Lets Talk About Clay bars?

Djmigs

Djmigs

Certified C. & Mc P.S.N
As the title says ....



1. name every clay bar you used and grade/color?

2.how did they clean,hold up..etc....

3.which are your go to clay from now on?

4.list spot were you picked/placed order with

5.were the best spot ($$)to order

6.if time is permitted please label grade of clay also there are new clay for example poly clay or elastic clay (from light/fine for everyday use to meduim "most used" heavy/aggresive) ....





i think that should cover it...

if i forgot anything please advise!!!!



thanks Fellas:2thumbs:
 
IMHO clay is clay. There is normal grade of clay then a more agressive clay. Sorry im not more technical but whatever is cheapest works for me.



Greg
 
Mother's Gold Bar (yellow/medium)

I worked and cleaned up pretty well. It was easy to work with. I use it mainly use it when I dont have to be delicate with a car.



Sonus Grey Clay

I got this as and liked it. It was a little harder to work with than the Mothers Clay but felt like it did its job better. I use this when detail is important.



Sonus Green Clay (mild)

I got this with the grey. What a PITA to work with! Its super sticky, make sure you get a soap container for this one cuz its no fun getting out of a baggie. I didn't like the clay lube that is recommended with this clay but it does its jobe as advertised.

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My gotos are the Sonus and Mothers.

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I got my mothers from Pepboys for 16 dollars, the package included a clay bar, quick detailer, and small bottle of liquid cleaner wax



Got the Sonuses here... cant remember the price but there was some kinda deals at the time

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I couldn't tell ya the best place

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Mothers-medium

Sonus Grey - meduim

Sonus Green - Light
 
I just use the store bought Meguiar's Quick Clay and I think it works pretty well. I haven't tried Mother's, but I probably will one of these days.
 
I have used three clays. Here's what I can say.



Griot's Garage clay--Since it was my first experience with clay, I don't know if it was the clay or me. I didn't go back there.



Clay Magic--I use this for anything that I clay when I know I will polish and LSP afterwards. It seems to work fine. In other words, my kids' and girlfriend's vehicles, which are *not* kept Autopian by the owners.



Sonus green clay--I use this on my own car, when I know there is no polishing needed, and I just want to get off contaminants before adding a fresh coat of LSP.



Both the Clay Magic and the Sonus green work great for me. I use a nice, soapy mix of Griot's car wash in my foam gun as a lube. Seems to work well.



My LSPs are carnauba-based (Natty's Blue in summer, IW in the winter), so those Autopians out there who use sealants may well have another read on this.



There's my $0.02.
 
1. Mothers Gold

Meg's Quick clay

Meg's detailer mild

2. The Mothers seemed to gum up the fastest. The performance of Meg's quick clay and Mothers Gold were the same as far as I could tell. The Meg's mild seems to have the best cleaning ability and longest work time before it started to gum up. But it's hard to tell. Sometimes you want something to be good so it is better in your head.

3. Meg's detailer mild is my go to. I have the aggressive as well but havn't even opened it yet. The mild has made quick enough work for me so far.

4. The best place I have found is ADS.



Also, on a side note. I much prefer the Meg's QD over the mothers showtime for lubricity when it comes to claying.
 
I think I have all the clays...though there might be a couple odd-balls I don't have (about 20 different clays).



I somewhat agree with the aforementioned statement that "clay is clay" in that most clays are good and there isn't much difference between most of them.



So I'll just cover the stand-outs (good and bad).



My top 2:

Opti-Clay - my favorite all around clay. They need to bring this stuff back...thankfully I stocked up. Did not tend to marr, removed contaimation well, and most of all, I just like the composition and "kneadability" of this stuff.



4-Star - My second favorite. Removes contamination extremely well and holds up a long time. My only compliant is that it is a little too hard and is thus more difficult to knead. I suspect the Sonus grey clay (not the block clay) is the same stuff.





Bottom 3

Sonus Block - Serious propensity to marr paint...simply too aggressive. I've tested this clay on soft black paint, and it looked like I used sand paper.



Tol purple clay - Bad composition. To brittle.



Medium Clay Magic - The last batch I got was rock hard, way too hard to knead. Had used this stuff a couple years ago and though I don't remember it being hard, I remember it had a tendancey to come apart and stick to your hand.
 
My first clay was Zaino, it was like a rock, very hard to knead. Eveery time I kneaded it I put it in the microwave to soften it up. Did a good job but very hard to work with.

Next I had mothers gold clay. The first bar was ok, leaving little bits of clay that had to be removed but not bad. My next 2 bars were crap, falling apart and getting all over my hands which was hard to remove.

Next I tried sonus. The gray clay is medium aggressive and works well on paint, tar and bugs. The green clay is very mild, does a good job on cars that don't need much work on the paint.
 
Griot's v1.0 (green) and v2.0 (yellow). Seems identical to Mother's. These three worked OK but left residue on the vehicles. Better than nothing, seemed like great stuff when claying was first introduced. Dissolves pretty fast when I use shampoo as lube, doesn't cut well when I use the Griot's/Mother's QDs as lube (awfully mild compared to some others).



Sonus Block v1.0 (gray)- I really liked this one, but it was discontinued. You did have to be just a little careful with it to avoid marring. It was a different type of clay from any others I've tried. Sorely missed!



Sonus Block v2.0 (gray)- This is now my standard "regular" clay. I don't experience the marring that RAG does, but I'm not doing as heavy-duty decontamination with it as he does either. Use plenty of Glyde lube! I've used this to remove the residue that Griot's/Mother's clay left behind. Far less residue, better cleaning than those clays. It is compromised (doesn't really dissolve) by shampoo mix but not that badly. It is compromised much faster by APCs like EFHI, but can be used with such strong cleaners for tough jobs like the back sides of wheels.



Sonus Extra-Fine (green)- I use this for spot claying at *every* wash and for gentle paint cleaning before refreshing my LSPs. Used properly, it does not compromise LSPs (even took a little doing for it to cut through Meg's #5!). Use with Glyde, dissolves in shampoo mix (and doesn't work as well). Doesn't work as well with QDs like #34 but is still OK (dissolves a bit more than with Glyde). Can smear horribly if it contacts certain solvents such as those used for tar/etc. removal.



Note: used properly (well, my version of "propely"), i.e., *gently*, with plenty of the appropriate lube, all the above clays can be used without stripping/compromising healthy LSPs. Used aggressively, all but the Sonus green can strip LSPs. But if your claying regularly strips your LSP you might oughta consider whether you're claying properly.
 
I've used Mother's (yellow) from the paint restoration kit and Claymagic (Blue).



Both worked well. The Claymagic was a bit stickier than Mother's. I can't really say which was more/less abrasive as the Mothers I used on my wife's older vehicle and was in greater need of claying. The Claymagic I used on my fairly new vehicle that was already pretty clean. Both did the job and I saw no signs or marring, but I kept it lubed well.
 
wannafbody said:
it's all the same stuff
Click to expand...

A lot of it is the same stuff just different colors but there are different grades of clay for sure. I used a white clay bar from Meguiars once and swore to never use it again. It took me longer to get the clay residue off of the car than it did to clay the car.
 
Yeah, side-by-side the Griot's, Sonus gray, and Sonus green are obviously different. How they look, feel, perform...they simply are not the same thing. Get 'em all and see, no way anybody would say that if they tried them all in a direct comparison.



The Sonus Block v1.0 was even made with a completely different technology; I've never used anything like it.
 
Mothers (Yellow) was the first clay I used. Worked very well, easy to fold and stayed in great shape during it's use.



Zaino (Yellow) was next. Absolutely the worst clay I have used. Very difficult to fold and flatten out. Deteriated very quickly and just became unusable. Threw the second bar away.



Sonus (Grey) worked well, no problems.



Sonus (Green) very nice for spot claying, works well.



The 2 I have at the moment are the Sonus clays, I really like them both so right now I will continue to use them.
 
RAG said:
Medium Clay Magic - The last batch I got was rock hard, way too hard to knead. Had used this stuff a couple years ago and though I don't remember it being hard, I remember it had a tendancey to come apart and stick to your hand.
Click to expand...



Interesting; I've been using Medium Clay Magic now for about a month; I've gone through 3 bars or so and I am really liking it. Kneads well, isn't prone to marring (though it can marr if you're not careful) and most important it removes contminants really well. Maybe you got a bad batch last time?



Anyway, interesting thread. I basically subscribe to the "clay is clay" thing, but I think there are subtle differences, the most obvious being hardness.
 
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