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Who Makes The Best Clay Bar Kit In 2019?
If you are looking for the best clay bar kit in 2019 there are quite a few different kits to choose from. If you are unsure of which clay bar kit is going to be the best for you I’ve outlined what I think are the best clay bar kits on the market and why. I’ve also included why you should clay bar your vehicle from time to time as well as the process to clay bar your car.
What Is A Clay Bar?
A clay bar is exactly what it sounds like a piece of clay that is used to pick up contaminants in your cars paint that you cannot see with your naked eye. When you use a clay bar in combination with a detailing spray or soapy water you use the clay bar to rub across the surface of your paint, as you run the clay bar across the surface of your paint it will begin to pick up the contaminants in the surface of your paint.
It’s important to note that you should always use a clay bar with some sort of lubrication on the surface of your paint. You would not want to rub just the clay bar across the surface of your paint as you would likely be causing micro scratches in the surface of your paint if you did this. Clay bars should always be used in combination with some sort of liquid lubricant so that you don’t scratch the paint of your car.
My Clay Bar Kit Recommendations
Mothers California Gold Clay Bar Kit
I have personally used this Mothers clay kit as well as the Meguiars clay bar kit on my vehicles and both seem to work pretty well at removing contaminants.
Mothers say that with their clay bar that they include it can remove tree sap, environmental deposits, paint overspray, and embedded grains of metal from the surface of your paint.
Mothers says that their clay bar is safe for all automotive paints which all clay bars should be. This kit is about the same price as the Meguiar’s clay bar kit as well. To check out the current prices of this Mothers California Gold clay bar kit on Amazon click here.
Meguiar’s Smooth Surface Clay Bar Kit
With this kit, you get two 80 gram clay bars for a total of 160 grams of clay bar included in the kit. Meguiars says that their clay bars can remove bird droppings, paint overspray, tree sap, and other contaminants.
I have used this kit before on my cars, this kit is very similar in offerings and price to the Mothers kit and you would be fine with going with either clay bar kit for your vehicles. To check out the current prices of this Meguiar’s smooth surface clay bar kit on Amazon click here.
Chemical Guys OG Clay Bar & Luber Synthetic Lubricant Kit
If you do not have microfiber towels on hand at your place I’ve included a link to a pack of 16 microfiber towels from the same manufacturer as this clay bar kit that I have that I would recommend.
With all that said this kit is a bit higher priced compared to the Mothers and Meguiars kit that I’ve included above so as it only includes one clay bar and no microfiber towel.
If you want the best bang for your buck I would go with one of the kits that have two included clay bars. To check out the current prices of this Chemical Guys clay bar kit on Amazon click here.
TriNova Clay Bar Kit
This kit is also a bit cheaper than the Mothers or Meguiars clay bar kits so if you are looking to get the most for your money while also getting two clay bars included in the kit you may want to look at this clay bar kit.
One thing to note is that the clay bars included in this kit are blue in color so they may not be as easy to see how much dirt and contaminants you are picking up with the clay bars but that is a small detail. To check out the current prices of this Trinova clay bar kit on Amazon click here.
Mothers Single Unit Speed Clay 2.0
This is not a normal clay bar that can be folded and molded it looks to be foam on top that is shaped like a computer mouse to be able to be held in your hand easily.
On the bottom, it has a rubber polymer surface that is flat that you would use to rub across the surface of your paint with whatever lubricant you decide to use to remove the contaminants from your paint surface.
Mothers say that this clay bar can be used on up to 20 different vehicles or 20 uses on the same vehicle. To check out the current prices on Amazon of this Mothers single unit clay bar kit click here.
Why Should You Clay Bar Your Car?
As you drive down the road your car’s paint will start to pick up contaminants that will get stuck to the surface of your paint that cannot be removed by just washing your vehicle. If you are planning to do any sort of paint correction or paint sealant on your car you would want to make sure that you used a clay bar on your car to remove any contaminants from the paint before you used any sort of paint sealant.
Using a clay bar on your car will also create a smoother surface on your paint which will cause water to bead off of the surface of your paint easier which keeps your car cleaner longer. It’s tough to describe the difference that using a clay bar on your vehicle will make if you have not ever done it yourself but once you have tried it for yourself you will know what I am talking about.
When you use a clay bar to remove the contaminants out of your paint the surface of your paint will become a lot smoother to the touch. You can test this out for yourself by buying a clay bar kit and using it on a section of your car and then run your fingers across that section of paint.
It should be smooth to the touch and not make any audible sounds when you run your fingers across it. Now go to a clean section of your car that you have not done this process on yet and run your fingers across that section. It will be rough to the touch and it will be audible when your fingers run across your paint.
How to Clay Bar your Car
Before you decide to clay bar your car you would first want to fully prep your vehicle by making sure that you first start by taking it to the car wash to make sure that there is no dirt left on your car’s paint. Once you have washed your car you would want to take some sort of spray wax and a microfiber towel to the paint to ensure that you have removed all of the dirt from the surface of the paint. Once you’ve done that you can go ahead and start the clay bar process.
You would want to take the clay bar out of the packaging and mold the bar into a flat pancake so that you can cover a greater area when you are wiping it across your paint. You would then spray the surface that you want to clay bar with detailing spray that is included in the kit or with soapy water. You would want to do one panel of your car at a time so don’t waste detailing spray by spraying other panels right now.
Once you have applied the detailing spray or soapy water you are now ready to start swiping the clay bar across your vehicle’s paint. You can go in whatever direction you would like, I usually just go back and forth from side to side, just make sure that you hit all of the panels of your car so that you don’t miss any spots. If the area that you are using the clay bar on starts to dry out just apply more lubricant to the area and keep swiping with your clay bar.
You will notice that as you start to clay bar the panels of your car the clay bar will start to pick up dirt and other contaminants. You will want to periodically fold the clay bar in half and then remake the pancake shape so that you are using a clean clay bar surface so that it can pick up the contaminants in your paint effectively. You would want to continue the process of spraying on your chosen lubricant and swiping back and forth on your paint surface until you have completed all of the panels of your car.
From there you can follow back up with a spray wax on the surface of your paint if you would like as sometimes the clay from the clay bar will be stuck to the paint surface. You can then use your spray wax to clean up any clay bar residue and your car’s paint should be looking very shiny at this point. The cars paint should also be smooth to the touch as I mentioned previously.
At this point, you can call it a day if you would like but you could also go a step further and apply a fresh coat of wax or even a ceramic coating if you really want to protect the paint of your vehicle going forward. I’ve outlined the steps to apply a wax or ceramic coating below.
A Word of Caution
If you at any point during the clay bar process happen to drop the clay bar that you are using on the ground you would want to discard that piece of the clay bar. If you drop the clay bar on the ground and it happened to pick up any rocks or pebbles and then you used that again on the paint of your car you are likely going to cause scratches in the paint of your car and do more harm than good.
Related Questions
Do you need to wax after using a clay bar? Yes, you should go ahead and apply a new layer of wax after you have used a clay bar on your car. A clay bar will remove any contaminants on the surface of your paint as well as any layer of wax that may have been present. It’s a good idea to apply a new coat of wax soon after using a clay bar.
Do clay bars remove scratches? No, clay bars are designed to remove contaminants from the surface of your paint not scratches. If you were wanting to remove swirl marks or scratches that are not that deep then you need another automotive tool.
With a random orbital buffer, you can buff your car to remove swirl marks or small scratches as long as they are still in the clear coat and not deep.
Do you wash your car before claying? Yes, you want to wash your car before claying it because if not you run the risk of picking up dirt with the clay bar and creating scratches in your paint.
If your paint surface is not smooth before using a clay bar then you likely will scratch your paint as you will be dragging the surface dirt along your paint. You should always wash your car and make sure the surface of your paint is clean before using a clay bar on it.
How often should I clay bar my car? As far as how often you should clay bar your car, that’s up to you. I would recommend using a clay bar twice a year on your car to see the benefits. You likely won’t see any added benefits by using a clay bar more than twice a year.
Do you have to wash your car after clay bar? You should not need to wash your car again after using a clay bar. There may be some spots where the clay has been left on your car but you would just want to use some spray wax and a microfiber towel to remove them.
How to preserve your paint (Car Wax – Ceramic Coating)
If you want to take the extra step to preserve your cars paint for a longer period you can apply a layer of wax to your car or even go a step further and apply a paint sealant to help protect your paint and make your car cleaner in between washes.
If you want to apply a layer of wax you would want to take your favorite car wax and then apply that to the surface of your car with an applicator pad or a microfiber towel. It’s important that when you are applying any sort of wax that you do not use an abrasive towel or anything that could scratch the paint of your car which is why I recommend car wax applicator pads for this process. Once you’ve applied your wax to your car you can then use a microfiber towel to remove the excess wax from your car to complete the process.
If you want to go a step beyond car wax you can apply a paint sealant such as a ceramic coating. A ceramic coating is a semi-permanent sealant that you apply to the surface of your cars paint that protects the paint from excess dirt from building up on the surface of the paint by increasing the hydrophobic properties of your paint.
It does this by making any water that touches the surface of your paint bead off the surface of your car. When this happens it does not allow the dirt and other contaminants to sit on your vehicle for a long time and will make your car cleaner longer. This is also beneficial if you live in colder climates where you may not want to take your car through the car wash as much during the cold winter months.
A paint sealant or ceramic coating will not protect your paint from rock chips, however. If you want something that would protect your paint against rock chips you would want to look at applying a clear bra to the front of your car and hood. Think of a ceramic coating as car wax on steroids as the ceramic coating that you apply to your car should last at least two years without needing to be reapplied.
I’ve included a full article that I wrote up detailing the process of how you would want to go about applying a ceramic coating to your car and the ones that I recommend and the specific ceramic coating that I used.
In Conclusion
If you are looking for the best clay bar kit in 2019 there are a bunch of different options to choose from. You can’t really go wrong with whatever clay bar kit that you end up going with as they are pretty much essentially going to be the same thing across the kits.
It’s really all down to how many or how much clay bar materials are included in the kit and how much clay bar spray is included. If you are planning to use soapy water to clay bar your car you could just buy the clay bar as you would not need the detailing spray assuming that you also have some microfiber towels to use.