We love washing our cars; there's nothing better than a freshly cleaned Porsche. The look. The shine. The pride of ownership. However, sometimes a simple wash and wax isn't enough to get your baby clean. Maybe there's sap, embedded dirt, road grime, even over spray. Whatever it is, your Porsche doesn't look as fresh as it could. Fortunately, getting it clean is simple these days. The video below from our friends at Drive is a fantastic tutorial on how to use clay to get your Porsche's paint looking as good as possible. As the video shows, clay is simple to use and nothing to be scared of. As usual, if you can't see the video in your email simply click on on "How to Use Clay to Clean Your Porsche's Paint" to watch it directly on our site.
Tips for Using Clay on Your Porsche's Paint
The video above does an outstanding job showing how to use clay safely on your Porsche. We highly recommend watching. However, if you're pressed for time, here's a quick summary for you.
- Use fresh/clean clay every time
- Mold the clay into a "hamburger sized" patty
- Use lots of spray wax or clay lube on both the surface of your Porsche and both sides of the clay
- Move the clay up and down in straight lines. Not in circles. Make enough passes until the clay no longer makes noise and all visible blemishes have been removed
- Use both sides of the clay until "full" (both sides are dirty)
- Once the clay is full, you want to twist, knead and crush it back into a fresh "hamburger size" patty
- IF YOU DROP THE CLAY, AND IT TOUCHES THE GROUND OR ANYTHING OTHER THAN YOUR PORSCHE'S PAINT, THROW IT OUT AND GET A FRESH ONE. SAVING A FEW BUCKS ON A NEW CLAY BAR IS NOT WORTH THE TIME AND EXPENSE YOU'LL INCUR FROM MARRING YOUR PAINT WITH A DIRTY CLAY
What Clay to Use
One good quality clay bar should be more than enough to handle cleaning your Porsche's paint. You have lots of choices when it comes to choosing clay. We like the kits that include both clay and lube. While we mostly use Griot's products (like this Griot's Clay Paint Cleaning kit
Related Porsche Posts
How to Wash, Polish, Wax and Detail your Porsche Part I
How to Wash, Polish, Wax and Detail your Porsche Part II
How to Clean Your Porsche’s Clear Bra and Paint Protection Film
How to Easily Clean the Wheels on Your Porsche
Great video! Clay bars make such a profound difference in a car’s paint, I love using them!
I’ve found people resistant to using them fall into two camps: those who have damaged their paint from using clay improperly and those who are afraid of damaging their paint. Like any technical maintenance, adhering to a set of basic steps will go a long way. Owners of older cars should know that clay bars are miracle workers for single-stage paints! My Porsche is turning Guards Pink, even days after it is washed and waxed. However, it will stay Guards Red for at least a month when I use a clay bar in conjunction with my polishes and waxes.