Detailers Automotive Clay: - An Article by Jon Miller

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Detailers Automotive Clay: - An Article by Jon Miller

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The advent of detailer`s clay is an example of why it`s important to stay in touch with the innovations made in the detailing industry. New products, chemicals, technologies and ideas are constantly being introduced.

When automotive clay was first introduced there were reports of paint damage due to improper use. With education on correct application methodology this is no longer a problem. It amazes me how many professional detailer’s do not know what detailing clay is capable of, let alone how or why they should use it. For the rest of us who have been using it for ten or more years, we can`t imagine being without it

Even new cars that have been setting on a car dealerships lot for a few weeks can accumulate contamination that bonds to the paint surface; don`t assume a vehicle that looks good is contamination free. Do a ‘Bag Test’ place some saran wrap or a zip lock bag over your hand and rub across the finish lightly. Every snag you feel is a surface contaminant that the clay bar can remove but you may not be able to see, especially on white or light coloured vehicle surfaces.

Acid rain, road salt, tree sap and airborne contaminants are very detrimental to a vehicles paint film surface. Brake dust or rail dust is very small, almost microscopic particles of steel, iron or their alloys. These particles carry a positive charge (due to friction) while the vehicles they land on are carrying a negative charge. The vehicle surface becomes a magnet, attracting and bonding the ferrous metal particles to the vehicle surface.

Regardless of how clean you think your paint is there are still bonded contaminants on the paint that you need to remove before pre-wax cleaning, polishing or applying a protection to your paint film surface. Use automotive detailing clay to remove; road dirt / grime, bituminous resin (tar) grease, tire rubber, bug debris, bird excrement, tree resin (sap) rail and brake dust, paint over spray, hard water (mineral) deposits, industrial fall-out (IFO) road salt (small particles become imbedded and bond to the surface) if the paint has the slightest amount of bonded contaminants, even a wool pad will skip and hop

Moisture when an area of metal has a positive charge and another has a negative charge; water acts as an electrolyte,, temperature and ozone (air) create a corrosive chemical reaction (See also Reactivity); corrosion is caused allowing current to flow between these areas. During this process the metal absorbs oxygen from the water and forms iron oxide (rust).

The corrosive chemical compounds generated then proceed to etch (corrode) the clear coat, penetrating and spreading the corrosives through the paint film system (and the sheet metal), which results in erosion of the paint surface, that shows on the surface as tiny rust spots (rust blooms) This is most noticeable on light coloured paint surfaces (especially white)
(See also Acid Rain, Industrial Fallout (IFO) Corrosion, and Decontamination)

In 1990, Tadao Kadate of Japan is acknowledged as the inventor of an automotive clay resin that exfoliates vehicle paint surfaces, it’s the first product to safely, instantly and cheaply remove airborne bonded contaminants from delicate automotive paint surface. Clay bars are used in the detailing, automotive reconditioning and auto body paint and repair shop professions to remove paint over spray, tree sap and industrial fallout from the cars painted surfaces. It also works on glass, plastics and many metals. First used by Japanese auto manufacturers on vehicle production lines and then auto body repair shops, the technology was passed on to the US market in the late ‘90’s.

Automotive clay is not a replacement for polish or a compound; it is a pliable, petroleum resin product, Polybutene PB-1 (Polyisobutylene) containing a mild abrasive(s) i.e. kaolin, silica sand, calcium carbonate, alumina, ceramics quartz and also silicon carbide that polishes and exfoliates bonded surface contaminants by shearing, which is then encapsulated by the clay resin. These abrasives are extremely small with an average particle size of 1- µ (micron) dependant on the aggressiveness required, mixed in with a powdered synthetic detergent.

The clay bar may not totally remove rail dust, but it will exfoliate the protruding particles. It will, however, easily remove surface contaminants i.e. tree sap or paint over-spray. Usually only the horizontal paint surfaces require detailer’s clay treatment, as it is these surfaces that contaminants tend to land on and adhere too, you should evaluate any vertical surfaces and if need be, clay them. It can be argued that a polish or compound will do the same thing; problem is that they not necessarily remove surface contaminates but just ‘round-off’ the edges, whereas clay will remove the surface contaminants and a percentage of the applied wax /polymer.

Note: you may have to remove minor surface marring caused by the clay

This thin film of lubrication (see Detailer’s Clay Lubrication) provides a safety barrier that enables the clay to hydroplane across the surface. In other words, the clay is riding on a micro-thin film of lubrication between it and the paint surface removing the (protruding) surface contaminants by abrasion and encapsulation by the malleable clay. Without lubrication the clay will abrade the paint surface much like a wet-sanding block and will produce significant fine surface marring

Most manufacturers colorize (these colours vary by reseller) the clay to identify differing abrasive strengths (this is accomplished by varying the type, amount or particle size of the abrasive used) i.e. Green Clay is a very fine abrasive clay, Clay Magic® Blue is a medium - fine abrasive, whereas the Red is a medium - heavy abrasive, it is also very effective for the removal of paint over-spray, if the over-spray is particularly heavy, you may want to seek the assistance of a professional.

1. Fine- clay that abrades or shears light surface or imbedded paint contamination and encapsulates it. This grade of clay can be used on a regular basis for paint surface ‘maintenance’ Sonus SFX or Pinnacle Ultra Fine Detailing Clay - Autopia Car Detailing Forum - Car Detailing or
Pinnacle Ultra Clay -http://www.pinnaclewax.com/piulfigrdepo.html

2. Fine - Medium-clay that is used to remove heavier surface contaminants (bird excrement and bug reside) it is slightly more abrasive than the fine grade and abrades the paint surface, while the clay encapsulates it
Clay Magic® - Clay Magic detailing car clay and Auto Magic specialty products

3. Medium to Heavy duty- clay that is used to remove paint over-spray; it contains slightly stronger abrasive or larger particles that abrade the paint, while the clay encapsulates it. Clay Magic®

Aggressiveness (on a scale of 1 to 5)
1 Clay Magic® - Red- very aggressive; most surface marring - 5/5
2 Top of the line purple- slightly less aggressive - 4/5
3 Clay Magic® -Blue- less aggressive; less marring - 3/5
4 Mother`s - Yellow- 2/5
5 Sonus Ultra Fine -Green- 1/5

There are only a couple manufactures of clay and patents protect the technology, with some subtle difference
in consistency and firmness, a recent court hearing found components of the “elastic clay” to be a patent infringement and the judge ordered sale of the product to be halted. (In the United States, Auto Wax Company Inc. (now owned by Illinois Tool Works Inc.) owns the US patent rights (No. 5,727,993) and reads thus-
"Conventional compounds comprising an elastomeric resin mixed with abrasives used to remove protrusions, projections, and/or strongly adhered foreign matter from vehicle surfaces"

Auto Wax owns six patents relating to clay products and provides private label clay too many of the detail industry’s leading companies - Clay Magic detailing car clay and Auto Magic specialty products As a result, all of the Polybutene (Polyisobutylene) or plastic clay being manufactured now comes from the same factory in Japan, which as the only patent holder has a monopoly on the market. Meguiar`s, Mothers, Sonus, Zaino, et al get their clay either from Japan (Source Chem. Inc. one of Japan`s biggest clay manufacturers) or from a US licensed manufacturer.

But the formulation can vary significantly, mainly;
1.Density or plasticity
2.Abrasive particulate size
3.Abrasive used (i.e. silica sand, calcium carbonate, alumina, ceramics, or silicon carbide)
4.Abrasive density ratio (abrasive content to clay)
5.Colour (to identify differing abrasive strengths)

Other Uses
Detailer’s clay can also be used on glass surfaces (exterior) to remove heavy road film, bug deposits and surface water spots; it seems to outperform even the best window cleaners. Clay will safely remove stubborn embedded brake dust, tar and road film from original equipment manufacturer (OEM) wheel surfaces (detailer’s clay is not recommended on wheels that do not have a clear coat or powder coat finish.

Alternative clays -
1. Zymol Lehm-Klay 2 (contains quartz and chalcedony abrasives) - Zymol Car Care Products & Accessories
2. Sonus SFX Ultra Fine Detailing Clay - Autopia Car Detailing Forum - Car Detailing
3. One of the factors that make Optimum Opti-Clay work better than Clay Magic is that it is based on cross linked polybutene resin which is more durable, more elastic, and has a great deal more adhesion properties than the resin used in Clay Magic (0nly available outside of US / Japan).

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I came across this article online and thought I would share it. Its amazing how most clay comes from the same place.

I have been using clay magic blue for about 8 years now with good results.

[Beemerboy]

Good info and thanks for posting

[bigron62]

awesome article . my all time fav is the sonus green clay . that stuff is very effective and is rookie friendly ..the worst is the clay majic purple . i bought a jar of the stuff because i was out of my P&S stuff .. i had a black mercedes to do and wanted to do a real nice job . that ended up being my worst nightmare/detailing day ever . i was so upset i had a horrible stomach ache and actually was scared i couldnt repair the damage . it scuffed up the paint so bad i had to break out the heavy compound and had to do some serious cutting to fix it and then the following light compound/polish / wax to get it back.. the guy kept calling wondering when i would be done and i kept telling him i was doing some real SPECIAL STUFF TO IT . oh man . newbies be careful w/clay this could happen to you . and also learn to use a rotary if you are detailing for money as you will need it . another thing if you drop the clay DUMP IT its no good . yes ive had to do it . its not worth the damage that can be done . it WILL pick up every particle on the ground it touches .

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I was looking to pick up Optimum opti-clay, However it`s no longer available. Auto Magic still holds the patents, so this limits many manufactures.

However, I don`t know if it is at all true, but the Ricardo clay spoken about on the boards, is acually optimum opti-clay.

Has anyone used opti-clay?

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I was looking to pick up Optimum opti-clay, However it`s no longer available. Auto Magic still holds the patents, so this limits many manufactures.

However, I don`t know if it is at all true, but the Ricardo clay spoken about on the boards, is actually optimum opti-clay.

Has anyone used opti-clay?

[budman3]

I don`t know 100% for sure, but I believe that the Riccardo clay is indeed from the same manufacturer of Opti-clay, aka the famous yellow clay. Other vendors carried this clay as well but had to switch manufacturers due to the patent infringements. So the manufacturer of the yellow clay can still make it .... they just can`t sell it in the United States- which is why E-Shine can have the Riccardo and will not sell it to anyone in the States.

For the non-believers of yellow clay, most have not actually used it before and don`t know what they are missing. For those of us that have used it and can`t get it anymore is like taking candy away from a kid ... and having to wait 4 more years to get it back.

[Beemerboy]

Steve had some yellow clay some years back, I got 3 bars. It was some of the best clay that I`ve used to date. I wonder if it was this Riccardo stuff?

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Mothers has yellow clay, however this does not mean it`s the same clay, or is it?


How does the ricardo or the opti clay compare to the claymagic blue?