and I almost had an orgasm when I ran my hand over it afterward. Mmmmmmm......that is totally sexy!!

Here. After I drove for 5 minutes to take photos, it already has a layer of pollen. (Oh, shit I didn't notice that trash can behind the car!!)

 

looks beautiful! very nice!

how old is your car that you had to clay it?

 

I clay mine for the **** of it. Done it twice in 3 months. Your car looks beautifully soft, Juliane

 

After those pictures I nominate you for cleanest BBP Fit on this site! That's how they should look. Nice job. Did you find a lot of gunk in the clay?

 

that looks the business !

 

Your car looks so great. I've got to do that job too but I've been waiting for a cooler weekend. Mine definitely
needs claying because it feels rough to the touch even after washing.

Cat:X

 

No need for it to be old. If the finish doesn't feel smooth as glass then it could stand to be clayed.

 

Even brand new cars need to be clayed, specifically the ones that sit at the dealership a long time before being sold. Lucky for the Fits, many don't even make it to the dealership before being sold.

What kind of clay kit did you buy Juliane?

 

Call me stupid... Claying a car??? I know its been awhile since I owned a car that deserved detailing but....

 

i need to clay bar my fit badly. actually a full detail. wash, clay bar, polish, and wax.

 

I've had it 3 weeks now but we just went through a hurricane and it was under a carport, plus it was shipped to me from Missouri (I'm in TX) and it was filthy from that.

 

I got the Meguiars (how do you say that anyway??? Meg-wires?) - it was the only one sold at O'Reilly's. I also bought the Gold wax, even though there was a little wax bottle in the kit. I used about 3/4 of the spray bottle of the detailer! It says it's enough to do 6-7 cars, I guess I oversprayed...

I put the wax on with a MF cloth...I didn't like the round applicator sponge. I didn't think the wax was hard to apply or remove. I just haven't done the job for many years. But I had time today, nothing much to do. Well worth it!

The interior still needs a good vacuuming, though. Tomorrow. Gotta feed the teenagers now.

 

Yep, it was nasty! Brown gunk, quite a lot of it. That stuff is magic. I want to meet the person who invented it. It's not that much work since the Fit is a smallish car, and BOY does it make a difference. The car's surface feels like silk. Touching it is a turn-on.

 

Yeah, I'd never heard of it either, but it's just a little bar of white clay that you knead up and rub over your car, with the aid of some detailer spray, and it picks up all the crap that's embedded into your clear-coat. It strips off the wax that's on the car, so you have to wax it afterward, but if you've ever run your hand over a car at an auto-show or other display, it's probably been clayed. It takes all the crap out and there's no drag - there are threads that tell you how to do it.

The kit costs about $20 and will pay for itself with one application. Nothing sticks.

 

thats good you did and it came out great. i didn't realize you had some scratches and whatnot. two threads? lol clay does the trick!

i've had my car like 3 months and i've probably waxed it about 15 times. nothing sticks to my car!

I only use the last step wax which is a finish pure wax since its a new car. brand new paint doesn't need all of the abrasive cleaners mixed in with the wax.

props to your car again! lookin sharp!

 

Sooo nice and shiny!
Looks brand new.

 

Yeah, my car belonged to some other lady in St. Louis for a month, and I don't know what happened to the roof...There are imperfections and I can't tell what they are...Gonna need a consult from someone. Then, I must have scratched the hood a little either last time I washed it or just this afternoon...It's so easy to do that!

What is the "last step wax?" is that a brand name? I used the Gold Class Meguiar's liquid which worked really well. But I am always up for new products!

 

ah i'm so glad i don't have a dark colored car, my dad has a black truck and oh does it look so bad, its so hard to keep looking clean

I meant last step as in last step in paint care. Depending on the age of the paint and what it has been though you can go through a full process of first cleaning the paint using a clay bar and then using a cleaner wax which has some abrasives in it like the clay, then polish, then finally use a few coats of pure wax without the cleaners in it to really increase the depth, color and wetness of the paint. When I got my car it was fresh off the truck, just built. So the only thing I've been doing is applying carnauba wax.

water beads on my paint like this:


here's a pretty nice write up:
Car Care Advice - Protect - How to choose and apply wax or sealant protection

during the winter i am going to switch over to a full synthetic sealer to protect it from the road salt and other crap on the road from the snow. lucky that you're in texas!


edit... oh wow i just read through more of that website i linked to, there is a lot of good reading on cleaning your car including dealing with scratches and swirls, definitely check that out

 

wow... sexy. what about that 3m swirl mark remover stuff? It works too but I heard it takes away some clear coat?

 

I'll take a look and bookmark that, thanks!

Another question - is it OK to dust off my car with a dry MF cloth? Of course the ragweed and other stuff is blooming right now so my car already has a nice coating of pollen...I don't want to keep rinsing it or using the detailing spray (since I already used up 3/4 of the bottle!).

And, can you buy the clay by itself? O'Reilly's didn't have anything but the kit, and you only get 2 bars with that.