Lost my Clay Bar virginity last night!

[Rich]

Also what about cars which have the paint covered by a laquer, My sunbeam is painted and laquered (its 23 years old so looking a little dull and needs so attention), so how do I go about polishing/waxing that. surely the laquer protects the paint do any cutting will have no effect on shine??

Cheers guys

Chances are its the laquer that is oxidised and dulled. Polishing will sort this out. If the paint has faded under the laquer then nothing but a repaint will sort it.

Where as on single stage paint things could be corrected by polishing, on modern day clearcoats you can only work with that. The clear coat should give UV protection to prevent the base coat fading anyway.

Clearcoats are easier to mauntain than single stage paints, where with single stage finishes you had to be carefull not to go through the paint to the primer on clearcoat finishes you need to make sure you dont go through the clear into base coat.

 

[Rich]

So what would you recomend then for a good finish and some protected paint work, I use my car as my everyday run around its not a showcar but I like it to look smart, And dont mind spending a bit of time doing a real good job on it every now and then, I clean often and it usually takes a good couple of hours, but 500+ miles a week it gets dirty very quickly.

I was thinking a good wash, followed by going over it with a clay bar, but then what polish/wax/sealant etc would you recommend, Bearing in mind I will do it by hand rather than forking out for a PC, Im looking for the sort of treatment that I can do twice a year to offer my paint work some protection from the sh*t on our roads

Ta

For a car doing that mileage and living outside that you want to look good but be well protected like Loony say a good polymer sealant is the way.

Autoglym Super Resin Polsih and Extra Gloss Protection sealant is holding up on my daily driver still - applied in October.

Other good alternatives are Klasse AIO or Carlack 68, and there equilivent SG Sealant

To enhance looks more you can top with a good Pure Carnuba Wax.

 

[CrazyK]

Ok cheers guys,

The sunbeam is going for a respray next winter, so its not all bad but still wanted it to look as good as possible for the summer, Im guessing that a similar routine (i.e wash, clay and polish) should bring it up looking good for the summer.

 

[hydeyho]

Has not got the power to remove swirls like a PC has. Ideal for applying and removing wax and thats about it. It wont correct paint defects and the battery life is said to be poo.

Cheers for clearing that up, may look at getting a PC in the summer

 

[M1TCH]

I tried this stuff the other day, clay bar that is.. didn't think it was doing much till i looked at the bar and saw how brown it was and spec of dirt on it, then realised if you rubbed over something a few times, anything that was on there came off easy.

Only did a few panels to see what it was like and used quite a bit of QD so think ill try the soapy water next time.

I also did what I think rjay said and only used a bit about 10x50mm and that was plenty enough to work with.

Great stuff