I used a clay bar on my paintwork for the first time ever yesterday - what a result, it's brilliant

I've got a silver Fabia and the boot and doors felt very rough to the touch when I washed it at the weekend so I thought I would give this claying a go.

Went to Halfrauds with the intention of buying the Meguiars clay kit but the didn't have one so ended up with the Halfords one instead. It's £20 and you get clay bar in a box, microfibre cloth and lubricant.

I've no experience of doing this so I read the instructions and watched the vid on the Meguiars website and off I went.

The first thing I noticed was that the clay was quite hard and difficult to mould so I put it in the airing cupboard to warm up for an hour whilst I washed the car again, which improved things a bit.

Once I got going I couldn't believe the amount of crap it pulled off the paintwork - I thought it was clean! Some of the very embedded specks of dirt took some lifting though especially on the boot (dirty diesel).

I ended up doing the whole car and the previously rough paint now feels like glass. Finished it off with some of that Turtlewax gloss protection.

Clay is King!

You should have seen the results I got with a clay bar on a white skoda pickup that hadn't been washed properly since it was purchased in 2000 - and had fly crap and tar spots all over it that just refused to come off through normal washing. I must put the pictures up when I get a moment

I didn't know Halfrauds did their own. I did manage to keep finding the Meguiars kit in the bargain bins though with a sticker saying "clay bars missing" with the price amazingly reduced from £23.99 down to £19.99. Lol.