Clay Bar

[kiwiatlarge]

Re: Clay Bar

The stuff is also far too expensive for my liking to waste on claying when there are cheaper alternatives too..

[JoeDirt]

Re: Clay Bar

Sorry- it was QD, I have a habit of typing UQD...

[EPHIOS]

Re: Clay Bar

If a vehicle is that nasty, I will mist it with Body Solvent and wipe it down first.

You'll save your clay (expensive), if you wash your car first, and (if you have it) use body solvent.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Clay Bar

I jut clayed my Neon this past weekend and I found that the clay bars were not very plyable and they really did not last too long. By that I mean that they did a great job at picking up the dirt from the paint finish great but they got all "grey" from it all after about 1/4 of the car was done. Are they still usable or should I toss them and get more? I tried to get as much as I could out of them but I felt that I needed to do a great job and not mar the finish by using them too long. HELP!

It sounds like the clay was performing exactly as it should. Clay works not by "picking off" the little bits of bonded contaminants but rather abrading, or shaving, them down and retaining the very tiny particulate. As the surface of the clay becomes discolored you simply work it to expose fresh material.

Is this okay to do? Once you use it you can just knead it back together? I was under the impression once you used it (and then maybe folded it in half once) you had to toss it and use a new piece?

As stated above, not only is this OK to do, it's the proper way of using clay. As it starts to get dirty you simply knead it, pull it like taffy, fold it over on itself, etc to expose some fresh material. You can continue to do this repeatedly until you can no longer reveal reasonably fresh material. Obviously the heavier the contamination the more often you're going to need to work the clay over, and the faster it's going to become effectively saturated and no longer useable. When it actually reaches that point is a bit of a judgment call, but we've seen clay bars that have served their purpose on multiple vehicles before being thrown out. Of course we've also seen a clay bar not last through half a vehicle due to such heavy contamination.

[Bill Davidson]

Re: Clay Bar

Wouldn't it be cool if we could recycle old clay. ie. A clay reclamation business (centrifuge). Mail in your old clay and get a discount on already lower priced reclaimed clay.

I want all the clay that guys drop and supposedly discard. I'm cheap, so I'll take the time to pick the particulates off the area that hit the ground. It's not like it embeds itself deep in the clay. I pinch off the contaminated area and discard it alone. Am I the only one who does this? If I'm not fully comfortable with it, I relegate it to lower panel duty.

The condition of the vehicle/color and the detailing steps I plan to do later that day are going to dictate the condition of the clay I use on the vehicle. If I plan on doing surface correction, I may not be as particular.

I'm not suggesting that you use contaminated clay, I'm suggesting you use your discretion.