I bought a new 07 berlina this past fall and used Zaino clay. It was a little chilly out. I believe I had the same problem you had. Try warming the clay up with your hands and work it really good.

 

X2

Allot of lube, and no pressure at all, just glide over the surface

 

yes clay can mar paint. what clay bar are you using?

and like others have said the more clay lube the better.

a good idea is to cut the clay bar up in 2 or 3 or even 4 pieces and then throw them out as you use them.

I would say on average 2 cars at most per clay bar.

Always check the clay bar out as well and make sure you keep on folding it till its the clean again before putting it back on the panel.

 

hmm... it must have been because the clay was slightly cold...

I was claying fresh paint because I wanted to make sure everything was off it before i put zaino on. I will have to re-try with little pressure and a lot of lube after the clay is warm.

I have only clayed my car once with this bar this past summer, so i'm sure it hasn't been used too much. it's been stored in it's container ever since.

so will more claybar application with light pressure/lots of lube and warm clay get rid of the marring? Or will i have to deal with that later on while polishing?

 

how fresh is the paint? its possible that it might not have completely cured!

and you cannot get rid of the marring by claying again, you will have to polish it out.

 

Paint was new around the beginning to middle of December maybe... around there anyway.

SO, i've spent some quality time with my car over the past couple of days. Over the weekend, I washed the car with dawn... then used some old mcguires car wash really strong with water and clayed the car again. Keep in mind that is was below freezing outside, and maybe 12-15* above in my garage. This made it tough, because the clay would get cold again very quickly, as would the water. Anyways, I warmed the clay in the clean water while kneeding it with my hands. perfect. So I clayed with TONS of soapy water between the paint and the clay this time, but i didn't much below the door handles this timebecause there was zero point.

after the clay the car looked fine.

I then washed the entire car with zaino car wash and dried it with some brand new microfibre towels.

Then I proceeded with a a coat of Z2 w/ Zfx. So far so good! Let it dry overnight and then rubbed it off with another new towel. Wow, looks good...

I wasn't done yet though, so...

the next day, I put a layer of Z5 on there to fill in some of the very light scratches that the body shop left after doing me a favor by washing my car before pick-up.... thanks....
So I then buffed that off as well with another towel (turning the towel very frequently and avoiding the edges of the towel against the paint). After the buff, it looked pretty darn good. However, I still was not pleased becauseI could see a couple swirls still (but fainter this time).

Ok... So I did another coat of Z5 last night and it's drying right now
I hope it's 100% perfect after I buff it off tonight.

Following the buff off, I will re-apply a last (for a few months) coat of Z2 because it has better optical clarity and most likely buff it off tomorrow night

Oh yea... the marring from the initial claybar disaster disappeared after the first coat of Z5. Keep in mind that I have completed all of this by hand without a PC. I just feel a stronger connection with the car when i'm using my own two hands. I find myself seeing imperfections much more while doing polishing and washing etc by hand.

I will however be getting one shortly from our sponsor, but i'm sure it will be tough to make my car look better than it already does now

thanks for you help everyone who contributed to my previous questions. I'll post up some pictures when the project is finished.

PS, I also put some Z5 on my PRM intake and it looks new now

 

on second thought... it might be possibly that my claybar left the small swirls/scratches in the clearcoat and not the body shop, but it's so much easier to blame them than myself

oh well, gone now doesn't matter.