May 09, 2008
Clay Barring Explained: Pinnaclewax
What does clay bar do?
A clay bar, when used with a clay lubricant will safely glide across the surface of your paint removing anything that protrudes from the surface. A clay bar can remove overspray, break-dust, rail-dust, and industrial pollution. A clay bar cannot remove scratches, swirls or etchings. Once all the containments are removed and the surface is silky smooth, the paint is now ready for polishing and waxing. Pinnacle’s ultra poly clay is a single finest clay composition available today. Ultra poly clay is a patented clay formula made exclusively for pinnacle natural brilliance. Ultra poly clay has an excellent elasticity and a soft, non-abrascent texture. It’s safe on any type of paint finish, glass, fiber-glass, and metal.
The first thing you need to do is to mold the clay. Mold the clay by squeezing it into your hand. Once it becomes pliable, roll into a ball and flatten it into a disk shape. Start by saturating both the clay bar and area to be clayed, with pinnacle clay lubricant. Glide the clay over the wet area of the paint using little, to no pressure. As the clay goes over the paint you’ll feel and hear the clay picking up the contaminants. Keep going over the area until the clay glides easily and you no longer feel or hear contaminant from the paint. Remove clay lubricant with a cobra micro-fiber towel.
The things you don’t wanna do with a clay bar is push too hard into the paint because it will scratch if you apply too much pressure. Also, always make sure that you have enough lubricant, if you don’t they’ll stick and you’ll get clay residue that could marrow the paint. When working on the horizontal surfaces be careful not to drop your clay bar. You don’t want to use a clay bar that has been dropped because it can pick up containments that can potentially scratch your paint’s finish. When the clay becomes dirty pull it upon itself and knead it until a clean surface appears. Also, check the clay periodically to make sure that you didn’t pick up any large containments that might scratch the paint. Discard the clay bar when you can no longer knead it into a clean surface.
A great tool for cleaning is the Polishin’ Pal with the Clay Disc adaptor. The clay disc adaptor has a smooth side, and a velcro side. Attach the velcro side to the Polishin’ Pal and the molded clay bar to the smooth side.
Now you have a handle for your clay. This will keep your hand dry and prevent the clay from accidently slipping out of your hand during use. Use the same cleaning technique when using the Polishin’ Pal.
Spray some lubricant on the clay and on the surface. Again, use no pressure in clay until you can not hear or feel any more contaminants getting picked up. Wipe the residue off with a cobra microfiber towel and move on to the next section.
Clay barring is an excellent way to safely remove impurities, haze and oxidation from your vehicles paint surface. If you do not have time or are not interested in trying this yourself, please bring your vehicle to VehicleSpa and our detail professionals would be happy to help you.
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