I've personally found that new vehicles are the worst. My suggestion is this, clay the entire vehicle the first time. It's really not all that time consuming and I think you'll be more pleased with your overall outcome... Surface preparation is the key.

From there, assess your finish before you are going to apply a LSP (last step product). If it feels rough after washing, you may want to give it a clay-over. If it feels like glass, you may not want to...

Generally speaking, I'll do a full clay twice per year and a 'half-way-clay' three times per year... approximately. Of course, this all depends on the condition of my paint before I'm moving towards the LSP step.

RP

 

Thanks RP and others. One last question...

My wifes Camry has some chip spots on the front of the hood and bumper area. When I say chip, I mean you can see the primer. OUCH!!! Her car would probably be a perfect candidate for claying, because to my knowledge it has never been waxed or anything. I assume the clay will probably get down into the crevaces of the chip and not look to hot!! Any Ideas on those chip marks and other imperfections I may find before claying.

 

I know your pain on the rock chips and, yes, the chance of clay lodging itself within the chip is real.

My suggestion is to avoid your 'high rock chip' areas with the clay as best as you can until you can find time to get them touched up.

Not sure what else to tell you...

RP

 

I've used the Clay Magic setup on my tailgate with pretty good results. I didn't use the included spray with the kit, instead opting for a fresh bucket of wash solution. Goes something like wash, dry, soak with wash solution and clay, then dry and either polish or wax depending on how bad your paint is. When you're rubbing the clay bar on, you'll feel little bits and imperfections in the paint, like little specs here and there. Eventually, the clay will slide across the paint like it was made of glass...I think that's what you're looking for.

I was a lot more conservative with the clay bar, I didn't know how far one bar would go. I used a piece about the size of a quarter for the tailgate which wasn't easy to work with, but when the weather cooperates, I'm gonna clay the whole truck.

 

Glad that worked out well for you!


Just a word of advice to everyone... don't skimp on the clay. In short, use a big enough piece that it'll have the opportunity to remove the surficial stuff that you're wanting it to remove.

In addition, a larger piece of clay (maybe half the size of your palm is what I use), can be kneeded and such so that you don't run as much of a risk of draging the little particulates that you're pulling off of your paint around on your paint.

Just a FYI...

RP