Full Detail about to go DOWN. DETAIL IS DONE!

I have all the equipment and chemicals via Carpro to decon,wash, polish and ceramic coat my truck. Question is how important is it to clay before polishing? Is it necessary if the pain feels smooth?

 

I would think clay bar that Bitch, first

 

Clay bar it! You're gonna be surprised what it pulls out of the paint.

 

Do you guys prefer a clay bar or something like a clay pad, which you can hand scrub?

 

For what its worth from a retired self employed detailer of 30+ years here were my steps.

1st: Iron Out for removing Iron deposits, break dust and industrial fallout (all painted surfaces)
2nd: Xylene for removing road tar (front fenders, rocker panels, rear quarter panels, tail gate)
3rd: clay bar for everthing else (all painted surfaces)

 

Mothers Clay 2.0

 

so do you give each area gets its own specific product depending on exposure, or does everything get clay bar in the end?

 

So I already washed the car and dried it and it is sitting covered in my shop. Can I apply ironx to dry paint or do I need to rinse it over with water prior to?

 

Clay bar all painted surfaces. Clay bar does not necessarily get everything off paint and nothing ruins Clay like road tar which is why I like to use Xylene. It eats tar like nothing else, its quick to evaporate and is clearcoat safe. Spray it on, let sit for approximately 30 seconds while you watch the tar run down and then wipe it off. Best to do this in the shade on cool panals.

 

Iron out requires rinsing after a given time doing its magic

 

There are so many contaminants that you can not see or feel but they are there. This is why I use a three step removal process. Its a bit more time consuming but its truly the only way to remove all contaminants from the paint.

 

Save yourself some time and use IronX prior to clay bar.

 

Clay bar is a must if not you run the risk of imbedding something in your polisher pad and creating more swirls/scratches.

 

Just finished up claying the car and Im glad I listened to you guys. I did the plastic bag trick and wow! I thought the paint was smooth and it totally wasn't. Did ironx foam and 2 passes each panel with a fine clay pad. Now we are ready to polish! Now hopefully the polishing process goes smoothly using a porter cable and lake country fine polishing pads with Sonax final and also have megiurs polish to test out.

 

whats the plastic bag trick?

 

First run your hand along your truck, feels pretty smooth right? now put your hand in a plastic sandwich bag and run your hand across that same area, you will feel all the imperfections in the paint. Then clay bar that section, and again do the bag trick, and feel the difference!

 

Almost done all polished and 1 coat of ceramic Uk on! Gonna hit it with another coat in the AM... I need a beer after this one...

 

Looking good! How’s it look out in the sun with that second coat?

 

Came out amazing, couple of high spots but it was my first time using ceramic so I knew it wasn't gonna be perfect.

 

Looks Fantastic, one of these days I'm going to try ceramic instead of my normal wax.