Favorite Clay Bar (or similar) Product?

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I had a NanoSkin Clay mitt which was great, but after years of sitting in a hot garage it was in rough shape. I’d like to get something I can use with a quick detailer instead of a mitt that requires a full wash. Is traditional clay bar still the way to go? It would be nice to have something that can cover a lot of surface area fairly quickly.

What is your go to clay bar or similar product?

Thanks!
 
I actually find using a clay mitt (the one from BlackFire in my case) easier than using a clay bar. I put it in the clean wash bucket with my regular mitt and use it at the same time I'm washing the car. This adds very little time to my process since I'm going to wash a car before claying and polishing it out anyway.

I've bought a few clay bars I'm still working my way through, but all of them seem to be pretty similar. Since I now own both, I tend to only use clay on a car I've never worked on before. For my other vehicles I know are in good shape they get the mitt.
 
Desertnate said:
I actually find using a clay mitt (the one from BlackFire in my case) easier than using a clay bar. I put it in the clean wash bucket with my regular mitt and use it at the same time I'm washing the car. This adds very little time to my process since I'm going to wash a car before claying and polishing it out anyway.

I've bought a few clay bars I'm still working my way through, but all of them seem to be pretty similar. Since I now own both, I tend to only use clay on a car I've never worked on before. For my other vehicles I know are in good shape they get the mitt.
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I totally get it…problem is I’d be using this mostly for my V tail Bonanza (airplane). I basically don’t wash it and keep it maintained with more of waterless wash method or just maintaining it with detail sprays. It’s not practical for me to do a full wash so that’s why I was asking about something other than a mitt. Otherwise I agree with what you said.
 
Ah, a "Dr. Killer"....those details are helpful.

I don't think a clay bar would be as effective in covering a large area quickly. With a mitt like the one I use the surface area it covers is larger than my hand, while using clay bar would give you something smaller than the palm of your had if you use a portion of the bar and even the whole bar probably give you the same surface area as a mitt. If you're waterless wash product is fairly slick, you might be able to use it as lube for the clay mitt rather than a QD spray dedicated to the task.

The only advantage I could see to the clay bar vs the mitt is keeping the surface of the product clean. With a clay bar you just keep kneeding it/folding it as you work around the plane. With a mitt you'd probably want to clean it up with more waterless/QD, or rinse it in a bucket you drag around with you.
 
I'm not sure i understand your question.

I use a mitt and clay the same way with N914 diluted 1:128.

I'm glad i used regular clay the last few years but i'm going back to a new mitt i bought. It's much like the nanoskin just cheaper. They are expensive. I only paid about 15USD for mine.

Regular clay is better for tight areas of course. I might buy some mild stuff to have on hand.
 
I will always have the Meguiar's clay bars on hand. All of them the grey consumer stuff and the two pro grade clays.

I also use the Nanoskin clay blocks. The only issue I have with them is that they mar the finish really badly. But if I'm correcting a hammered vehicle it won't matter anyways.

When I got heavy into Optimum this past summer I picked up their clay towel, and it's really nice. It's a lot more gentle than the Nanoskin pads, and very effective.

But I'm using clay today, and I used it over the weekend. Grey Megs over the weekend, and the blue c2000 here at work.
 
dlc95 said:
I will always have the Meguiar's clay bars on hand. All of them the grey consumer stuff and the two pro grade clays.

I also use the Nanoskin clay blocks. The only issue I have with them is that they mar the finish really badly. But if I'm correcting a hammered vehicle it won't matter anyways.

When I got heavy into Optimum this past summer I picked up their clay towel, and it's really nice. It's a lot more gentle than the Nanoskin pads, and very effective.

But I'm using clay today, and I used it over the weekend. Grey Megs over the weekend, and the blue c2000 here at work.
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What clay block was that? I saw a kit with both medium and mild blocks earlier. I used mother speed clay 2.0 for my very first clay. It worked but sometimes i had to go over one area for quite some time to smooth it out - which is probably a good thing.

I marred up my paint really bad 2 years ago with coarse clay from tacsystems - it's purple.

I should read up more on clay :)
 
I use Griots BS synthetic clay with Speedshine. Works great.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
3M perfect it clay bar or Griots Clay...both with Griots Speed Shine
 
I use the pinnacle fine ( blue bar )
I bought a buddy of mine one of those clay towels as a gift and he loves it
 
dlc95 said:
I will always have the Meguiar's clay bars on hand. All of them the grey consumer stuff and the two pro grade clays.

I also use the Nanoskin clay blocks. The only issue I have with them is that they mar the finish really badly. But if I'm correcting a hammered vehicle it won't matter anyways.

When I got heavy into Optimum this past summer I picked up their clay towel, and it's really nice. It's a lot more gentle than the Nanoskin pads, and very effective.

But I'm using clay today, and I used it over the weekend. Grey Megs over the weekend, and the blue c2000 here at work.
Click to expand...

Dito! Use the grey allot. I have the mitts and 5" pads for time sensitive jobs.
 
dlc95 said:
I will always have the Meguiar's clay bars on hand. All of them the grey consumer stuff and the two pro grade clays.

I also use the Nanoskin clay blocks. The only issue I have with them is that they mar the finish really badly. But if I'm correcting a hammered vehicle it won't matter anyways.

When I got heavy into Optimum this past summer I picked up their clay towel, and it's really nice. It's a lot more gentle than the Nanoskin pads, and very effective.

But I'm using clay today, and I used it over the weekend. Grey Megs over the weekend, and the blue c2000 here at work.
Click to expand...

I wanted to get the Optimum towel this past spring but had a hard time finding them for whatever reason. They're expensive, no?
 
I tried using my Nanoskin claymitt today for the 1st time in a while on some single stage paint that only needed a quick do over since I had fully clayed and polished it about 3 weeks ago [but didn’t finish it off with lsp] and not only did it start ruining my claymitt, but the claymitt started leaving brown skidmarks on the white paint. Has anyone else had negative results using synthetic clay on single stage paint?

ddfc6ef2364fe28f9ce7f6b8b3c11f60.jpg



I switched to the Megs Aggressive Claybar after doing 1 side of the roof with the claymitt and everything went smooth with the clay.
 
Eldorado2k said:
I tried using my Nanoskin claymitt today for the 1st time in a while on some single stage paint that only needed a quick do over since I had fully clayed and polished it about 3 weeks ago [but didn’t finish it off with lsp] and not only did it start ruining my claymitt, but the claymitt started leaving brown skidmarks on the white paint. Has anyone else had negative results using synthetic clay on single stage paint?

ddfc6ef2364fe28f9ce7f6b8b3c11f60.jpg



I switched to the Megs Aggressive Claybar after doing 1 side of the roof with the claymitt and everything went smooth with the clay.
Click to expand...



I've not had a problem and I use the towels and mitts. I do now they like a ton of lubrication. How old is the mitt Eldo?
 
I still have a stock of Sonax and Blackfire fine clay bars.
 
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