worth hitting my truck with a polisher...

 

[superccs]

Pics broken...

 

[foghorn67]

Wow. I'm wondering if it might be worth hitting my truck with a polisher...

I would plug it in first.

anyway, nice pics. Looks great!

 

[jlee]

I would plug it in first.

anyway, nice pics. Looks great!

lol, thanks for the tip.

 

[Howard]

Nice pics - in the shade. Get some brighter fluorescent tube reflections or sunspot pics.

 

[Black2na]

looking great! now keep it nice and waxed and will look great for years to come!

 

[soccerballtux]

Dangit this is motivating me to try cleaning my car again.

I don't see how people clay bar their entire car. That would take weekends.
Also, I don't understand how to clay bar. The ONLY way I can get it to take anything off is if I go at the paint bone dry and drag in a very quick snap-of-arm motion. It's a swipe really. Then it actually grabs stuff. If I spray on the qwik detailer and rub it like in the videos or directions, the clay bar grabs nothing, just slides over top. Mystified and with renewed discouragement, I give up trying to clean the paint, so I zip-wax it and call it day.

 

[Howard]

Dangit this is motivating me to try cleaning my car again.

I don't see how people clay bar their entire car. That would take weekends.
Also, I don't understand how to clay bar. The ONLY way I can get it to take anything off is if I go at the paint bone dry and drag in a very quick snap-of-arm motion. It's a swipe really. Then it actually grabs stuff. If I spray on the qwik detailer and rub it like in the videos or directions, the clay bar grabs nothing, just slides over top. Mystified and with renewed discouragement, I give up trying to clean the paint, so I zip-wax it and call it day.

I have no idea what your expectations are for clay, but it's ALWAYS used wet and is only for the removal of the stuff that makes the paint not glass-smooth when you run your hand over it. It's not meant for any defects that you can actually see with your eyes.

And it takes me only 15 minutes to clay my entire car.

 

[yhelothar]

Clay removes the little specs embedded in the paint. These specs makes your paint feel like sandpaper. Clay makes it as smooth as a baby's bum.

I can get it decently good in 30mins, but to get it spotless, it takes a bit longer.
You do want to do it wet. I make the clay fairly flat over my entire palm so I can get a good surface area per stroke to speed things up. Then just go back and forth really quick.

You know it's doing it's job if you feel the paint and it feels really smooth afterwards.

 

[Sluggo]

Nice job, saw the pics on BBZZDD, glad I found the thread they belong to.

Have a before and after of the whole car?

 

[yhelothar]

I don't have any good before pics of the whole car. It takes some special lighting and angles to show the paint condition on a white car.

 

[yhelothar]

Here's my old 99 shampooed, claybared, polished, glazed, and waxed before I wrecked it.

 

[ballmode]

I love clean cars!

 

[soccerballtux]

Clay removes the little specs embedded in the paint. These specs makes your paint feel like sandpaper. Clay makes it as smooth as a baby's bum.

I can get it decently good in 30mins, but to get it spotless, it takes a bit longer.
You do want to do it wet. I make the clay fairly flat over my entire palm so I can get a good surface area per stroke to speed things up. Then just go back and forth really quick.

You know it's doing it's job if you feel the paint and it feels really smooth afterwards.

perhaps I have so much in my paint embedded/bonded for so long that there's no hope...

 

[superccs]

Nice shiny car, that turned out well. Do you guys put 3M on the fronts of your miatas? There sure is a lot of car down in the flying rocks and sand altitude.

 

[Howard]

Here's my old 99 shampooed, claybared, polished, glazed, and waxed before I wrecked it.[/img]

You got shit on your muffler brah

 

[yhelothar]

Nice shiny car, that turned out well. Do you guys put 3M on the fronts of your miatas? There sure is a lot of car down in the flying rocks and sand altitude.

3M? Do they have a special product to protect the bumper? Mine just ends up getting chipped. C'est la vie?

 

[yhelothar]

You got shit on your muffler brah

bah... the stock muffler isn't supposed to be bling anyways.

 

[SilthDraeth]

3M? Do they have a special product to protect the bumper? Mine just ends up getting chipped. C'est la vie?

3m paint protection film. A polyurethane film that you can get in various mil, 6 or 8 etc, and put it on just like you would the screen of your smart phone. Or like the visors on motocross helmets.

 

[SketchMaster]

Looks gooood. Recently tried clay on my car, and I'll never think of my car as clean ever again unless I clay it.

My friend and I set aside last Sunday to detail the hell out of my little 2012 Focus for some pointless guy time while his wife was out. And I mean we detailed it... Washed the wheels, engine bay, all the little bits around the doors/trunk/hood, claybar, polish, wax, treated the trim, tire shine and I took a detail brush and quick detail spray to all the decals and little spots missed by hand washing. When all was said and done the car looked better than when I first drove it off the lot with only 20 miles on it.

...Then I got stuck driving in a rain storm with high winds full of soot (from the wild fires) and dust on Tuesday. >:-(

Colorado is not the place to try and have a nice car, it reminds you why everyone here drives old subies and Ford Broncos.

 

[Fenixgoon]

i need to wax desperately, but its 1000 degrees outside :\