SLegacy99 Posted May 20, 2007 Share Posted May 20, 2007 I clayed a bit today. Got the stains from my washer nozzles off. YAY! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94banshee Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 to OCDeatils.... i know this may be a simple question, but before i do all the intensive steps to polish/wax my car etc., im wondering, using a pressure washer to rinse the car from the soap you applied is no problem, correct?? i wash by hand, NOT using the soap adding mechanicsm in the pressure washer itself Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCDetails Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 It's not a problem as long as you don't catch the edge of some cracked paint from body work. If the car isn't repainted then I don't have any concern with a pressure washer. It is only on something that may not have been painted properly that I get concerned. _________________________________________ “Cleanliness becomes more important as godliness becomes more unlikely.” O C D E T A I L S . C O M OCDETAILS BLOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iyalla Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Actually OCD is right (surprise) I had a bodyshop do the hood on my Benz, they did not do the underside of the hood but they ended up painting down the edge. Unfortunately they did not properly prep the 1 inch wide left and right edge of the hood for painting like they did the top of the hood. Consequently the paint cracked and peeled but it was not noticeable until a pressure washer was used. Let me tell you there is nothing scarier than seeing paint flake of your car and fly everywhere I am going to repair the side by myself. Its really only visible if you look into the hood seam on the driver side. But be aware that a pressure washer can potentially expose any bad flaw in your paint adhesion to the body panel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 good stuff... OK so I've got 30k miles. 1.5 years of driving. Good time for a first clay? I'll go down the street and take a look at the selection. Does the lube come with the clay? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 OK guys... I have a question. I was looking in the garage and I found a Turtle Wax Brand Random Orbit Waxer/Polisher. It delivers 3200 random orbits per minute...blah blah blah... Ok so this must be better then the burn buffer machines you speak of but I know it wasn't a $150 bucks like the Porter Cable system you're talking about. I think it was a gift a couple years back. I used it on my last car but have not given it a try on the LGT and I didn't really know much about car detailing until recently. I mean... I've always been the guy on the block who is a freak about their car. Ever since I was 16.... "IS that kid out there washing his car again." or..."tell him if he really likes washing cars to come over here and wash ours"... but until you've read through OCD's web site and all his thread starters you really don't know as much as you think...... Anyways... I was reading all this stuff about clay and poish and remembered I had this thing in a box in the garage...... So OCD.... what do you think of this Turtle Wax Random Orbit machine..... I'm sure you know what I'm talking about...I think they're pretty easily found at most auto parts stores.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brady Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 I know what you're talking about too. Hell, I can even put the exact words in OCD's mouth: "It will be good for spreading wax on your car, but don't expect it to do anything else." 3200 Operations Per Minute (OPM) will not be fast enough to cut your paint when using a polish. You're going to need more like 5,000 minimum. The friction/heat buildup is what breaks down the polish which is needed to make it effective. All a polish does is scratch your paint over and over. It starts out with slightly larger scratches (yet, still much smaller than swirl marks) and as the polish breaks down, the polish becomes finer and finer. As it gets finer, so do the scratches, and eventually they're so fine that they are completely invisible to the naked eye. This is also why you will start with a more abrasive polish in some cases, and then follow it with a finer polish. The more abrasive polish only breaks down so far, and if you look carefully, you can see some "hazing" which is just the small scratches left from the first polish. The second, finer, polish will break down still further and take out the "haze" left from the first polish. Hope that helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brady Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 good stuff... OK so I've got 30k miles. 1.5 years of driving. Good time for a first clay? I'll go down the street and take a look at the selection. Does the lube come with the clay? Thanks "Right now" is always a good time for your first clay. Even brand new is a great time for a first clay. Claying is a great step to help start to do a lot of things right on your car. Claying takes out things that will be in your paint from day one. My Legacy came with a lot of Industrial Fallout (IFO) on the driver's side rear quarter panel. There was a section that was really rough ... from day one. Once I finally clayed that section (sadly, two years later), that rough patch of paint is baby-butt smooth. So, again, I reiterate, right now is always a good time for your very first clay job on a car. After it's been done, then it's just a matter of maintaining the job and claying whenever you feel it is necessary. Once you get all the IFO out and feel just how smooth the paint is, you'll have a good idea how clean you want to keep the paint from then on. It's up to you how smooth and clean of a finish you want to maintain. I think most of us on here clay once in the spring and once in the fall. But if you live in an area with a lot of tree sap, you might want to do so more often. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Crap..this is serious stuff... I just want my car to look better and last longer than all my friends, neighbors, and relatives....not OCDs.... OK...well again! I didn't run out and buy this...got it as a gift years ago...but good to know..... so maybe I'll see if I have some newer applicator pads that fit and perhaps today's NXT job will be done by the turtle machine! and not my huge arms.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Underdog Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Last week I had my first opportunity to really get into detailing. I spent 6-7 hours, washed thoroughly and clayed the hood, front quarters and selectively over the rest of the car. Then, I used wolfgangs pre-polish enchance/cleaner over the entire car and applied sealant by hand. I didn't feel right about using the PC with the car outside on a windy day. I'm going to wash the car again in a few hours and would like to build up another layer of sealant. With the wolfgang the car is so easy to wipe down with QD in between washes and the paint feels so smooth. My question is: how clean should I get the car before sealing again? If I clay or clean the paint it will remove the sealant I just put on, correct? Is this a wash, dry, QD, seal deal? The Crimson Dynamo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 That wolfgang stuff sounds like a winner...too bad nobody wants to carry it...not enough guys like us in every neighborhood in order to justify the local parts stores all carrying a few bottles? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brady Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Yes, claying or using a paint cleaner WILL remove the existing layer, so don't do it! Just clean and dry very well before applying a new layer of sealant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Went to auto zone down the street... They had one box of Clay Magic, and several Mequiers and Mothers. The Mequiers was definaetly the most tempting box, style, combo pack. If it wasn't for OCD saying he liekd Clay Magic the best I definately would have paid $8 more for the Mequiers. The meguiers comes with a plastic container to store the clay bar in. OH...and it comes with TWO 50gram clay bars and a complete bottle of Quik Spray detailer to use as the LUBE and it even had a sample paint cleaner mini bottle. I passed it up for the original dopey lookng box of clay magic. We'll see how much magic there is in a couple hours......out to the driveway! ok after opening... I'm thinking I should have bought the mequiers...but I'm still of course going to give clay magic a try.... But the bar seems tiny.... smaller than a normal size bar of soap.... we'll see how it goes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcsquish Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 Well I finally had time to reclay. For anyone that is going to do this for the first time, lube is your friend! The first time I didn't use enough and after I was done waxing, I noticed the streaks from the clay. So I had to redo it...... Basically I don't think you can use too much. The worst part of claying this time is when I got all done with the car, I dropped the clay. OCDetails, thanks for telling us to break the clay into pieces.......... I guess I now have some to use on the wheels........ ________ Fake Weed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brady Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 2006Specb122 - That tiny piece of clay is 100 mg, I believe. Same as 2 pieces of 50 mg ... Break the clay in half and then half again ... or break it into thirds. You only need to use 1/4 to 1/3 of the claybar at a time. Work it in your hands before using to warm it up and make it pliable. If at any point you drop the clay and it lands anywhere other than on your paint ... throw it away and use new clay. Frequently fold the clay ... you'll understand once you get started. If you have questions, post back here and we'll help out! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 OC wasn't joking when he said the magic clay brand was STICKY.. I had trouble peeling the sucker off my hand.... I guess I can try breaking it into peices...hard to tell how big or small the bar is... Box doesn't say but the Magic Clay kit was only 9.99. If I get two or three clays out of it that's only a few bucks per clay...not bad.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brady Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 Seriously, the Clay Magic bar is 100 mg, IIRC. I'm almost certain of this. That's less than 2 Ounces! And yes, it's crazy sticky. You should be able to clay the car 10 times with 1 bar ... ball park anyway. You should totally break that bar into pieces. Break it into 3 or 4 equal pieces ... no reason not to, and you don't want to drop it and have to throw the whole thing away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCDetails Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 I know what you're talking about too. Hell, I can even put the exact words in OCD's mouth: "It will be good for spreading wax on your car, but don't expect it to do anything else." Wow... Exactly what I was going to say. _________________________________________ “Cleanliness becomes more important as godliness becomes more unlikely.” O C D E T A I L S . C O M OCDETAILS BLOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 My arms hurt... I can hardly type... Wash Dry, Clay Spray lube, clay, clay, clay, wash dry, apply NXT Polymer sealant by hand (turtle machine bonnets were all dirty from about 2 years ago) buff with super soft cloth by hand... Leather conditioner, polish my pipes (that sounds bad) used some new turtle chrome polish and polished my Borla exhaust system...go ahead call me crazy...it was dirty down there but now all that stainless is looking good!!!! Applied mothers protectant to everything black on the car...inside and out... Took my nice subaru all weather mats and shook them out LOL!!! I love those rubber mats... applied a new bottle of super wet tire no touch product...finally they offer another product that doesn't have petrolium dissilates.... washed the rims... clayed the undercarriage of all that grimy road stuff that Ijust thought was permanently stuck to the bottom of the car... wiped down the rear sway bar.... wiped off the yellow suspension components.... what a day!!!! Still didn't have time to detail the glass and apply some more rain x....another time perhaps... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartg Posted June 17, 2007 Share Posted June 17, 2007 #122 must be proud and looking sexy. No one here is going to call you crazy for polishing your pipes, but maybe for the sway bar My only concern here is that you used the clay for the under carriage. You probably started seeing the benefits of the clay and wanted to use it everywhere but if it got dirty enough you should delegate it for use only on the wheels now. Get yourself another bar and cut it up Anyhow, lets see some pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 stewart... Love the pic of your 07!!! Looks great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Here are a few pics. They aren't very good pics but for being at night in the garage...not so bad.... It was hard to get good shots from under the car... The car has been driven for over 24 hours and it still looks this good. I used the new SUPER WET tire finish by NO TOUCH and as you can see it looks like I put it on 5 minutes ago not 30 hours ago. WOW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 #122 must be proud and looking sexy. No one here is going to call you crazy for polishing your pipes, but maybe for the sway bar My only concern here is that you used the clay for the under carriage. You probably started seeing the benefits of the clay and wanted to use it everywhere but if it got dirty enough you should delegate it for use only on the wheels now. Get yourself another bar and cut it up Anyhow, lets see some pics. Of course that clay would not be going from undercarriage to the paint! I have already broken the clay into several small peices. The peice I used for the undercarriage was completely black after using it and of course it was thrown in the garbage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stewartg Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Looking good, do you have a short throw shifter (sts) in there with your momo knob? Looks very low, but maybe I'm just used to the 3 foot rod on the 6mt. Here is some pics of my car we took last night: http://www.legacygt.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1223488&postcount=371 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2006Specb122 Posted June 18, 2007 Share Posted June 18, 2007 Yeah stew.... It's the cobb double adjustable STS...love it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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