Clay Bar & Wax

[Billip]

I would like to hear everyones opinion on clay bar and wax... which ones have you used and liked? Where did you get it? I know this has probably been covered in detail here and definately has been on Vortex, but all the products they recommend on Vortex I can't find in any of our local stores. So I'm looking for stuff that you have used and know where to buy. Any other juicy tidbits would be cool too. :mrtongue:

[Holksvagon]

i used the Mothers stuff from Partsource and loved it.... folloowed with a Mequires #26 tech wax

[R_Ethug]

i bought a mothers kit on sale this summer from crappy tire for 20 bucks its teh best shizzle ever.. took me 3 hours but it was so worth it paint looked so nice. if i didn't do it this sumer i would do it this fall followed by glaze and 3 coats for a nice winter protection still have to wax my car for winter sometime this month..

[CalgaryB5]

Mother bar is softer than Maquire. I choose Maquire for my cars. They perform about the same.

[Kor]

I used a Meguiars clay bar kit, it worked pretty well. From what Simon L told me the 3m wax is 'tha bommmmb' (those were his exact words).

[Tromping_Maniac]

I used mothers claybar, followed by a coat of meguairs, swirl remover, then a Coat of Meguiars Deep Crystal Stage one, follow by two coats of meguiars Gold Class wax, the car looked amazing after that, but it took almost 4 hours.

[Billip]

Thanks for the responses. For those that used Meguairs, where did you buy it?

I might as well ask for your opinion on exactly what I should do to my car. It was purchased in June and I've taken pretty good care of keeping it clean so far. I want to give it a good cleaning before winter sets in, so I was thinking clay bar and wax... but now i'm hearing words like "glaze", "anti-swirl" and talk of multiple coats. Does anyone want to walk me through their suggestion, along with the reasons why each step is a good idea?

[R_Ethug]

bill clay the car to get the surface basically factory paint.. then use a glaze to help bring the paint luster out.. follow the glaze with 2-3 coats of a high end wax.. the wax will promote the glaze and make it shiny and deep/wet looking aswell as protect the paint from all the salt and crap throughout winter.. if you even park in a garage over winter and have easy access to a big bucket or whatever.. give you car a mid winter waxing to help it out.. here is my roof after claying and waxing.. hella good my car looked so nice after that

[Kor]

I bought my clay bar "kit" (comes with moisturizing spray) at PartSource.

Clay bar is used to strip out stuff that gets stuck on or in your clearcoat. Grains of metal, sand, and grit are constantly sandblasting your car as you drive. Eventually this builds up at a level that you cannot see with the human eye, but which you can feel with your hand. A good clay bar job will leave the clay looking dirty, and your car feeling much smoother. This also helps the wax stick to the paint and last longer.

Glaze is most useful for making the depth of your shine better. If you glaze you absolutely need to do a VERY good job of waxing afterwards, otherwise you wasted your time. By VERY good I mean that you need to get every inch of the car, you might want to do two coats. I haven't glazed my car yet because it would take up to two days to do a worthwhile job (in my opinion). If you do it "fast" you are also wasting your time with glaze because your time would have been better spent with some extra care waxing.

Glaze can also help make painted areas that are not exact matches look like more of a match, and can hide clearcoat scratches (so does wax, to some extent).

Anti-swirl is for removing... swirls. If you have a black car, you will probably see the swirls after washing and waxing your car all year. If you have a yellow car, i highly doubt that you will be able to see swirls. When you use an anti-swirl agent it is actually an abrasive, so you should do it rarely and only if swirling is really noticable (even after a wax). Bill, I would not use any products like swirl removers on your car since it is so new.

If you want to do the most in the least amount of time, I would:

1) Wash the car very very well.

2) Clay-bar the key areas where grit builds up - the front, around the wheel-wells, the bumpers, etc. If the clay bar looks dirty, you should continue to do the whole car because it probably needs it. If the clay bar is not dirty, your car is probably still too new to warrant a thorough clay-barring (but feel free to do it, a clay bar can't hurt).

3) Wax with a good solid wax. I would get the 3m-in-a-can and use that. Let it dry completely before taking it off, use a very soft towel, and do not wax your car in the sun. Do small areas at a time, do not apply wax to the entire car at once. Take your time.

[Billip]

Cool guys, thanks again. Question though Kris: why does the glaze require such a through wax afterwards? I'm assuming it needs to be "locked in" by the wax or it'll just wash off?

[Kor]

Yeah the Glaze won't last after washing if you don't do a good wax over it... I guess it probably depends on the glaze product you buy, but in general genuine wax is the best barrier between your paint and water/dirt.

[Billip]

Right on. I just went to PartSource and picked up a Mothers California Gold Clay Bar Kit (with the spray stuff), Meguiars Show Car Glaze and Meguires Hi-Tech Yellow Wax... along with some terry towels. This will be my project in the next few days. Does this sound like a good combo?

[Smartiepants]

Yep, this long weekend I plan on doing my pre winter wax job, I'm pretty sure that my old jobs are still there, but one more coat never hurt.

[bart]

ok, i say we get together and do this as a group somewhere...

i just waxed my car last weekend with zymol, never used a clay bar on it, dont know how, so i would need some initial help!

[R_Ethug]

clay bar is easy guys you just seriously need the afternoon because it will take you 3+ hours but damn you darker colored cars will look amazing.. my silver looks great after a simple car wash but claying it /wax made it look 1000x better.