I’ve used clay on my cars for a number of years now, and I think it’s
fantastic. Rather than causing additional wear to the paint, the process can
clean the surface with much less trauma than any other method, I believe.
I’d also disagree that it is labor intensive. My claying usually takes about
fifteen minutes. You start with a freshly-washed car. Typically I’ll do
about half the hood or half the top at a time. The secret is never to let it
dry out - keep spraying the lubricating fluid. Then you can knead the clay
after finishing that one section.
I tried the clay method first on my significant other’s car, a five-year-old
Chrysler product with very good paint (always garaged). Although it looked
great, the finish felt like fine sandpaper when you’d rub your hand over it.
I tried polishing compound (now that’s labor intensive!), but the result,
even with a power buffer, was spotty and incomplete. One pass with the clay,
though, had the paint feeling smooth as glass. Most surprising, it took
almost no pressure - just a thorough once-over removed all of the grit that
had been stuck to the paint.
The clay is gentle enough that I use it as a preliminary every time I wax
any of my cars. The stuff I use is from Griot’s Garage, but I suspect all
brands are the same thing.
By the way, if you missed the Franklin, TN meet this weekend, you missed a
great one. Over two hundred of the prettiest Jags you’ll ever see at one
time, including a bunch of C- and D-types and a couple of XKSS’s. There must
have been two dozen examples of the XK-120, 140 and 150. There were even a
couple of pristine examples of the XJ40, including an 89 that looked
showroom new.
Bob McKeown
Nashville, TN