claying

**rp1821** · 07-13-2003, 11:19 PM

Lets say you are about to detail a car that has fair amount of contaminations on the paint, even after a good washing. I know the normal process is to use a cleaner after you clay, but does it make sense to do a quick coat of cleaner before you clay. I just think this would... 1. save on the bar (not for other cars, but so you dont use more than one bar for a single car) and 2. so you don`t rub all that stuff into the paint you could have removed with some cleaner making more marks which you will be slaving to remove later.

Just another un-related question... I polish after I use a SMR. Why when I read about other peoples processes do they use a polish before and after SMR. Just wondering what purpose the polish servers before using the SMR. This is all with a PC by the way. Thanks

**Tassadar** · 07-13-2003, 11:32 PM

Lets see where to start...

1. Yes, some people are advocates of compounding/polishing the car first, then going over the necessary areas with a clay bar. Some people like to just go straight to the clay bar to comfort themselves that they did it. Its just a matter of rpeference.

2. SMRs are basically polishes. Its just a level of abrasiveness. Its best to work from your most abrasive product, to your least abrasive. The reason being is that highly abrasive compounds can leave small swirl marks when they are removing the big imperfections. You obviously want to get rid of these. So you use something less abrasive to get a mroe desirable affect.

Hope I am of some help.

**rp1821** · 07-14-2003, 08:47 AM

Tassadar, I understand the process of polishing in order to remove hazing created by compounding or heavy polishing... This is way I didn`t understand why somone would use a pure non-abrasive polish before using a SMR. Maybe it`s just me, but when I don`t "get" something, it bugs me.