HBC350

I need to clay my arctic white 63 soon and get all this crap out of the paint. I've used Clay Magic before and it was ok, but I'm wondering if there is a standout product on the market that I haven't tried? Any of you folks have a recommendation?

cek

Clay is clay. Just use lots of lube. I use Groit's Speed Shine and Meguar's Final Inspection. Both work great.

sunil1234

Use bilt hamber- it only needs regular tap water as lube

blownS

I prefer Zaino myself.

Parkker

I would also recommend Bilt Hamber as you can use it just with tap water as lubrication.

jvanbrecht

While you can use tap water, I would not recommend it, tap water contains contaminants from the supply, all the way down to your local pipes in your house. Hell, DC water had lead in in for years :P

If your going to use tap water, atleast run it through a water filter first.

sunil1234

Lol depends on how much OCD you suffer from ;-)

jvanbrecht

Has nothing to due with OCD.. of which I definitely do not suffer from (my wife will attest to that fact since she is always yelling at me to clean up the house and what not)...

The purpose of clay barring is to remove debris, not add to it, and the potential, especially with old piping (like my house has) to introduce contaminants that could scratch the paint during the clay bar process is there.

sunil1234

Chillax mate, personally I live in a hard water area and never had an issue even with lots if metallic black cars. A filter is a good idea though, wish I could justify one if those filter wash kits .....

jvanbrecht

Nah, one of those $20 Brita tap filters works just fine I am not that insane, $300+ for DI water system I think is a waste, unless your in a hospital type env.

sunil1234

U mean you dont store you car in an air bubble , I do lol

jvanbrecht

No, I keep my mountain bikes in the air bubble, they cost almost as much as the car okay not quite, but my 3 mountain bikes and associated gear's total cost is about half as much as the cost of a base model C63.. those I keep in the Garage.. the car, while awesome, is a car, it gets used, it gets dirty, I wash it, it lives in the driveway

Azn_C300

Clay is NOT just clay and not all clay is equal. There are degrees of aggressiveness to clays. Some of the milder clays are designed for maintenance and although won't pick up as much contaminants per pass, is safer on the paint and shouldn't cause marring. More aggressive clay will pick up some of the harder to remove baked in contaminants, but due to the aggressive nature of the clay, can cause marring so you don't want to use it for your regular maintenance cycle. Then you get into quality of clay...is it pliable? does it leave trace residue behind when you swipe? Clay Magic makes pretty solid clay that I wouldn't mind recommending on the merit of the clay itself, but I'll never support that company due to it's business strategy of suing and ruining lives of every other mom/pop clay maker out there. Pinnacle makes a pretty decent and safe maintenance clay that I use. For aggressive clay, I'll use Megs blue or red clay for OTC or my DI medium clay. I'd stay away from the gray Megs clay (one that comes in the kit) though, that thing is worthless. The Mother's OTC kit is slightly better, but not that great also. Zaino...well, zaino is generally regarded by the detailing community as a decent stepping stone line from OTC to boutique, but is overpriced for what it offers...you can do better for what you're paying Sal Zaino...

As for lube, don't use just water. You'll end up causing more harm than good. You want something with much more lubricity so your swipes glide smoothly over repeated passes without drying out the first couple passes. You don't EVER want the clay to drag. Most OTC QDs will work for the general masses. Best I've seen and used is Wolfgang lube, but if you do enough cars, it's not the most cost effective. I'll usually do an Optimum ONR mix or reach for my FK 425.

jvanbrecht

I have the DI medium clay, and Dodo Juice Born Slippy lube (came as a package from DI).

It's not that expensive, in fact, the Megs kit (grey clay, and QD) cost around $18 when I bought it a long time ago at Autozone. The kit had 2 small slivers of clay, probably totaling 100 grams at most.

The DI medium 100g is about $10 and the dodo juice lube is about $7, plus shipping if you cannot find it locally, well worth the cost over anything you will find at a big box store.

Even Money

This is what I use..works great, never had an issue..you can really feel the difference before and after.

jvanbrecht

I don't plan on claying too often, so 200g should be more than enough. I also picked up a couple of medium cut and finishing polishes to remove swirls, figure complete detail once a year should be enough, and I only plan on claying before I detail.

sunil1234

Wow some serious kit you have there!!!


I also keep a clean car but get told off for not tidying the house lol

enjoy and be safe

Baby Gorilla

I have used the Blackfire kit on several vehicles and have been very happy with it:

http://www.properautocare.com/blpoiikit.html

yooker

Clay Magic Blue