A Detailed Image Customer wrote to us and asked:
“I am trying to clay bar the car right now and I’m having a very hard time decontaminating the paint. I have washed the car with CarPro Reset twice. I have tried an old but unopened clay bar from a Mother’s kit and tried a NanoSkin AutoScrub Fine Grade Pad. I can not seem to get all of the contamination off the paint. No matter how hard or long I clay I still hear contamination. I plan to use CarPro Iron X soon but I will purchase a new clay product at the same time. Could you make a recommendation for a new clay device? Also, the car was made in Japan.”
I’ve had a few clients that worked next to a heavy metal polishing facility and their paint literally felt, and sounded, like 80 grit sandpaper. Heavy decontamination is a much different approach than standard maintenance.
First, after a good shampoo soak, I would use something like Iron-X to get out and iron deposits, but also to help see what you are dealing with. Remember to thoroughly rinse and cover your nose!
Next, I would recommend just a standard clay, slightly more aggressive, bar like Medium Grade DI Clay Bar. I normally like to use something like the CarPro Poly Shave or NanoSkin, but since the contamination is so much on the surface and not just trying to pull it out of the paint pores, the rubber polymer products just can’t really grab on. The clay has a little more give and “wraps around” the particles and really helps pick them up.
Then you are going to want to grab a rolling cart or something because you can be here a while, depending on what the makeup of the contamination is. Just take you time, one panel at a time and you can get through it.
Just note that you will most likely cause some damage to the paint from this and will need to polish the paint after. When you FINALLY finish, make sure to protect your paint to help prevent this!