Wax or Sealant? Paint Cleaning Clay ...

Your Every Day Driver vs. The Garage King

The products you select to protect your vehicle's paint for longevity should be determined by answering a few questions. (1) Is this your beloved weekend/show car/crazy in love with car or your daily driver that takes a lot of abuse? (2) Do you have time to wax your car every quarter or do you only have just enough time to wash it once or twice a month? (3) Do you park outside most of the time or is the car parked indoors at work and at home? (4) Do you cheat by going through a car wash every once in a while rather than washing by hand? (5) Do you expect the finish to be perfect, swirl-free with incredible depth, color and clarity, or are you willing to have a finish with awesome gloss, the majority of the swirl marks removed or hidden, and a year's worth of protection with very little effort?

The answers ... select a Carnauba Wax if you have time every quarter to wax, park the car indoors at home and use a car cover at work and you never, ever run it through a car wash. Select a Paint Sealant or One-Step Sealant if this is your daily driver and you need maximum protection from the elements for up to one year. Paint sealants go on quickly, enhances your paint, and hides the majority of your swirl marks.

TIP: Some scratches are too deep to remove. Once you have polished and rounded off the edges, fill the scratch with Sealant or Wax to hide the imperfection.

Paint Cleaning Clay ...
If you don't understand what a Paint Cleaning Clay product does or are too nervous to try it are missing out on some amazing results. Paint Cleaning Clay removes all the contaminants that sit on top of your paint. (1) with this one step your paint will never be smoother, (2) will be totally clean and ready to wax, (3) you will eliminate the laborious step of polishing your paint just to get it clean.

First, wash your car and dry it off. Run your fingertips over your paint. Does it feel smooth? Or can you feel tiny bumps? Contaminants are most noticeable on the rear or lower side panels of your vehicle. What you are feeling is an accumulation of fall-out, road tar, dirt, grime, grease and oil that sticks to your paint after miles of driving. Other culprits of this gritty feeling are paint over-spray, acid rain, bird droppings, bug jerky, rail dust, and tree sap. Check the vehicles glass and you will discover that is also covered with contaminants that clay will remove.

Most folks figure a good hand polishing is needed to remove this roughness and clean the paint to get it ready for waxing. But polishing reduces the depth of the paint and is totally unnecessary unless you are trying to remove a scratch. If you are just trying to clean the paint to get it ready for waxing, then use paint cleaning clay before waxing.

Not only does clay work better than a hand polish, but it removes more contaminants and is also a lot less work. the clay is a very pliable bar, and its sticky nature enables the clay to pick up and hold onto the contaminant as it glides across the surface. To get it to glide across the surface, you must use a lubricant.

Tip: As the clay slides over your paint, it picks up contaminants that are stuck to the surface that even polish can remove. Use a clay that is bright in color so you can see exactly what's coming off of your paint. As the bar gets dirty, just knead it a bit and flatten it out into another fresh patty. Most bars clean about 7 vehicles depending on the amount of contamination on the surface.