On one of my endless browsing sprees through Pepboys I came across a couple of claybars, I think one was by Meguires and the other was Mothers. Did a little reading on them and they see to be worth the money, pretty sure I'm going to pick one up this weekend.
I've seen claybar mentioned a few times here and eveyone who talks about them seems to like them. Just looking for a little feed back.

mother or meguiars, doesn't matter which really. Both will work the same and provide great results.

Personally, next time I buy I am going to get mothers, but that is just from experience

up north we have Wizards who now make a claybar. I don't think it matters. This is the easiest thing to do to bring out the color and shine that is buried underneath the visual layer of grime covering a car.

and it makes it good for hood slides when you are done

I paid a detail shop to claybar my car a year or so ago, and this year, I did it myself. it was SO EASY. It goes *amazingly* fast. You just wash your car really good (I used dish soap to remove previous wax residue), then use the spray lube to spray a section of your car and wipe it in broad strokes with the clay. The clay will pick up all sorts of crud embedded in your paint, leaving a super-clean, super-smooth car. It took me like five minutes to do the entire car.

Advice that I got on this club, that I followed and recommend: Cut the clay bar in half and put one half in a ziplock bag. Use the other half to claybar your car. When you drop it on the ground, use the other half that you saved. (Luckily I didn't drop mine.)

I finished my car off with liquid glass, which was also very easy and much faster to do than typical waxing.

DO the claybar, it is SO EASY. Everybody should do it, the results are so fantastic and it takes such little effort. I think it'* the detailers' best kept secret. I think mine was neither Mothers or Meguiars, I think mine was Clay Magic.

5 minutes may be a little understatement...but it doesn't take that long.

Dont forget to do your headlights, taillights, windows, the smooth plastic between the doors, wheels(do these last) and w/e other surface that can be cleaned up (exhaust tips)

Claybar + Liquid Glass = The shinest car on the block.

No joke.

Hi Gang,

If used properly, with adequate amounts of a good lubricating spray, you'll have no problems.

There are a few golden rules with clay... some have been mentioned, the MAIN one is... if the clay hits the ground, it'* trash. Period. No questions. One tiny grain of sand or grit caught in the clay and then applied to the painted surfaces of your car can cause more hell than you could imagine!

Clay is designed to remove boneded contamination. This can range from industrial fallout to bird goop and other stuff that regular washing did not remove. In and of itself, your paint should feel like a clean sheet of glass with absolutely no texture feel to it. If it doesn't, clay is the preferred method to remove this bonded contamination (there are other methods but, clay is easily the safest and easiest in my opinion).

I clay on 90 degree angles. I'll clay using an up and down motion -- straight lines. Then I'll switch 90 degrees and use the side to side motion. All the time, I'm using plenty of lubricant so that the bar isn't snagging on the paint and isn't leaving behind a gooey residue on the paint (it will on occasion -- don't worry -- not the end of the world).

Downward pressure to the clay should be kept to a minimum... you aren't there to try to strip off the paint -- using a lot of downward pressure can cause paint problems.

Another golden rule is to use a lot of common sense. If your clay is looking goopy, toss it and get a new piece. What many of us do is lop our claybar into a few pieces using a clean cutting device (I typically snare a kitchen knife). You don't want it so small that you can't use it but, you do want to have a couple of pieces so that, when you drop it (notice I said 'when' -- because the best of them will drop clay), you still have a new piece at hand and it'* not as painful to chuck it -- because a $15 clay bar isn't easy to let go of...

Start high on the car -- roof. Work downward avoiding the wheel wells, well lips, and front of the car until toward the end of your routine. I will often times only clay the 'upward facing flat surfaces' as those are the ones that will typically receive the worst of the worst bonded 'stuff'.

If done correctly, clay is VERY safe and won't cause harm.... keep in mind, claying should be done as part of a full detail as one of the preparation steps -- in short, you're going to have to follow with, at a minimum, a last step product (wax) to protect your finish following claying.

Good Luck!
JP

Done that. I had a few specs of paint that I couldn't get off my bonneville. I lubed well and rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. Lubed some more and rubbed some more. Those spots turned a blackish greyish color. Luckily you could only see them from certain angles.

I do love doing the ol Bo Duke across my hood every now and then