I used my meguires clay bar and detailing spray today. What a difference this made to the paint. After washing it, the lower front wings were rough to the touch. After a couple of strokes with the clay, they were glass smooth. Stubborn tar marks required some Zymol HD-Cleanse to shift (I followed up the clay with a Zymol clean and wax), but the wax keyed onto the paint like never before.
Highly recommended. See www.speeding.co.uk for supplies.

 

It certainly does make the paintwork smooth.

BUT! A word of warning. After I clayed mine (also using the Meguiars kit), I ended up with clay streaks all along the paintwork. I assumed that these would come off after buffing and polishing, and then rinising and re-buffing. But they didn't......

I suspect that where I went wrong was not using enough detailing spray. Don't make the same mistake as me!!

EDIT: It may be time for another HD Cleanse, to see whether that will remove the streaking.

 

It was quite cool up here today, so the detail spray and clay "mix" did not get a chance to dry before I buffed it off. Did you clay yours in the summer maybe ?. The HD-cleanse and wax left a brilliant and streak free finish as usual...

 

No, I only did it a few weeks back - quite cool back then too

Ah well. I think I'll get Master Tif to cast his expert eye over it at the Midlands Meet on Saturday and use his wax-jedi powers to diagnose the problem and prescribe a solution!

 

I am hoping that the weather is warm on friday so i can give my lady the full monty just before the meet.

The question is will i be able to withstand her seductivness and not go out for a spin, meaning a quick rinse at 8 in the morning again

 

Mark:

I used the clay bar on my golf for a few months, and I noticed the same effect you describe the first time. I think that trick it to make sure that the clay bar doesn't "thin out" too much: i.e. you need to fold it over regularly and reshape the clay into a thick block.

Also, as you mentioned, make sure to use lots of the spray, otherwise small streaks of solid clay seem to tear away from the main block, which is what I think causes the problem.

Works for me anyway... and for the results it gets it is certainly worth giving another chance.

As for getting the streaks off... mine just faded after weeks and weeks of washing and waxing: nothing else seemed to shift them!

 

Oliver, that's really helpful - thanks! I'm glad I haven't got to put up with the zebra shadow stripe for good! The clay did thin out, as you describe. That'll teach me to be a tight-wad and try to make it go further than it was intended to!

I certainly intended to try it again in any event - I'll just need to be more careful. The results are definitely worth the effort - smooth glasslike paintwork almost like showroom-new (other than all the little chips and nicks 10 months and 14,500 miles of hard driving have resulted on )

 

OOPs forgot to tell you how to remove the streaks.

You can either gently rub it with your finger nail and that seems to do the job most the time, if its really stubborn then the Zymol cleaner wax from halfords removed all my streaks form the micra when i gave it the works. Plus the car smells really nice afterwards

Hope that helps.

 

Cheers Simmo

And as for your wash/drive/early Saturday rise dilemma, spare a thought for Noony and me - we've got the Academy Day on the day before the meet!

The only blessing from my point of view is that the meet is only 15 mins down the road from Turner Towers, so plenty of time for a bit of a wash and brush up for the old girl before trundling along for lunch.......

 

Judging form previous photos it think you should get up at the crack of dawn, wake up the neigbours to the sound of some music and a Mr T on his hands and knees scrubbing alloys with a tooth brush and polishing like mad.