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Re: How often do I need to clay my car?
Some people use a plastic baggie to heighten their sensitivity to contaminants on the surface but from a big picture point of view, either that paint has bonded contaminants and you need to clay it or not.
Does that make sense? If you feel your car's paint with your clean hand and feel little bumps then you need to clay the car. Doing so with a plastic baggie or the wrapper off a pack of cigarettes, (another popular option discussed on forums), doesn't change that you still need to clay the car.
In the BIGGER picture, if the car has not been clayed for a while and it's a daily driver that's parked outside at least some portion of each day then it's likely it needs to be clayed no matter how you check for above surface bonded contaminants.
Our Honda Pilot is parked inside our garage all the time except when we use to to go out or to go the store. The point being is it's hardly ever parked outside where it can be come contaminated. Yet after I wash the paint and then inspect it, I almost always feel little bumps on the paint that signify somethings landed on it, bonded to it, hasn't washed off and now I need to clay the paint again.
So if this is happening to a car that spend most of it's time under cover, out of the open air and wind and it gets above surface bonded contaminants then cars parked in the elements more than this probably also need to be clayed after probably only a few weeks to a month, (if they're parked outside), whether you feel with just your hand or with a baggie.
FWIW
I never us a baggie to inspect my paint, I can feel with my sense of touch well enough to make the clay/no clay decision before waxing or going into a full detail session.
Some people use a plastic baggie to heighten their sensitivity to contaminants on the surface but from a big picture point of view, either that paint has bonded contaminants and you need to clay it or not.
Does that make sense? If you feel your car's paint with your clean hand and feel little bumps then you need to clay the car. Doing so with a plastic baggie or the wrapper off a pack of cigarettes, (another popular option discussed on forums), doesn't change that you still need to clay the car.
In the BIGGER picture, if the car has not been clayed for a while and it's a daily driver that's parked outside at least some portion of each day then it's likely it needs to be clayed no matter how you check for above surface bonded contaminants.
Our Honda Pilot is parked inside our garage all the time except when we use to to go out or to go the store. The point being is it's hardly ever parked outside where it can be come contaminated. Yet after I wash the paint and then inspect it, I almost always feel little bumps on the paint that signify somethings landed on it, bonded to it, hasn't washed off and now I need to clay the paint again.
So if this is happening to a car that spend most of it's time under cover, out of the open air and wind and it gets above surface bonded contaminants then cars parked in the elements more than this probably also need to be clayed after probably only a few weeks to a month, (if they're parked outside), whether you feel with just your hand or with a baggie.
FWIW
I never us a baggie to inspect my paint, I can feel with my sense of touch well enough to make the clay/no clay decision before waxing or going into a full detail session.
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