I recently purchased a clay bar that I found on Ebay. The price got my attention, it was 5.61 shipped to NJ. I was a little skeptical about it because how much cheaper compared to others brands in market. The clay is blue and weights 160 grams. Seller was from Hong Kong and took about 17 days to arrive.
It came in a bubble wrapped package.
I went and tested it on my father's silver mini van. Bought new in July 2010 and only clayed it once before last winter. The car is normally washed in automatic car washes.
This was just from claying the hood.
The paint came out really smooth. I would say this clay bar is in-between clay bar kits and gray clay bars. Its has little more bit then the clay kits, but not as aggressive as gray clay bars.
Here a video comparing the hood's surface after clayed to the fender.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE9qpEG17P4]MVI 6167 - YouTube[/ame]
Since the mini van had a lot of swirls it was very hard to tell if it caused any marring. So I went to test it on my TSX hood. It was recently washed by Acura and there were light swirls all over the car. But I found part of the hood that had less swirls. I cleaned the hood first with DP waterless and then wiped and dried. Then started claying part of the hood with ebay clay bar. I clayed for about a few minutes in a small area 16x16, and wiped everything off. I then inspected the paint and maybe found VERY minimum marring.
Went back home and uploaded few stuff, but I wasn't satisfied with my findings. So I went back out and compared ebay clay, gray clay, and purple clay. Went back to the mini van, the driver's door was very dirty. There was a lot of grime from the wheel wells that splatter onto the door.
After testing all 3 clay bars on the driver door.
They each have their place, but I think I have found a cheap replacement for the white clay bars. The ebay clay has slightly more bit compared to it, and a LOT cheaper. Marring isn't a big factor when buying clay, I wouldn't really clay bar a car unless it's going to be polished. The ebay clay can't replace the gray or purple clay, but its on top of my list for lightly contaminated cars.
It came in a bubble wrapped package.
I went and tested it on my father's silver mini van. Bought new in July 2010 and only clayed it once before last winter. The car is normally washed in automatic car washes.
This was just from claying the hood.
The paint came out really smooth. I would say this clay bar is in-between clay bar kits and gray clay bars. Its has little more bit then the clay kits, but not as aggressive as gray clay bars.
Here a video comparing the hood's surface after clayed to the fender.
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IE9qpEG17P4]MVI 6167 - YouTube[/ame]
Since the mini van had a lot of swirls it was very hard to tell if it caused any marring. So I went to test it on my TSX hood. It was recently washed by Acura and there were light swirls all over the car. But I found part of the hood that had less swirls. I cleaned the hood first with DP waterless and then wiped and dried. Then started claying part of the hood with ebay clay bar. I clayed for about a few minutes in a small area 16x16, and wiped everything off. I then inspected the paint and maybe found VERY minimum marring.
Went back home and uploaded few stuff, but I wasn't satisfied with my findings. So I went back out and compared ebay clay, gray clay, and purple clay. Went back to the mini van, the driver's door was very dirty. There was a lot of grime from the wheel wells that splatter onto the door.
After testing all 3 clay bars on the driver door.
They each have their place, but I think I have found a cheap replacement for the white clay bars. The ebay clay has slightly more bit compared to it, and a LOT cheaper. Marring isn't a big factor when buying clay, I wouldn't really clay bar a car unless it's going to be polished. The ebay clay can't replace the gray or purple clay, but its on top of my list for lightly contaminated cars.
Thanks for taking the time!!
