Prepping for spring cleaning show at the weekend and thought i'd treat my car to the full works. 

 

Started off pressure washing the thick of the dirt off. 

then a quick wash.

 

Car looked shiny but paint work felt rough, thats where the Clay bar came in.

 

I used 3M clay bought from ebay for just over a fiver - Here

 

I was amazed at the amount of dirt still on the paint even after washing.

This was just off the bottom of the drivers door:

 

I did the whole car using about a third of the bar. I know a lot suggest you should use some kind of lubricating spray or Quick detailer spray but i found it worked perfectly with the hosepipe on a "mist" setting.

 

Following a polish using AutoGlym Super Resin polish.

I thought id give Poorboys EX-P a go. 

Amazed with the results, very easy to use, and at £15 it doesn't break the bank.

 

 

Hasn't rained yet so haven't seen any beading, but the car seems to have stayed cleaner than usual with everything just falling off the paint surface.

 

Finally...Dat ass...

 

Awesome looking car there - it cleans up nicely!

 

Great results from the claying and nicely sealed too! 

 

Looking forward to the beading pics in due course.....

Great effort

 

Bet you're torn between it raining where it'll get dirty, but then again you get to see the lovely beading.....

Good work man its surprising how much crap the clay bar will take off.

Nice one .

Its amazing how much a claybar gets of isnt it.

Car looks brill .

Great stuff, I use a clay bar, used carefully you get super results

Mine is now classed as "super tangerine orange" !! Lol

Nice work

Merged replies from duplicate topic into this one.

save yourself 30p by ordering this one - same seller no idea why slightly cheaper

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=121340590540

I always find filthy clay bars interesting. My preference is to hit a full chemical detox first with a tar-x and iron-x type combo first, when I do this after a good pre-wash and wash I struggle to get a clay bar really dirty.

It's all reasonably academic when you are prepping to then polish, but as effective as it is I have always preferred to use clay sparingly as it is far too easy to badly mark up paint if your clay catches a large grit/iron/tar piece and drags it around, even with lube. I have posted before on this so apologies for the repetition.

Taking nothing away that white Mk2 vRS looks lush, EX-P looks to to do really well on white and shows categorically that in combo with SRP you can get awesome results at budget costs. Even after months of not paying it any attention SRP always surprises me when I dig it out, I struggle to think what more you can ask for one hit prep polish. Guess that's. Why it keeps gathering awards.

That looks beautiful I must say.  And I'm well surprised how much dirt came off from that clay... just goes to show just how much it helps.

Thanks for the comments. 

Im happy with the results for a "budget" detail totalling £25 for shampoo, clay and sealant. (already had the polish)

 

Forcast for thunder storms today  

on the brighter side... beading should be coming soon. 

Thats why i dont like using a clay bar.

 

Its a clay mitt or cloth for me. so much easier and being able to wash & re-use helps you to stop dragging stuff collected across your paint!

Thats why i dont like using a clay bar.

 

Its a clay mitt or cloth for me. so much easier and being able to wash & re-use helps you to stop dragging stuff collected across your paint!

I thought about the Clay mitts but decided to give the bar a go first. 

I found it was ok as long as it was turned over regularly. I think this piece was so dirty because of was from the front drivers door with a lot of cr@p slinging from the front wheels. 

Rest of the car wasn't so bad. 

Y-know...you should really remove all that cr@p (pressure wash, pre-wash, snow-foam - 2BM) BEFORE you set to with the clay or mitt.

Y-know...you should really remove all that cr@p (pressure wash, pre-wash, snow-foam - 2BM) BEFORE you set to with the clay or mitt.

I did use the pressure washer and pre-wash to get as much off as i could, only thing i didn't use was SnowFoam as i can't get a lance to fit my pressure washer (its ancient, saving for a new one soon) 

Thats why i dont like using a clay bar.

 

Its a clay mitt or cloth for me. so much easier and being able to wash & re-use helps you to stop dragging stuff collected across your paint!

 

As I have said above, the clay should be a very last step in decontaminating the paint work for me before using a paint cleanser/polish.  Therefore there should be very little left to pick up, clay mitts and cloths are great, but the right clay bar should be no more dangerous as long as your technique is right and you keep checking the bar and folding it to expose a clean face, mitt or bar you need to keep making sure the contact face is clean.

 

Anyway just posting a thanks for the link above to the ebay site, got a nice new clay bar to trial thanks to that, even better to escape a postage charge.  First impression is that it is very soft, expectng that this may be a shade less aggressive than some other 'medium' or regular clay bars I have tried.

 

Just a small concern that the packaging doesn't look the most authentic, but I have never seen the 3M stuff before.

 

Just a small concern that the packaging doesn't look the most authentic, but I have never seen the 3M stuff before.

I thought the same, Strange plastic crisp packet like packaging with Chinese looking writing all over it, but could just be foreign stock. 

 

Does the job though. 

  may have just paid £5.00 for a lump of blu tack

Even if it is blu tack it might do just as well, sure who knows !!!