Fav Clay Bar Kit
 

I've used several kits, including a couple kits that include the liquid and some that just included different grains/densities of clay. Just wondering if there is any more experience out there on the best clay bars. Thanks

Off the shelf stuff I like the Meguairs kit. It's quality and serves its purpose well. I recently claybared the wife's Mach and it looks really good. :)

Autogeek.com has everything you will ever want to know about detailing and has all the products you could ever want. :)

Nice Steve never been on that site before, gunno go check it out now. I've used Meguairs kit as well and it did well for mine also, in fact i'll be doing my whole car this weekend

I recently used the meguiars as well. quality stuff. also smells a little cinammony. pretty nice. make sure you use 100% carnuba wax. its tough work, but well worth it, I haven't had to really wash my car hard in months.

did you do your wax by hand or with an electric doo-dad

I have used the Meguiars in the past. Good Stuff for sure. I recently purchased Pinnacle Ultra Poly Clay and Pinnacle Clay Lubricant through Lethal. It's really good stuff. I felt like I had to knead the clay more often. Can't really say I like one more than the other.
After clay I wash, used Blackfire Wet Diamond All Finish Paint Protection. Followed by Blackfire Midnight Sun Carnauba Wax. Awesome stuff!

Also used the off-the-shelf Meguiar's kit before. I'm not as hardcore into detailing as I thought I'd be in the past, but it still does what I ask of it, and I've clayed both my truck and my car on the same clay bar without any problems.

I love detailing my cars. I can spend the whole day out in the driveway just happy as can be only to just back the car back into the garage without going cruising. lol.

The only detail spray I will use is Wizards detail spray. Love it, doesn't streak like most others will.

I used to use a few different off the shelf brands like Meguairs, Turtle Wax, or Mothers a lot. However I was recently introduced to Zaino. I will never use anything else again. Their claybar system is great along with all their other products 100% top top notch. They actually suggest using it with a mixture of water and their high concentrate car wash for claybaring lubrication. I have the easiest time/effort with these products and they last a LONG time.

Meguiars BLUE clay bar with Optimum No Rinse QD dilution is a winning combination. If you have severe fallout or other bonded contaminants; get tour hands on Megs RED. You will have to polish afterwards as the red clay is so powerful, it will slightly mar some paintwork.

That sounds a little scary to me, I dont want to clean my car and screw up the paint at the same time!!

That red bar is very aggressive. As long as you dont mind doing a good polish on it afterwards you would be okay. In my opinion i dont think its really needed on new paint that has been taken care of well.

well my car was outside at HPP for 3 months, and I havent been home to look at it yet?

i did all by hand. it was rough. I recommend getting some electric doo dads to help.

Oh, you will definetely need to recondition it then.

Zymol, Griot's Garage, Adam's in that order.

Have you used ONR? As far as washing goes, once you use ONR, you will never go to back to a hose again :Moon: it is a decent qd; I've never used Wizards. Where do you get it?

No, i havent. With this car being new all i have used on it is Colonite845 and Wizards.

Wizards i buy directly from their site. I like it cuz it doesnt streak or leave any oily residue behind.

How do u like Wizards compared to Adam's? The few times I've used my sample bottle of Adams, it looks like I just waxed the car. My C5 was gleaming when the kid got it after I wiped it downan and it hasn't been waxed since 2008.

I havent tried Adam's since im happy with Wizards. I am about to buy some Adams two step polish for my wheels though. Kevin swears by it and his wheels always look great.

Why would you not wax your vette since 08 :Frustrated:

Laziness mainly, car sat out a lot due to my Mustang gettin garage dibs anytime it might storm (hail). Vettes are hail proof so it made sense to toss outside for the night just in case.

Other than that, spending hours making the car look bling would make me not want to ever drive it because it'd get dirty again.. So I left it dirty most the time so I'd be more prone to drive it. Heh

I may need some help with the polishing thing, im not really understanding why wash->clay bar->carnuba wax doesnt equal sexy looking car. So much to learn......not enough hard drive space in brain

That works fine too, but for those of us with an OCD for shiny stuff we take it abit further. lol.

The factory paint looks fine to most people who don't look real closely or care for that matter if it ain't there thing. However, you look closely, factory paint isn't the greatest and is full of flaws with fisheyes, orange peel etc. With a little work, it can be made to look much better and last much longer but most people usually don't want to put in the work to do so because they either don't enjoy detailing or don't plan to keep their car that long, or simply don't care.

I need to buy an orbital buffer. starting to notice some swirl marks

where does the polishing enter into the wash-clay-wax cycle? is it done by hand? how often?

Depends how bad it is... If I'm going to show my car, I do wash, clay, polish, clay, wax, and detail spray to help get all the wax off the nooks and crannies.

I usually just spend a buck at the qtr wash and use high pressure water and air dry. Lmao

If you want to throw a few hundo at me I can bling your car up. Prob take me 3 full days for exterior only, and another full day on interior.

Depends on the condition. You can do it by hand or with a Porter Cable if you want. It's just personal preference really. Polishing is much easier to the Porter Cable though. The only way to tell what your car needs right now is to look at it.

As for maintence, it depends on how often your car is exposed to the outdoors, driven in bad weather etc.

I've owned mine 6 months now, only washed it twice. I put one coat of Colonite845 on it every month or so and the rest of the time I use Wizards detail spray. My car is pretty much new still, garaged 90% of the time and I try not to drive it bad weather if I can help it.


The only way I air dry a car is if I go make a 100mph pass down the highway! lol. Water spots and hard water stains drive me insane. I can't stand it.

And a few "hundo"? Good lord Matt. lmao!

Steve, I'm not going to spend 20-30 hours and 50+ bucks in chemicals for 100 bux. Lol. That's like 2 bux an hour... Good details cost. This isn't the 80s anymore. You've always done your own so you are prob unsure of the market. I charged 150 a car over 10 years ago...

30 hours and 50 in product?? Lmao. Dude, its a late model stang, not a Riddler award contender. Hahaha!

If I'm gonna do it, I go balls to the wall!:favorites37:

You can only do so much with a factory paint job. Putting 30 hours into a daily driver is just crazy. Im obsessive as hell about it, you're just trying to overcharge ya greedy bastard! Haha.

Ha, I'd rather not do it at all, but if I do, it better be worth my time. :)