Waxing After Clay Bar
 

I bought a Mother's Clay Bar kit with the lubricant. Do I need to wash the panel between clay bar with lubricant and waxing or can I just go right to wax? The box doesn't say you need to wash it but I don't want to wax over something I shouldn't.

Wash, clay, wash again, dry, wax. The clay lube is a waste of money, just use soapy water.

If I could get my black to look a third as good as your grey, I'd be happy:thumb:

You can, just takes time. When I do my spring and fall detail, I spend about 8 hours on the truck. That covers interior and exterior. This is all by hand, no electric buffers or anything like that.

Good ole Elbow grease has always served me well, too bad the elbow is getting old

Personally I only use Meguiars products, just my personal preference. Also never use the same sponge on the body and wheels. Good way to scratch your paint with all the crap from the wheels. I don't use fancy sponges and I only use them 2-3 times before throwing them away. Old sponge can hold dirty which will act like sandpaper on your paint. Cheap peace of mine using a new sponge as far as i'm concerned.

Wax
https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-Mirr...+26+yellow+wax

Clay
https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-Smoo...70_&dpSrc=srch

Soap
https://www.amazon.com/Meguiars-G710...70_&dpSrc=srch

I do have a black vehicle purchased it in nov 1995 . it is a 1996 chev Impala SS..

the paint is in great condition as I use micro fiber washing/waxing cloths no sponges.. also I put on the water hose a water filter .

perhaps every 2 years I will use final finish polish with a black foam pad on a variable speed buffer @700 RPM slow speed and very lightly float over the surface .. I spray water with a spray bottle on the polish if it dries as I polish the surface .. then wipe down with the micro fiber cloths .. when the cloth gets dirty need another cloth and wash them properly so they do the job...

on the car washing using Meguiars gold soap .. then if needed I use a clear synthetic protection ..

when I wash it the mit floats over the surface like on glass and the dirty comes off easy no rubbing ..

perhaps I will post the picture of my 22yr old black ride..
The problem I do have since my black paint is still so good , those damn Turkeys will at times peck on my car since they see themselves since it is like a mirror ..

so this is my 23 year old Impala SS

Thanks, that's kind of what I thought. How much soap in a quart spray bottle of water?

I just use my car wash bucket and dip the clay whenever I need it. I don't spray the paint with the soapy water or anything like that.

I recently tried one of the iron removing sprays, Iron X but there are several other brands. The stuff smells really bad but it’s amazing how well it works when followed by clay, polish, and sealant.

For such a large vehicle, I cannot recommend anything else but one of these effortless “spray and rinse off” sealants.
Will last as long (probably longer) as most hard waxes, but with 90% less effort in overall application time.

https://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...carpro-12.html

There's nothing as good as a high quality paste wax. Your truck do what you want but the spray on stuff is not going to cut it. With that said, using the spray on stuff does work well as a "touch up" between actual clay and wax jobs. Also, waxing without claying first is pointless, you will never get the same results without first properly cleaning the paint.

I'm not a hardcore detail junkie but I bought a clay bar kit and I was amazed at what "cleaned paint" felt like.

After a coat of wax it felt like show room new... pretty impressive for 14 year old paint.

It was quite labor intensive tho... to be honest I probably won't do it again myself, but the results are pretty nice.

While I don't like what it cost to get it detailed either, at least now I understand what type of work goes into it. Makes it easier to justify if I ever wanted to get it done again.

Honestly I wouldn't detail a car for what most shops charge. I believe it's in the $200 range and done right takes about 8 hours plus all the materials used. Not sure how they make money after shop costs, employee costs, material costs.

Sorry, but no that's not true (for 99% of those reading this), what paste wax do you use?

Unless you're using Collinite or a handful of "online only" specialty paste waxes that are durable, you're maybe getting 30-60 days of real protection.
Please don't say nu-finish or anything that you can get from a local walmart/advanced auto.

If you go through the effort of paste wax, just understand that there are sealants and semi-permanent sealants that take less time to apply (not including the spray and rinse coatings) which will last 6-24 months depending on your local weather conditions.

As you said, your truck, do what makes you happy. A 4runner will probably take you just over 30 minutes start to finish with a paste wax (if you are quick) that will last, optimistically, 90 days. A sealant like collinite/Mckee's will be marginally quicker to apply but last you 6-24 months. A spray and rinse sealant will take you 2 additional minutes to incorporate into a regular car wash and last you 90 days. I clay with a clay sponge which is marginally quicker than regular clay too.

This is all assuming you wash properly, and are able to avoid wash-induced swirls and marring. If you have a brand new truck and want ot keep it that way, your #1 priority is to avoid touching the paint as much as possible. The old ways of paste waxes that need buffing, bead water instead of sheeting would be a point of contact that I would recommend skipping to put off the need to machine polish the paint. (if that is your goal)