I figured a lot of you guys would be doing clay thing for the first time, and just having done it my first time I'd share my experiences. Maybe it will help someone who hasn't started yet, and maybe some of the experienced members could offer some advice. I've read just about any previous threads on this subject, and I don't think I'm repeating anything here.

DAY 1

I clayed my Z first as late in the day as I could to avoid the 87 degree weather. I'd guess it was 75 at the time. I used the Mother's clay kit, along with the included spray for lubrication. I kept the area I was working on wet with the included "Showtime" liquid spray and kept spraying with water every minute or so to wash it down. But there was a problem later on: the spray was drying and leaving behind a visible film that was really stuck on. By the time I noticed this stuff was so well-attached, there was no light left, so I shut down for the night.

DAY 2

The best way to get it off was to practically clay the car a second time, and it still wasn't easy at all. But this time, I just kept the hose on it 100% of the time and washed off every bit of whatever it was before it had any chance to dry. The cold water was really necessary to keep the clay cool enough on this even hotter day, and to totally clear off any traces of whatever film I was scraping off.

That method worked perfectly for the Z, then my 00 Eclipse, which it really improved a lot. The paint looks like it's new in fact.

But I had a second problem, on the Eclipse this time. At some point, even though I was as careful as could be, the clay must have picked up a tiny grain somwhere, because the hood and roof have a few micro scratches much like a bad bufferer might cause. Wax covers it, but still, there is damage, and I don't know how I could have avoided it. It must have been from something the clay had picked up on that car.

CLAY FAMILY TREE (A.K.A. CLAY-SEXUAL REPRODUCTION)

I used the fresh clay bar on the Z first, and split off a small chunk to use for the area around the wheels and ground. I threw away that bad chunk. Then when I was done on day 1, I split the good chunk in half, one for the Z and one for the Eclipse. Now I'm throwing them all away to be safe. From now on, I'd rather spend the money for a new bar than take any risk.

I think these companies should include a little more clay in the box than they do, like maybe five or ten times as much! And I think we should tell them so. I sure am. My guess is that, right now, they know they don't need to, because there isn't a lot of competition.

WAX

Then I waxed both cars, of course. I was going to use Blackfire, but I couldn't find any. I picked up a can of Mother's Reflections, which is their brand of syntetic wax. I'm very happy with their stuff so far.

DAY 3

Even after several showers, I still smell like a bad science experiement. My brain says to apply another coat today, but my arms say no.

 

Nice post, it should help out everyone. I had a question though. When you were claying did you spray - clay - then just move to another part? OR did you spray - clay - light spray - buff? I have always treated it as if I was just using the lube as a quick detail and followed up with a buff.

EDIT: I shouldn't say it was a buff, but more of a wipe down to make sure that no spray or clay was left on the paint.

 

At first, I washed the area with water, sprayed the spray, used the clay for maybe 30 seconds to 2 minutes on average (I'm just gussing here because I wasn't timing myself), then sprayed it off. It really looked to me like everything was perfectly fine while wet. The problem was that the leftover spray must have still had time to sort of stick on because of the hot weather, even though it looked mostly wet. Then when I went over it with a chamois, it would barely come off even with way too much pressure, which is why I used the clay a second time. Man, the Z looked bad the next day, with all that crap on it.

Then, when I did it under running water, there was no such problem, luckily, even when the weather was 90+ degrees. The continuous stream of water was cold though, and that made the temperature of the surface and clay maybe around 65 degrees.

And I would have done it in the shade, but I didn't have any! Anyway, it looks beautiful now. And I got quite a workout.