EVALUATING YOUR PAINT FOR CLAY

How do you know if you need to use a clay bar? After thoroughly hand washing your car, feel the surface of your car's paint. Do you feel bumps and rough spots? These bumps are contaminants attacking the finish of your car. Removing these surface contaminants (road tar, acid rain spots, bug residue, paint over-spray, brake pad dust, hard water spots, bird lime etc.) will improve both the look and health of your car's paint. By the way, you can magnify your sense of touch by inserting your fingertips into a sandwich bag or a piece of cellophane.

No matter how well you hand-wash your car, many of the contaminants that have worked their way into your car's paint finish will remain. Have you ever looked at your cloth after applying a coat of wax? What do you think that black stuff is? It's dirt, and you're waxing over it, sealing it in.

 

CLAY BAR
You've washed and dried your car and the paint might feel nice and smooth, but even if your vehicle is relatively new there will be very small particles of dust, debris and pollutants from the environment. These become embedded in the surface of the paint and cannot be removed by washing alone.

You can sometimes feel this film of dirt if you rub the back of your hand over your paintwork, you might be able to hear a rough noise. The noise is caused by the debris in your paintwork, but ideally your paintwork should feel as smooth as glass.

A clay bar is a soft cleaning putty which when rubbed against your paintwork, clings to impurities and removes them from the paintwork. Used in conjunction with a special lubricant this is an extremely effective way to remove dirt and grime from your vehicles paintwork. Briteshine Valeting use a clay treatment as standard for their gold valet, otherwise it is £POA depending on what is required, but can be as low as  ~£15.00 for a small panel.

 

The reason why we at Briteshine Valeting offer a clay bar treatment:-

Rail dust - Tiny, sharp bare metal shavings that can adhere and imbed into the paint finish and cause serious damage when left untreated. Over 70% of new vehicles are transported from the factory using the rail system. In many cases, new cars are stored near a railroad and becomes infected with rail dust.

Brake Dust - Similar to rail dust, brake dust is also in the form of tiny, sharp metal shavings. In recent years, asbestos brake pads were replaced with metallic brake pads, which are actually brake pads made from tiny metal or metallic shavings. Anytime a vehicle is braking; brake dust is disbursed into the air and onto the paint finish. Since the brake dust is now actually tiny particles of bare metal, this form of brake dust can seriously damage the paint finish when left untreated.

Industrial Fallout - A general term used for pollution and can be found in many forms. Eventually, pollution settles onto the paint finish of all vehicles and can cause serious damage when left untreated.

Tree Sap, Road Tar, Bug Residue, Paint Overspray, and Acid Rain Deposits -- These contaminants adhere to or imbed into the paint finish. Left untreated, they will cause permanent damage to your car's paint work by staining and weakening the protective properties.

 

 

So, have a feel of your paintwork, a real feel using the method above. If you feel your vehicle requires a clay bar treatment please ask for a demonstration when I come to valet your vehicle. At a starting price of just £15.00 we feel this is very reasonable [see services and prices section]