Would you use a clay bar on a black car?

Yes. I use a Griots bar on my black 348, and it works great. No scratches, smooth as a babys butt.

Ask the NC crew how she shines !

 

I use clay on both of my black cars all the time. Mo scratches at all. Just use enough lube. ;-)

 

Same here. I have and do use clay on my Black BMW.

Dave

 

How does a clay bar work differert than a good paint cleaner? Paul

 

Paul, a clay bar picks up/removes surface contaminants, crap thats bonded to the paint. Polish won't be able to do that, at least not to the extent that a clay bar can.

And yes, I do use a clay bar on my black car. It makes the paint smooth as hell

 

since the repaint of 66427 I know I used griot's clay and griot's speed shine as lubricant every 3 to 6 months before re-waxing it. So you won't be scratching it up. You DO have to be careful to keep rotating and massaging the clay and use a LOT of speedshine for lubricant... small areas at a time. If you ever drop the clay on the ground - THROW IT OUT - you have a black car - you don't need that heartache. ;-)

-dq

 

The color of the car does not matter as long as you use it correctly.

Clay bars have been around a long time and originally used for your exact purpose, to safely remove overspray. Recently, they have become more popular to clean paint. Clay bars can remove oxides around the wheel wells which are caused by rail road track dust and other mico embeded particles. If you "feel" your paint and notice small "pimples" and not 100% smooth, then a clay bar is perfect.

If the paint is in good condition, you can use a clay bar in lieu of polish before waxing. This is a good idea, especially if you have single stage paint, which I believe your 328 is. If not sure, when you use polish and some of the black paint shows up on your rag, then it's single stage. Clay bars will clean the paint without removing any paint.

 

Little secret? Richard Griot just wants to sell SpeedShine. You can use a mist of water and a little sudsy carwash soap instead. The trick is to make sure there's no "drag" of clay against a dry car.


(Don't get me wrong. Speed Shine is a great product -- but it's not a magic elixir like Griot's would have you believe. Goodness, if we used Speed Shine for everything Griot's suggests, we'd probably marinate our steaks in it and use a little spritz instead of the flu shot. Maybe Congress could send Speed Shine to Iraq and with a tiny little mist, we'd wipe out the insurgency)

-Daniel

 

1 oz of dawn soap in a 12 oz spary bottle works very well. The dawn will also remove the old wax

 

Hmmm, good tip! I've always used a steady stream of water. Never thought to use the Dawn, but you're right, that would get the old wax off as a nice pre-wax surface prep.

Dave

 

Meguiars makes a paint cleaner that is suppose to take the place of a clay bar. The paint cleaner also does not remove paint. Anyone tried it and compared it to a clay bar? I've not used a caly bar. Paul

 

Interesting, as Meguiars also sells a "Quick Clay" or "Quick Detailer" package, with a "cleaning agent" and a fairly small lump of clay. I'll have to try it on small spots, as it wasn't much good on oxidized paint, back when I was cleaning up the Alfa.

 

I use Griots bar on my black GT4. You can actually feel, let alone see the difference it makes afterwards.

I echo Dave Quick's comments about using plenty of their Speedshine spray as the lube, since if you don't use enough, the clay drags on the paint and puts a deposit on it. Easy to remove with more 'Shine and the bar itself, but it is a nuisance, so best to use alot of the 'Shine in the first place to avoid that situation.

I find its a time-consuming process, but well, well worth it.

 

i highly reccomend griots clay. but like Daniel, I think that speed shine (and its meguair's counterpart Quick Detailer) are just water with some scent mixed in and are not worth the money.

ernie

 

Earlier thread

http://ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7403

Also, how does the clay bar taste?