| Author |
Message |
Peter Polasek (Peterp)
Junior Member
Username: Peterp
Post Number: 61
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 04, 2003 - 8:45 pm: | |
I haven't tried Liquitech products, but am very familiar with the clay bar. I recommend clay because it nothing short of amazing at pulling contaminents out of the paint. Cleaners can polish out the surface, but they tend to mostly hit the high points of imperfections where the clay will pull it out of the paint. If you feel any hint of roughness in the paint, clay will remove it without being abrassive. You won't believe what a clay bar can do until you try it. A friend of mine parks his car at a construction site daily and his paint was embedded with grit -- polish would not remove this but the clay pulled it out without any effort. Clay doesn't replace the cleaner, you still need the cleaner, but it prepares the surface for cleaning. It is much easier to clean and polish the paint once you've clayed it.
If you do use the clay, I think it BEFORE the surface prep because my experience is that clay works just as well on waxed or sealed surfaces. Additionally, and more importantly, clay has it's own polish that is required as a lubricant and given that the Liquitech cleaner is meant to prepare the surface for their polish, it probably isn't a good idea to use the clay polish in between. I used Mothers clay bar ($18.95 at Pep Boys) and was (in case you couldn't tell) very happy with it.
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Mike Charness (Mcharness)
Member
Username: Mcharness
Post Number: 280
Registered: 8-2002
| | Posted on Monday, March 03, 2003 - 9:44 am: | |
I don't think you'll find clay is necessary after using Finish Prep. The prep is a very mild polish and will take off any surface contaminants. Just make sure you keep using fresh areas of your cloth (I like all cotton toweling, but make sure the sewing threading is also cotton). You'll likely only use the Prep stuff once for the entire life of your car if you continue to use Finish First polymer layering. I have been very happy with it and have used it for more than 5 years now, and have compared it to Liquid Glass, Zaino, Zymol, Ibiz and other high quality waxes. If you're used to regular waxes, I *know* you'll really love how easy this stuff goes on and off, especially off, even if you've left it on there for a couple of days (try THAT with wax -- ouch).
I'm supposed to get a kit of the CrystalGuard stuff they've been talking about here, and I will review it for my detailing column coming up in the FCA News Bulletin. If you'd like to see past columns, go to www.fca-se.com and click on "Concours Tips"
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philip (Fanatic1)
New member
Username: Fanatic1
Post Number: 17
Registered: 2-2003
| | Posted on Monday, March 03, 2003 - 8:47 am: | |
I'm going to use the Liquitech for the first time this weekend...I've read all of the instructions and plan on using their Finish Prep Pre Cleaner before appling the Liquitech Polish....I know that the prep work is the most important part before polishing and I'm wondering if anyone has any good hints....I've thought about also using a clay to clean the paint after the Finish Prep, but before the polish and I was wondering if anyone had any good ideas or hints to make the final product turn out better.....ideas???
I won't be using a buffer, I'll be doing it by hand, and the only real instructions I have are the onces that came with the Liquitech package. |
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