Tips to Clay Bar Your Car

If you are new to the world of auto detailing, clay bar car will sound odd if you are unfamiliar to this process. There are 4 specific areas of proper paint care when it comes to the paint on your car:
• Washing
• Cleaning
• Polishing
• Protecting

I don't consider myself an excellent detailer by any means, but I have a good amount of experience sanding, buffing, and waxing cars. One thing I have never tried, however, was using a clay bar to clean the paint's surface.

Honestly, I've always considered the "clay bar treatment" a gimmick- promising an easy way out of doing labor intensive work, and patently dismissed it. Well, I've become a believer. Last weekend, I was trying to rehabilitate the paint on my Subaru and among it's problems was massive overspray caused by careless spraying of motorcycle parts by me a while ago. Ironically, it was the same black paint I used on my Crown Victoria- a single stage black urethane, and it is really sticky.

I tried a couple different polishes and cleaner waxes with little success. Rubbing compound and a high-speed buffer was the next step, and if that didn't work I would have to wet-sand the whole car to get rid of it. That's a lot of work.

Clay bar is advertised to remove surface contaminates- tar, water spots, rail dust, and overspray- so I thought it was worth a try. And I'm happy I did; it works very well. I bought a box of Clay Magic at Autozone for about $16, and the it included a small brick of clay and a spay bottle of "Clay Lube" (probably soapy water).

Spray a section of paint, and start scrubbing with the clay. It feels like there is a lot of drag on the clay at first as it picks up all the junk off the paint, but once the surface is clean, it glides across smoothly, and the paint feels smooth as glass. The clay, however, will be black with all the junk from your car, so just turn it over or knead it like silly putty to expose a fresh section. It also does a good job cleaning up plastic trim, headlight and taillight lenses, and probably your glass, too, though I didn't try that.

Clay bar will not remove scratches or swirl marks, though. You will still need your buffer for that stuff. But this is a great way to clean your paint and prep it for polishing and waxing. I'm a fan.

Instructions

1 First, you want to wash your car completely with a recommended car shampoo. This will remove any wax that may help seal in the contaminants on the paint. Regular car wash is made not to strip wax, so it may not be as effective. Put your hand in a zip lock bag and run it over the surface. It will feel like sand paper. These are the contaminants sticking to your paint.

2 Next, Make sure your car is parked in the shade and it's surface is cool to the touch. You can now take the clay bar out of the container and divide it into 3 or 4 pieces. This is so you will have spares in case you drop the clay on the ground (the clay will pick up dirt and grit if dropped, rendering it useless). Knead the piece of clay until it gets softer and then flatten it.

3 Take some spray detailer or clay lubricant and spray it on a 2 foot square area and on the clay itself. More lubricant is better. Work the clay across the surface in a back and forth motion using moderate pressure until it begins getting easy to glide across the surface. Once it glides then you can move on to another area. You can use the zip lock on your hand to check to see if it is smooth enough for your liking. Every now and then you should knead the clay and refold in order to create a clean clay surface.

4 Once you are satisfied with the area you are working on, move on to another 2 foot square area. Continue this until you have completed the entire car. Keep in mind that this is not a quick job. It may take you 4 or 5 hours to do it properly, but it will be well worth the time. Nothing makes your paint as smooth and shiny as a clay bar detailing.

5 Make sure to buff your car with a polish and a wax in order to seal in all of your hard work and to help seal out paint contaminants and debris.

Things You'll Need
• Car Shampoo
• Clay Bar (Meguiar's, Mother's, 3M, etc.)
• Clay Bar lubricant (Meguiar's Spray Detailer, etc.)
• Paint Polish (to remove excess clay on paint)

Recommended Clay Bar :
1. Meguiar's G1001 Smooth Surface Clay Bar
2. Mothers 07240 California Gold Clay Bar
3. Wolfgang Elastic Poly Clay