Great thread. Subscribing.

wow! excellent information! the guy at the glass shop acted like i simply had no other options other than replacing (duh). thanks so much dan for all the posts, too..i've gotten the distince feeling that 'detailing' and 'detail' are operative buzzwords around your house.. ;) not that you're ocd or anything like that..not that there's anything wrong with that.. :)

I was told to pull off a piece, knead it to the size of a silver dollar, use that on the entire car and then throw it away. Knead it as you go to distribute the contaminants to the inside.

If you need a lighter cleaning try Barkeeper's Friend.

http://www.the5and10.com/images/PC151463-TH.jpg

It looks like Comet but it's not as abrasive, it works great for cleaning grime off the windows but it won't take out pits.

I have a million pits (sandblasted), that's a killer when driving into the sun. I am going to try the clay, but the cerium oxide sounds like it might be a back-up if they clay won't get all the pits out. I am willing to trade some sweat to save money and hassle of replacing the windshield.

I found this cerium oxide polishing kit on the J.C. Whitney site. I just ordered one and will post the results.

http://www.jcwhitney.com/autoparts/ItemBrowse/c-10101/s-10101/p-100000163373/mediaCode-ZX/appId-5000002000756/Pr-p_CATENTRY_ID:1000001633735000002000756

porschepilot..i'm anxious to hear your results. sounds like 'your windshield and my windshield need to go bowling together'..lol. mine's the 'pits', too. but i will try the clay bar i have this weekend i think. i was quoted $750 for a new windshield...uhh..no.

mine's bad enough that i'd gladly pay a pro to do a high-quality job, but my glass shop (safelite) acted like there was no other option. fockers..

I haven't read every post, but has anyone tried driving into the direction of the sun after clay bar'ing their windsheild. It goes to reason that the pits are permanant, and doing the clay bar thing is just pulling dirt off the glass. So the pits are still there. Maybe it helps a bit since the dirt isn't in the pits to reflect the light.

Don't do that. That's a complete waste. Only do that if you're a Concours competitor. I'm pretty anal about my cars and I wouldn't THINK of doing that. An ordinary clay bar in my hands (and I wash my car/truck every week, I wax at least one panel every time I wash it) will last for many uses. If you are the typical, "I-wash-my-wash-my-car-as-infrequently-as-possible" kind of guy, it isn't going to last long because frankly, there's going to be a lot of crap on your car...which is going to get into the clay bar.

I really think you're all overthinking the claying process. Get in the shade, do a good wash on your car, turn on the tunes and get a cool, um..er..."beverage" and it'll be done before you know it. I'm doing it tomorrow but I'm trying out my new-to-me foam pads on my Porter Cable random orbital on my Ram. Now, if there were only baseball on the radio tomorrow I'd be in heaven.

I agree. It's a very easy, hard to mess up, procedure. Anyone who hasn't done it will "get it" on the first panel. The thing about clay bar is it is VERY easy to tell what is happening once you are doing it - the explanation might sound non-trivial, but it is really a very intuitive thing when you are sliding the bar on the paint.

I found this interesting article about clay barring, but somewhere around the middle I forgot what I was reading about....

http://www.autopia-carcare.com/inf-clay.html

Hahah! Yeah, I can see that.

Did it have anything to do with her?
http://guidetodetailing.com/article_images/clay4.jpg

Get distracted by something Steve :)

Good grief...I didn't even read the article


"Here, Holly demonstrates how she rolls her detailing clay into a ball before flattening it into a wafer. Rolling the clay also softens it so it can be easily molded."
http://guidetodetailing.com/article_images/clay1.jpg

Clay Bar porn?

How much for the Women?

Why is it my mind keeps seeing something very similar to that blue ball of clay in beteen her palms but its flesh colored:eek: :D

I tried out the claybar yesterday on the hood of my '74 Porsche 911 and I was blown away! The paint was pretty weathered and had alot of bumps and rough spots and after I applied the claybar, followed by a coat of Klasse sealer, the surface of the paint feels like glass. Simply amazing! I'll do the rest of the car this week if the weather cooperates. My Porsche is in the garage, but I don't like to work on the car if it's cold and damp, so I'm hoping the warmer spring weather is here for good!

art, did the paint have orange peel? what sort of bumps and rough spots. i have one of these and never even opened it, but the respray of my hood isn't as good as the rest of the car and i'm tempted to try. how again did you use it?

AFAIK, nothing will correct orange peel. The bumps he's probably talking about are little nicks - almost like tiny peices of sand stuck in the paint. When you rub your hand over the paint, it just feels kind of rough.

After clay-barring, it feels very smooth and slick.

BTW, it is a VERY easy process. After cleaning, just spray on a little of the lubricant, then slide the clay bar over that area in a forward and back motion - no force is needed. Keep doing that in little 6-8 inch or so squares.

The first 5 minutes and you'll get it. Once you start you'll see that it is a very intuitive process. You can feel the areas you need to do with the clay and how you need to slide it. In 10 minutes you'll feel how effortless sliding it is - and if it gives you any friction at all, you know you need to add more lubricant.

Ryan,
My paint isn't very good (it's a 10-footer) but the problem was rough texture and debris in the paint from my trip to FL last month. I wetted the surface of the hood with the lubricant spray, then rubbed the clay in a back-and-forth manner. I dried it with a clean terry towel, then applied Klasse polish/sealer and the paint looks much better and it feels just as smooth as glass. Test a small area, then try it and see what you think, I was amazed at the difference!

Regarding Bon-ami and windshields. In the 60's when I worked at a gas station, we used Bon Ami on customer windshields during rain storms. It totally cleaned the glass and allowed the wipers to work more effectively

Get a wet sponge, sprinkle the Bon-ami on the sponge and clean the windshield, then rinse.

Another interesting thing about Bon-Ami is back in 1955 when Chevrolet introduced the 265 V8, they had problems with the piston rings in that they wouldn't seat.

Vehicles were recalled and the Chevrolet Mechanics, Per GM instrucitons, poured Bon-Ami down the carburetor while the engine was running.
Bon-Ami's advertising states that "it won't scratch" but, it contained enough grit to cause the rings to properly seat against the cylinder walls.

wrt windshields, mine has a lot of pecks in it from being a cpl years in denver and driving it back to little rock through an ice storm this past january. bon ami or clay bar help? after a few months i'm going to try and see about having it replaced, as it has two stars and a good-sized round chip.

I think Bon-Ami was a last ditch fix for Vega rings also. Which just happen to be alusil. So, who wants to try it?

Flashbacks to "Cool Hand Luke"
what was this thread about?