hey all, i had a few questions about clay barring. i did a search here and found a bunch of good info (this thread specifically https://montecarloforum.com/forum/sh...highlight=clay) already.

clay barring was something i'd honestly never even heard of before coming here!! since it's starting to get nice out here, and who doesn't love a clean, shiny black monte carlo, i'm interested in trying this out.

questions....
*is one bar enough to do the whole car? (section by section obviously) how long would one bar last?
*how would you go about doing the small details such as the grooves down the hood? i'd be worried the clay would get stuck in the grooves. would i be better off going around them instead of directly on them?
*(i feel like this is a dumb question but i'll ask anyway...) can you clay bar the glass? how about the plastic over the taillight covers?

i am all for washing/waxing my car myself, but i don't always have enough time so i like to take it through the self-wash at least once a week when i don't have time to do it myself. i took a ride last night to a dealership to check out one of the jeff gordon models (just for the hell of it, cuz i've never really seen one other than in photos and passing by on the street) and on the way home decided tony was dirrrrty and took him through one of the new car washes, the ones you just drive through, was $12 and he looked great afterwards, even the wheels were nice and shiny. and of course, at work today the place across the street was tearing up and repaving their parking lot, dust and dirt flying everywhere, so my car has that dusty haze on it already. next weekend i am finally off work and i really want to bust out the cleaning supplies and think the clay bar would be a great idea, just need some pointers. don't want to f*ck it up!!!

thanks in advance you guys!!!

 

Cant really mess up with it, just get some megiurs quick detailer and spray some on, then go over the car till it feels smooth, then wipe off any excess detailer off with a towel and some squirts of the quick detailer (only easy way to get it off. And the bar will last longer than the bottle of detailer, so just take your time and wax afterwards. Id say only use one bar on 2 cars mabye 3 if you keep it pretty clean.

 

a good clay bar will probably last you forever, or quiete a while anyway, the grooves wont be any issue, as long as the car is wet with soapy water or quick detailer then the bar will just slide all over everything

 

Another really good kit is Clay Bar Magic and is sold in auto parts stores like Auto Zone. It is much cheaper than the other brands and in my opinion comes with better spray that is more lubricated than the regular quick detail spray.
You only need about a little bit of clay and make sure the area you are going to do is VERY lubricated. If you see a lot of dirt on the clay keep kneeding it until you see a clean spot. The trick is to keep the surface really lubricated and a small sections at a time.
Oh and another thing, if you drop the clay on the ground, THROW IT AWAY and get a clean piece.
The extra clay keep in a zip lock back and try to squeeze the air out of it. I am still using a bar of clay that I have had for 2 years. After I use it on a car (especially if the clay picks up a lot of dirt, I throw it away. I just pull of another clean unused piece from the bar and use it. I don't know if my red car is going to need it this year. I will have to check how the paint feels. Since it is my show car it never sees rain and is always detailed.

 

Okay, I know exactly what is going through your head so let me please try to explain this as best as possible, since you are a fantastic member.

First off, I use the Meguiar's Clay bar kit. Bought it at wal-mart for 12$ (comes with 1 bar, showtime detailer, and a small liquid wax) For me these are 1-time use boxes, because I use ALL of the detailer while clay-barring and I don't re-use the bars. Hey it's only 12$, that's what you spent on your car wash and this I only do once a year.

I JUST claybarred my Monte for this year. I like to do it when winter is over to get all the contaminants off the car and give it a good waxing after. I was skeptical the first time I did it, so let me tell you exactly how they work

The clay bar is not the cleaning agent, it is the "sponge" in the process. Have you ever used a kneaded eraser? A clay bar is just like that. It is moldable and pliable, and sometimes a little sticky. The bar doesn't disintegrate, it just gets dirty, that's why I try to not re-use the same bar. The showtime detailer that comes in the kit is going to be your "wet source". This is what you spray on the small section of the car that you are going to clay bar. Then the wax is what you do afterwards. I like to do this in small sections also, to give myself a break from claybarring.

Now set aside about 3-5 hours of your life :P and let's begin.

The claybar is going to make your car as smooth as glass. Do one small section and you will feel just how dirty that car really is haha. Get yourself a few micro fiber cloths (rip the tags off them if they have tags, they can scratch) and spray a small section of the car with your detailer. Get a good saturation so the clay bar will rub smoothly and not stick to your car. Then gently rub the clay bar on the wet portion. I like to put my ear really close to the clay bar so that I can hear when it's hitting the contaminants and focus on those parts. Keep rubbing until the detailer is gone / you don't hear any more noise. Grab your micro fiber cloth and wipe the detailer off. Now rub your hand on the car, it should feel very very smooth. If you feel any little bumps or any more contaminants, spray and clay bar that section.

If not, mold the clay bar in your hands a few times. Fold it over itself, press in. Basically this gets you a "new" clean surface on the bar. Don't worry about making it smooth, it WILL smooth out when you rub it on the car again. Lather, rinse, repeat.

It's very time consuming but you WILL feel a difference. And waxing the car after will be no chore at all.

I did not use this on glass/plastic. I kept mine strictly to the paint, because it's made to get the contaminants off your paint. There are glass and plastic cleaners out there that will clean the glass and plastic on your car.

As for the smaller sections that you are worried about, this is where the pliability comes in. Just like with play-doh, mold the clay bar to fit that section, spray and wipe. Keep molding as it will flatten out and lose the point to get in the grooves. But it will still work.

I hope that helps you out, it's very much worth it.

 

Clay Bar FTW!

 

hmm this is very interesting as soon as weather straightens out here ide like to try this. At my job we do something that has the word clay in it also but what it does is say u have a scratch u put this **** on ur car and then someone kinda heat gun melts it and it picks up the paint and spreads it over the scratch so it doesnt exist anymore. This is an entirely different kind of clay though right?

 

thanks guys for ALL your help, answers and insights. i'm excited about this now. it better be nice out next weekend, so help me...

i have bottles upon bottles of the meguiar's quick detailer here at work (it's what we use to make our racecars purty) so i'll grab a bottle of that to use as the lubricant.

off to the airport, and to warm, sunny miami. yay for palm trees, my favorite part of florida and socal!! see you all next week, have a great weekend everyone!!!

PS to red03ssmonte - I think you are thinking of something else entirely; from what i've read here and elsewhere clay barring does NOT fill in scratches.

 

i've been clay barring all my cars for about 5 years and love the results. They way i do it takes about 2 hours. But its the best 2 hrs you can spend on your car.

There are 2 bars. A red one and a blue one. The red (Clay Magic number 1200(course)) is for cars that are really oxidized and needs help. The blue one (Clay Magic number 2200 (fine)), is for new cars that the paint is in descent shape.

What i would recommend is to tear the bar in half and leave one half in the box. Why you say? In case you drop the bar, i would throw it away cause it will pick up any dirt on the floor and scratch your pant.

First i get a bucket of really soapy water and start with the roof cause that is one of the worst spots on your car. go over the area with the bar. I dont worry about cleaning after the bar cause when you are done, your going to wash the car down down with soapy water and get rid of any residue left from the clayying.

After you dry your car, i go over it with Meg Cleaner Wax No. 9. Then go over it with Gold Class.

As far as glass and the headlights, i bar right over them also. I've never had any issues.

 

yea ur probably right lol I think it may have the word clay in it though ill try and look into it better if I find anything out ill let ya know