Which clay bar is the best??

[kooshball]

I am looking to buy a clay bar to use before I apply polymer sealant 2.0 to a 2005 C230 (dark blue) and a 2000 dodge truck (also dark blue). I see that Meguiars carries 3-different ones: consumer grade, professional mild and professional aggressive. They all claim to be non-abrasive so is there any reason to go with anything other than the professional aggressive type?

Also, are the best clay bars made by Meguiars? I see that Autogeek.com has high opinions regarding Pinnacle’s Ultra Poly Clay and I am sure that there are other choices out there as well, so which one is best?

Thanks

[CAShine]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

I would suggest the consumer claybar since you can readily find it in any auto parts store.
I dont know about a best claybar, I have used Meguiars and been very happy. Try them all out and see what you like best.

[Carfire]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

I would either get the Smooth Surface Clay kit, or the Professional Mild clay.
The Consumer and Mild clays are very similar in how much they "pick up".
It really depends on the job.
If the truck is really bad then maybe the Aggressive, but that comes with it's own complications.

[john m.]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

Heres another vote for the Meguiars mild clay! Its just quicker than the smooth surface clay to me. As for the aggressive its just like carfire said, if the car is bad then you may need it but then it leaves its own things behind to be taken out...idk about megs being the best as I havent tried any others, but why should I when Megs works so great???

[Maserati Mario]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

I like the mild clay, the c-2000. It works great, a larger size. I like it a lot.

[irf@n]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

I have Smooth Surface Clay kit too, the white clay is safe

[MrCLRider]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

I have only used the kit clay. Looking at alot of other vendors clay, I always tend to see the term ultra fine, which to me would be like the kit clay. I hope someone can correct me if i'm wrong. I do want to try the mild clay though, just because...lol.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

I have only used the kit clay. Looking at alot of other vendors clay, I always tend to see the term ultra fine, which to me would be like the kit clay. I hope someone can correct me if i'm wrong. I do want to try the mild clay though, just because...lol.

Been told the white clay bar in our Smooth Surface Clay Kit is just a tick less aggressive than our Medium Clay in our Professional Line.

The clay in the Smooth Surface Clay Kit is definitely not in the ultra fine category.


Any quality brand of clay is going to work fine for removing most above surface bonded contaminants. If you're new to claying and/or detailing, avoid the aggressive clay bars as they can cause clay haze on some paints.

[Andrew C.]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

If you're new to claying and/or detailing, avoid the aggressive clay bars as they can cause clay haze on some paints.

Hey Mike could you explain clay haze? I don't quite understand how clay can haze as I thought it was non abrasive?

[02zx9r]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

I have used the megs smooth clay kit, and yesterday the turtle wax clay bar. Both work like they are supposed to. I have a Mothers clay bar I will try out eventually as well.


-The smooth surface kit is a good deal as it comes with clay, lube (which I pour into a separate bottle and go 50:50 with lube and water) a sample of the cleaner wax and a supreme shine mf towel.


-Clay magic and sonus make clay bars as well.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

Anytime you see this in your posts,

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It's a sign of hidden code


Just to note, it looks like the above was copied and pasted from some type of Microsoft Office Document.

We see this from time to time as there's "Hidden Code" behind what you actually see on your monitor and when you copy and paste this into the vBulletin software it can get jumbled.

Note the Hidden Code is jumbled and portions have shown up in the message.



A workaround is to copy and paste it into vBulletin when you have vBulletin in "Editor Mode" which is this little button in the upper left hand corner of your message formatting box.




Or copy and paste into Notepad first which in most cases will strip out any of the hidden code. Then copy and paste this into vBulletin either mode, WYSIWYG or Editor Mode.

Of course then you'll lose ALL formatting including links but that's easy enough to put back in if you know the basics of inserting a hyperlink into your post.

FWIW

[02zx9r]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

Thanks for the tip. Corrected the above post using the vBulletin in editor mode.

P.S.
for me it is in the top right corner, at least it was when I went to edit my post.

[Ivan Rajic]

Re: Which clay bar is the best??

I started claying with the Smooth Surface kit, then used Sonus and Clay Magic... for some very very very weird reason I never ordered/tried any Meg's professional clay... just the other day, I was at a local paint shop that's also a Meg's dealer, and they had the blue/mild clay there, so I said "why not"...

I've been kicking myself in the *** for 2 weeks now for not trying this years ago... it's very soft, extremely malleable and works similar to the blue clay magic bar (only used the bar on 2 cars so can't really compare the two)... so if the red Meg's bar is as malleable (someone please confirm this) and if the two work similar to the Clay Magic blue/red, I'm definitely ordering a bunch of Meg's bars asap... the reason I like them so much is the malleability as opposed to Clay Magic bars, which tend to be very hard and not easily formed how you want them... they do work great, but like I said, if Meg's do 80% of the work, I'm done with CM bars.

To answer your question though, everyone has their own 'best' claybar I think, and mine is now the blue/mild Meg's bar.