Why a clay bar

J

jay_vw

New member
Would a swirl mark remover (ie Mother's) do about the same thing? And I've been told that "Every time you clay your car you are just causing really little scratches, called micro-maring"
 
You *CAN* cause scratches with improper prep prior to claybarring. Otherwise all it's doing is pulling contaminants out of your paint.
 
Clay isn't going to remove swirls or anything like that. Not even close. Like Mindflux said, it pulls contaminants out of your cars surface that paint cleaners can't do. Typically the next step after using clay is to polish your car anyway so even if it does cause scratches you are supposed to be just polishing them out anyway. Clay is pretty important stuff. I would do some research on it. You'll be facinated at what it does.
 
Once you clay for the first time and feel and see the results, you'll wonder how you ever detailed a car without it.
 
godofthunder- Yep, get the car as clean as you can during the wash phase. Use the correct lube (some work OK with car-wash solution, some work better with a dedicated lube). Other ideas include cutting the clay into small pieces and tossing after a few panels (as opposed to just folding/kneading) to reduce the chance of something that got pulled off marring other areas.



jay_vw - A BIG benefit to using clay (or AutoInt's ABC) is that you can remove ferrous deposits ("rail dust") before they cause rust spots.
 
Lowejackson said:
Buy some good clay and you will be impressed with how smooth your paint is and just how dirty the clay becomes.



Steven
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AND just how much easier it becomes to polish and buff!
 
godofthunder - if you have any easily visible tar/oil splatters anywhere, it's probably a good idea to try to remove them before claying too.
 
4DSC said:
godofthunder - if you have any easily visible tar/oil splatters anywhere, it's probably a good idea to try to remove them before claying too.
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I agree with that 100%. My Mother's clay bar was all fine before I got to the bottom door panels of my mom's LHS. The clay bar felt like it was ruined and kneeding it would have simply hid the abrasive stains.



A separate bug and tar remover would be ideal.
 
So the idea of claying your car is to remove any paint contaminants off, while a swirl remover (or something like that) is too only remove/hide scratches swirls?

I have clayed various parts of my previous rides, never the entire car. And liked what I'd seen & felt. Guess I'll be claying the entire body of my new GTI...
 
Vegas1 said:
Once you clay for the first time and feel and see the results, you'll wonder how you ever detailed a car without it.
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My thoughts exactly. I don't know how I got along before detailing clay was introduced.
 
jay_vw said:
So the idea of claying your car is to remove any paint contaminants off, while a swirl remover (or something like that) is too only remove/hide scratches swirls?
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You got that right:xyxthumbs



Don't be affraid to do the whole car: it can only benefit from it



Christiaan
 
jay_vw said:
Guess I'll be claying the entire body of my new GTI...
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And don't forget to clay the windows. It's awesome. :up



This month when I clayed, I finally had heard of (and applied) the Autopia tip (from BradB?) to cut the clay into small silver-dollar-size "coins." One coin per panel, then toss it. No folding or kneading. I felt so much better about that!
 
My little "coins" were maybe 1/8" thick. So I did the whole car with maybe 1/3 of a bar. For the reduced risk, I'm happy to have spent $2 on clay. That's just me, though. I'd read enough on here that I was getting concerned that embedded particles in the folded clay could cause micromarring/scratching.
 
Oops. Sorry. That was just a sorta W.A.G. I used Mothers this time and it cost the usual -- $12-14 for the kit. (Used ClayMagic last time. And Autopia GBW will be next time. I'm an affirmative-action clayer!)



[rhetorical] Dog-gone it, Mother's, why won't you sell the bars alone????? [/rhetorical]
 
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