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Claying your car paint, it's worth it

ruwfo

CEG'er
Joined
Nov 23, 2021
Messages
85
Location
07419
I recently bought a 2nd SVT, 99, 1 owner, that had been sitting since Covid started, so almost 2 years just sitting in 1 spot :mad:. Need less to say there was
a ton of weathering everywhere, but lucky the owner did take great care of it, before this pandemic hit . The thing i've learned from watching the AMMO
detailing video's on You tube , is go slowly & the dirt will all come off in layers, so to speak.

Took her to, a do it yourself quarter car wash, near the house, & slowly hosed off the major crap off, alot of hand washing, and $19.00 later she looked
like a car again.
Paint looked way better, but even after compounding, i wasn't happy with the feel of the paint, it had a gritty feel to it. So i tried a paint Claying kit
from Mequiars. It's contained: 3 clay bars, a bottle of Quick Detailer & a microfiber towel.
Easy to use, followed the instructions, which mainly says need the clay flat, spray on the Quick detailer, in small areas, & lightly rub the bar, like your
using a sponge. Keep where ever your using the bar wet, and then wipe it down with the towel from the kit. It took about 30 minutes, being careful
not to drop the bar on the ground, while doing the car.
All i can say is WOW, as you can see, the bar went from pure white, to a ton brown crap all over it. All the grittiness is gone & the paint even looks better. I did the headlights too & i'd say it got rid of most of the cloudiness there too.

So (y) to Mequiars for making the simple kit, which i'd say you could do 3 cars with.
 

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Looks amazing. Don't know about the blay bar deal. I hear it is awesome.

I have learned so much watching Tik Tok on detailing. I have bumped up my game cleaning-wise. Mine sat from 2014 to 2019 and it was under a cover and never looked that bad. That 1999 and on were really cool. I much preferred the wheels on them. And was constantly changing wheels to get the look of that year. I settled on the ASA JS-5s. But then the 99's came out and the wheels looked killer!
 
My 98.5 has the same wheels as the 99-00, so they must have been a mid year update
 
Nice work. After a good wash a good clay is very important BEFORE polishing. Otherwise you are just grinding contaminants into the clear coat while cut polishing, which will eventually come back. Also, claying the paintwork is lightly abrasive and will cause light visible scratching/spider webbing, so don’t expect it to be a one stage fix. This is also a great time to wetsand any imperfections, like dust nibs in the paint, scratches and scuffs. If you can hook your fingernail on the scratch, it will generally be too deep to sand out completely. You can use 1000 to 3000 grit sandpaper to safely sand the clear coat. Once clayed and or sanded, you are ready for a cutting compound to use with a rotary buffer to aggressively cut out imperfections and scratching. This stage of polishing will generally cause severe hologramming or buffer streaks, very noticeable on dark colours. I then recommend to change to a dual action buffer for your second and final polishing stages. Your second stage of polishing should remove the swirling, hologramming and imperfections left by the aggressive cut. After the second stage you can move onto a finishing polish, or perhaps upgrade to a ceramic coating, after the surface has been properly cleaned. You will spend a good half day to a full day doing a very thorough paint correction and polish job and your arms will feel like jello.

I clayed my SVT this year and just gave it a quick single stage polish. My paint is rough, including defects like crows feet cracking which can only be repaired by repainting the affected panels. In the spring I’ll be giving it a much more intensive paint correction.
 
I've been lucky, with this SVT, the paint is in great shape even above the fact thats it`s original. I only clayed it, because it sat un moved for way too long & the finish felt gritty. My 98.5 had some issues with the clear coat on the deck lid, which is fairly common on late 90's Fords, but this one has none.
 
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