What exactly does a clay bar do?

 

It removes all the stuff that you can't see with the naked eye... The best way to find out if you need to clay or not and where to clay is to take a brown paper bag that you would take lunch in and put your hand in there and run it along the paint. If you feel any kinds of bumps you need to clay that spot....

 

Ummm....sorry Mr. , I have to disagree with you. (Maybe it's too early in the morning, traffic bad in Jersey too ?)
Use a clear plastic sandwich bag. I usually do this right after the car is washed and still wet. Run it along your paint (with barely any pressure). If it feels gritty, you should clay the paint. Depends how crazy you want to go. Some say every 4 to 6 months. You'd be surprised how much junk is embedded in your paint (brake dust, industrial fallout, metal shavings, etc.). Read the directions carefully and lube lube lube. Look for a post on how to clay. NSXNEXT probably wrote one somewhere around here.

Claying takes time, but is well worth it. Last time I clayed my car was less than 3 months ago and I feel it's time for another claying.

 

i don't think you need anything but your hand/fingers and you should be able to tell that your paint surface is "rough"...if so, a claybar should do a goob job of removing the stuck particles and making the surface smooth again. just buy those clay bar kits from clay magic, mothers or meguiars.

 

Noooo!!! The brown paper bag will scratch the hell out of the paint!!!

Use a plastic bag, like Ziplock.

 

Yup plastic bag. You'd be amazed what the "naked" hand cannot feel.

 

If you've never clayed the car, then you need to...do it twice a year. ..don't worry about some 'magic trick' using some kind of bag to figure out if you need to clay it or not...

 

take a piece of 1000-1500 grit wet sand paper and with it in water rub your finger tips on it foer a little bit, it will make your fingers really smooth and you will be able to feel all little imperfections. (no it wount remove your finger prints if the little thieves are thinking about that)

 

Clay bar is awesome. I can't believe I used to wax without it. You HAVE to use it. It does WONDERS for your car.

 

 

SK2003TypeS whats up w the rude comment about jersey bro no need aight maybe he made aslight error so correct him and move on by the way the how are the Knicks and Rangers doin when do they play.....................

 

OMG, I just clayed my car today and am I ever tired...but it was worth it

 

I think you used to much pressure or not enough lube. It shouldnt take very much time or energy to lube.

 

I also washed the car 3 times

plus I used quite a bit of lube....almost the whole bottle of the Mother's quick detailing dealy that was in the claybar package :p :o

 

It can be tiresome, even if you're doing it right!!! I clayed my 3 year old Accord for the first time..............even though I take very good care of it, you shoulda seen the stuff coming outta the paint!!!

So I used a little extra pressure and a lot of extra clay lube to do each panel pretty much twice. Now the paint is ultra-clean and I topped it with some 3M Hand Glaze and Meguiars Gold Class.

SSM looks nice when its clean and waxed

-Chris

 

I spent 4 hours washing/claying/washing/polishing/waxing my car. But the rewards are DEFINITELY worth every minute. Now only if this DAMN pollen would go away, my car might stay clean.

 

Sorry if I offended anyone. Was not my intention. I know that Jersey has some heavy traffic from time to time and was chalking it up to a morning mental hiccup.

Knicks and Rangers.....lol Agreed.