Killjoy99

A couple days ago I used Zaino clay on my car. I followed every direction perfectly but ended up with some very small micro scratchs. I just finished reading the Detailers Automotive Clay - Article by Jon Miller article posted earlier by Hawhyen51 and it sounds like this type of minor scratches is normal.

I have also read that to get rid of the marring you should use a mild or light polish. Can anyone identify this type of polish? I have some Zaino Z2, Meguiar's Cleaner Wax, Meguiar's Gold Class Liquid Wax and Meguiar's Scratch X. I've searched and read all over the place and don't want to take the chance of causing any more trouble than I already have. Here are some pics.

Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3

2006 TSX in CGP

triggerman

Did you drop the clay when you was using it on your car?

exceldetail

Im not quite sure what is on your hood, but its not real indicative of claying. The patterns on the side even look a little heavy for clay, unless you were using an aggressive type bar. Normally any clay marring is easily removed (via UDM/PC) with a very light abrasive such as Optimum polish, or Four Star SMR.
Claying will leave marring on dark cars, even the light abrasive type bar. I have come to expect it when claying, but as mentioned earlier, its easily removed during the polishing stages anyway, so not a concern for me.

Killjoy99

No, I did not drop it and made sure to fold and stretch it to keep it clean.

It's fairly hard to take a picture of the marks accurately. They are 100% impossible to see unless there is a lot of sun light reflecting off the car. Also, I have NOT used any polish on the car yet. I washed the car very well and then used the clay. I was going to than polish but did not because the Zaino Z2 polish that I was going to use listed that for an initial application it required the ZFX accelerator. The clay I used was Zaino Z-18 Clay Bar.

exceldetail

Ahhhhhhhhh......Zaino, someone else take a stab, as I dont know a thing about it......No matter what product your using, your going to have to polish....

micvog

How much lube did you use? When I clayed for the first time I got similar marks and found out I wasn't using enough lubricant.

Regarding the Zaino, if you haven't ordered the ZFX, order some Z-PC with it. The Z-PC is a mild abrasive polish and should clean those marks up without a problem. Even though Z-2 is listed as a "polish", it has no cleaning/abrasive properties. Don't over-apply the Zaino - use really thin coats. Lastly, on vertical surfaces you should use an up/down motion and not side-to-side (see pic3).

Post some pics when you are done. I have been tempted to try Zaino again.

lusid

hopefully those aren't finger nail scratches.. it kinda looks bad and lets hope the PC can take those out.