1 clay bar for 1 car, one time?

[prr]

Just using one side then folding in on itself keeps the dirt moving to the middle as long as possible.

As opposed to keeping the dirt on the outside edge, where my hands touch it, before I remold the entire thing. Makes sense to me.

Alright.

[GoZoner]

After you remold it when both sides are dirty, something dirty will touch the paint. If you just fold it (making sure nothing dirty remains visible), then nothing dirty ever touches the paint.

[davey g-force]

Wait. Are you rubbing the clay bar on one side, turning it over, rubbing it on the back side, and then remolding it? If so, that is a BIG (BIG) no-no. The back side of the clay bar should never touch anything but your fingers. To remold it, just fold it over with the dirty side on the inside - that way the old back side, which is clean, is now ready to touch the paint.

Just using one side then folding in on itself seems to help keep the clay you are using clean as long as possible.

That's the first I've heard of that and it doesn't make sense to me. I mean, you're still pulling the same amount of dirt off the paint and into your clay bar either way. After you remould it a couple of times, I can't see how it would matter.

After you remold it when both sides are dirty, something dirty will touch the paint. If you just fold it (making sure nothing dirty remains visible), then nothing dirty ever touches the paint.

That may be true for the first time (or first couple of times) you remould, but after that, surely it wouldn't matter. It's not practically possible to keep remoulding & exposing a 100% unused clay surface.

That's the way I see it anyway. Mind you, I always just use one side and remould but I can't see why it would matter either way. Perhaps Mike Stoops can chime in with his view?

[RPPM]

I'm in agreement with davey g-force. I can't see how it would make any difference.

[Michael Stoops]

The rules of claying that should NEVER be ignored are:

1) if you drop the clay on the floor, throw it away immediately
2) knead the clay regularly to expose fresh material
3) when you can no longer expose fresh material, it's time to retire that clay bar
4) keep the surface well lubricated with a proper clay lube
5) don't use heavy pressure when claying; let the clay bar do the work

Beyond that, whether you want to flatten that clay bar and then use both sides before kneading or you want to knead after one side is "loaded", that's entirely up to your discretion. It's as much a judgement call as deciding what "loaded" really means, or when the clay bar is completely used up. We know people who won't use a clay bar on two different cars, and we've seen people using clay that was so far beyond it's time it was appalling. But there's a huge gap in the middle of those extremes, and that's where your own judgement comes into play.

If you know that a particular car has extremely delicate paint and claying is going to mar it no matter what you do (a certain non metallic black 2011 Prius that is a regular at out TNOG sessions comes to mind) then you might want to start with as fresh a piece of clay as you can find - preferable still wrapped in the factory plastic wrapper! If the car is very badly contaminated and you fully intend to machine polish anyway, then a lightly used clay bar isn't going to cause any problems. And even those two scenarios are open to interpretation and discretionary judgement, aren't they?

For the record, speaking strictly from personal experience (in case anyone is wondering) I usually flip the clay bar before kneading it and I've never damaged the paint in doing so. That's not to say GoZoner is wrong, not even close. If that's how he likes to work, that's fine. It's a cautious approach, and we'll never tell anyone that being cautious is a bad thing. We will, however, step in and tell someone if they're doing something dangerous, or if they're being downright sloppy, inefficient, wasting time, wasting product, or mismatching product with process, etc.

[davey g-force]

Thanks for the clarification Mike.