Clay Bar brilliant

[SteveC]

When my house was painted some of it blew onto my wife's Fabia. Tried tar remover which had no effect. I read about clay bar and bought a kit. Amazing. Took off the masonry paint, tar spots and other stains leaving a smooth finish. Added polish and got a great looking result. First use of a clay bar and highly recommended if anyone is thinking about using one.

[Wardy]

Glad you got a decent result. They're certainly an essential part of the toolkit.

 

Which one did you buy?

[Bigpikle]

Great that you had a good result with it.

 

Thats what clay was originally used for - taking off overspray etc in bodyshops. You just need to make sure you keep it extremely well lubricated, use zero pressure and fold it regularly, otherwise you can seriously marr the hell out of your paint. If doing it in colder weather its well worth keeping it in a mug of hot water and folding it frequently to keep it soft - when a bar hardens its bad news for your paint! Clay towels and mitts can be much quicker and easier, especially if its only a very fine level of contamination etc a well maintained car just getting a good detail.

[SteveC]

Thanks for the extra advice. It was an Autoglym kit. 

[Phil-E]

Was just thinking of getting a clay bar myself.

 

I have a lot of tar spots etc on mine that I haven't been able to shift. Would be nice to get rid of all the crap then give it a good polish, wax and seal.

[Auric Goldfinger]

12 minutes ago, Phil-E said:

Was just thinking of getting a clay bar myself.

 

I have a lot of tar spots etc on mine that I haven't been able to shift. Would be nice to get rid of all the crap then give it a good polish, wax and seal.

 

Have to tried a Clay Mitt Phil, quick and effortless, needs to be well lubricated though

[Phil-E]

You read my mind. I was just looking at them too!

 

Will probably give one of those a go as it's not really badly contaminated.

[CWARD]

@Phil-E I've just used a G3 clay mitt today for the first time. My car is black and hides the paint contamination well but have snow foamed, washed then a gone over it with the clay mitt. The paint felt horrible and rough especially behind the wheel arches and bottom of the doors but it didn't take too long, about twice the time of a normal wash and it was smooth as babies bum. The wife thought I'd polished it too but that's tomorrow's job along with a coat of wax. 

The mitt isn't perfect though as there is some deep ingrained dirt on the bonnet and roof that it wouldn't lift out but that will take a few minutes with a more aggressive clay. 

I didn't use a detailing spray as recommended just lots of clean soapy water and there are no marks at all from the mitt. 

[neiln]

yes i find the farecla g3 mitt fabulous, and also just use extra soapy water.  I put a wash mitt on one hand and the clay on the other, swish swish the wash mitt on the car to soap it up, swish swish the clay, repeat. very easy.

[tonyblue]

I'll back up the awesomeness of the clay mit. I find the car much easier to polish/wax after a good 'mitting'.  

[bomski]

I can thoroughly recommend Bilt Hamber clay; i've used a hell of a lot of clay in the past and this stuff is one of the best. I mix my own clay lube (water and a bit of detergent to break surface tension) but any detailing spray will work just fine.

[SteveC]

My clay bar has finally met its match. Cannot remove masonry paint from black trim.

[samuir1974]

On 02/06/2017 at 06:23, Baileydog said:

I'll back up the awesomeness of the clay mit. I find the car much easier to polish/wax after a good 'mitting'.  

 

 

Not looked back since i changed to the Clay mitt.

Annoyingly Halfords have stopped the 3 for 2 on the Farecla.

 

But i found a decent source on eBay now.