Claying with Ferrex


JanosK

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Hello,

I did some testing today and I'm kind of confused with the results. I had ONR (1:256) on the surface, did 2 sprays of Ferrex into my ultra clay towel and went on with claying (1/3 of a hood).  Ferrex foamed up very nicely. Claying took about 3 minutes, then I have let the Ferrex sit for another 5 minutes. After rinsing and drying the paint, I have spayed some Ferrex on the surface to see if there is something left of the iron contamination as we don't have discoloration effect when applied together with ONR.  I also had two control areas, one where I have not clayed at all and one where I have clayed only with ONR (1:64).  I was quite surprised there still was a considerable amount of spots that turned purple at the Ferrex+clay area. Should I have left Ferrex longer on the paint or I just should be all too worried?

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I am not an inveterate FerreX or similar product user, but you can have a lot of iron contamination, and 2 sprays doesn't seem like a huge amount for 1/3 of a hood.  In your test, I'm presuming that the unclayed area was the worst, followed by the ONR/Clay, with the FerreX/clay being the best?  It may just be that you need to do another application, with or without the clay towel.

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@Setec Astronomy Thanks for your reply! Yes, the results were as you have described.

The car hasn't been clayed for the last 3 years and it's a rather neglected car, although surprisingly it didn't had a bad buildup of contaminants as per touch/bag test. Of course, you could have just a 2nd application with FerreX, however I'm just striving the efficiency that is possible. This method was presented by Yvan Lacroix and is used in his shops. I really respect Yvan and trust his knowledge, so I'm assuming that this method is working or at least working to an extent that is necessary. This is the point here that I'm not sure about, did the method worked as expected and there is no need to strive for "perfection" by removing "all" iron contaminants or there is just something to tweak on the process?

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My thoughts:

I believe Yvan used this method of Claying with Ferrex before a quick polish. I'm unsure if he used this as well for a full-on multi-stage detail.

I would expect claying this way would surely leave some decontamination behind, depending on the condition of the car of course. But you are killing (or almost killing) two birds with one stone, claying removes stuff Ferrex doesn't and vice versa.

As long as you clean your polishing pad often (pad washer seems to be best), it doesn't matter too much if there's still some decontamination on the paint. Perfection isn't required for a quick polish.

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JanosK, on this video by Yvan he uses multiple sprays on the wheel and so I am with Setec, 2 sprays sounds a little on the low side.  Don't forget the ONR will also dilute the Ferrex.  As for efficiency, this is often not what people think it is.  If a process needs to be done twice then it does not sound very efficient but more broadly efficiency also depends on what you are trying to do and why.  A process in a high volume detail business could be very different to a business working on show cars and this is largely due to the expectations of the customer.  Is your goal 'good enough', close of perfect or somewhere in the middle, efficiency is about finding the solution which will give you that goal

 

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