Clay bars

Slime101

Slime101

Slime101

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Does anyone still use them when "detailing" (or washing/cleaning for us normal folk) their cars.

I dug mine out the garage and gave the front wings, bonnet and bumper a good going over and id forgotten how good they are at getting the crap off, but it seems in all threads about cleaning its all "snow foam" and other fancy stuff and never a mention of good old clay?
 
You do realise a claybar is not to be used on every wash or even every other wash for that matter?

Once a year is enough (or when you begin to feel needle head like bumps on the surface of the paint when you run your hands palm faced down along it after a proper wash) followed by use of a decent polish and seal.

Snow foam is good but you still need to washmit it afterwards because snowfoam will remove surface dirt making life easier when washmitting the car.

Which reminds me, need to pick up a Meg's Snowfoam kit on the way home for tomorrow...
 
mrk said:
Which reminds me, need to pick up a Meg's Snowfoam kit on the way home for tomorrow...
Click to expand...

Where from out of interest? I've never been able to find one "on the highstreet" as it were.

And yes, mine get clayed every 4-6 months.
 
Yes, i barely use it once a year but i could probably use it a lot more often, i have been doign 60k a year......so thats 6 years average persons driving every 12 months!
 
That's a lot of driving but if you polish and seal it immediately after claybarring (and rinsing of course) then the need to claybar mid year should not occur as the seal layer will take the brunt of the filth!

Obviously not much help if the seal wears down quicker due to your mileage :p

Oh regarding Megs snowfoam, I meant Megs claybar kit :S, for some reason I have snowfoam on the mind!
 
aye, clayed the car last week for the first time, awesome results!

love snow foam too, only one that i know of that cleans properly though is the Bilt Hamber Auto-Foam
 
Can't remember the foam I use, SoliD got it! but its a huge tub of the stuff. Just need a good snow foam lance/cannister now as the bundled one with my PW is a bit poo.
 
Excellent ta!

Edit*

Offer code not working any more :/
 
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I got a Karcher Foam Lance from clean your car when it was on offer and 5 litres of Valet Pro PH neutral. Smells 'clean' when you use it.

Here's my normal wash method:

Snow foam (don't rinse first or you remove the effect of the snow foam)
Let it dwell whilst at the same time I go round with a degreaser or APC. Don't get sucked in to the Megs APC rubbish. Its overpriced pap. I use a bicycle degreaser and bicycle APC which in direct personal tests with megs APC, always out performs it.

So while the cars dwelling I go round the wheels, badges, wing mirrors, gloss trims, exhaust tips, engine bay plastics.

Then rinse, then TBM with wash mitt and dry.

I always clay my wing mirrors as without fail they are always grubby, as is the leading bonnet edge and roof line. These should always have a mild / soft clay used on them as no sealant will protect from the battering these get charging up and down the motoroways.

Then polish, glaze, seal, wax as required.

mrk1@1 turned up at mine the other day saying he'd just spent 6 hours cleaning and polishing his car. I roffled. I spent that snow foaming mine!!! ;)
 
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That much ^



Don't have a pressure washer that works at my parents house anymore. Washed my little sunny for the first time in months last week and my washing sponge (fluffy thing not a sponge from a detailing online store ;))with teh standard 2 bucket method and megs gold class wash. Still pretty dirty though, and looking forward to giving it another wash, followed by a good hard claying next week, followed by SRP and some collonite.

Pity there is a rust bubble on the bottom skirt near the rear wheel that has grown massively in the last 6months :(:(:(
 
Not clayed the Mondeo yet, should do really.

Did a clay on my mums fella's Impreza, probably hadn't even seen a polish in the 16 years its been on the road, was rather bad to say the least, looked/felt superb afterwards, though.
 
I use it every 3 months, as I do a lot of mileage and dont have the time to clean the car every week (once a month really) in that time, flies seem to weld theirselves to the car, I find a mild clay does a great job of whipping the little blighters of!
 
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