Clay your cars, boys and girls...
 

When I took delivery of my car, I felt that the paint on the fenders was extremely rough. Upon closer inspection, I could see lots of little rust specks from rail dust and what not during shipping. Basically, little metal particles that settled on the paint and then oxidized. I was planning to just wax the car, but I had to take a clay bar to it and get rid of all the surface imperfections. The front fenders and bumper were worst. The hood, roof, and truck lid fortunately had plastic protection on them.

Just a word of advice. The clay made a night and day difference!

That iron deposit remover that CU2Mike used on my car after claying it worked wonders. There were spots all over the car that you would have never seen had he not used it.

Any recommendations on brand of claybar? I've never claybarred a car but figure this is the perfect time to learn! (I've heard don't drop it warnings, etc...)

There is a new type of "clay bar" out there right now, of which I've been using for a solid 3 months or so. It is called "Speedy Surface Prep Towel", think of it as clay on a towel. It is relatively expensive @ $55 dollars per towel, but the advantage of it is that you could use it roughly 100 times, which means 55 cents per use; if you were to drop it on the ground, simply rinse it off and go right back to claying! It works as advertised and is AMAZING.

Here is a link:
http://www.autodetailingsolutions.ne...l-ssp-589.html

:word:

This is why I kept posting to new owners to not have the dealership wash the car. The wash alone from the dealership is enough to do damage to the surface of the car.

Do you use the soap and water, or do you lube your car up before you rub her down? :D

LOL! I use Meguiar's Last Touch, which is the recommended product at the bottom of the page for speedy prep towel.

I'm planning to spend this entire weekend doing paint maintenance and prep.
I've got new car wash solution, I picked up IronX from AutoGeeks.com, I've got a clay bar kit, a sealant, and some nice wax. I'm hoping for some cloudy days with no rain so that I can work outside rather than in my garage.

Before I clay, I wash the car with dish soap, which is good at removing any wax and/or grease that is on the car. This gets you down to the paint so the clay can do it's job. Then use your waxes of choice from there. I do a base coat of Colonite and a top coat of Meguire's Gold Class.

The rail dust is indeed a problem on cars that get stuck at port for any given time....

I think i may pick one of those towels up....looks like a great product!

How do you know when it's worn out though?

You should be able to tell..... it's going to stop picking up contamination if anything. I haven't used it enough times for it to stop working so I don't know for sure.