Should paint be perfectly smooth after claying?

[TundraPower]

The paint on my two month old subaru looks perfect but the Baggie test revealed a lot of contaminants. I had an unused bar of Zaino brothers clay bar left over from ten years ago and my Corvette days. After claying the paint was much smoother but the Baggie test still revealed a very slight bit of roughness. Do I need to keep claying or move on to polish? Am I not claying correctly? I used a lot of left over blue magic clay lube.

Get some new clay and some clay lubricant. Ricardo is the best there is. You might not get 100% perfectly smooth regardless. Contaminants can work their way under the clear coat. In that case, it's time for Auto Finesse Iron Out or Car Pro TRIX.

 

[Chicago Tommy]

Keep in mind there may be paint nibs in it that clay will never get. But it should be pretty smooth.
BTW--Clay is pretty much clay. I don't buy all that kit stuff. Amazon has the basic blue Simoniz clay in a cellophane bag, chaper than all the brand stuff. In fact, it got my wife's car down to where I actually saw filler rings in the roof from a repair 2 years ago. (They just repainted that for free last week!) I hadn't noticed them before.
And the cheapest lube I have found is the large maroon squirt bottle of Megs detailer on sale for $10 +/-.

If you clay often enough, you would want to look into cheaper lube options. ONR diluted, IUDJ diluted, etc.