Claying in the UK

[Keith718]

Hi,



At the end of last year I bought a `Surface Cleansing Bar` from Halfords (a large UK car spares/tools/accessories chain). At the time I was surprised to see it stocked, as (as has been said before) claying is unknown in the UK. I only know about it myself from this forum. A few days ago I finally gave it a go.



The clay bar, 300 gr for about £4, is Halfords` own brand and is marked Made in Japan. It is a bilious turquoise colour, I wouldn`t be surprised if it glowed in the dark. I tried it first on my `95 Rover, with a bullet-proof clearcoat, possibly one of the last of the solvent finishes before Rover moved to water-based paint. The car is a daily user, is washed when it`s not too cold, and is polished from time to time with Autoglym, HD Cleanse, Omega Glaze and Blitz (not all at the same time). It usually looks fairly good as long as it`s clean. I washed the car, left it wet, and filled one of those domestic cleaner squirty bottles with a strong shampoo solution. I cut a third of an inch or so off the clay bar, not very easily, and kneaded it to a thin pad approx 3" x 2". I squirted a panel and held the clay flat with moderate pressure with my middle three fingers, occasionally feeling the car`s surface as I went along with the palm of my hand. I had a few `grabs` at the start, but the technique`s pretty easy to pick up.



Before I started the paint was reasonably smooth except for the lower door panels, which felt very rough, even though whatever damage or contaminant was on the panels was not easy to see. I thought it was chip damage to the clearcoat over the years. After a few passes with the clay these panels were glassy smooth, far beyond what I had expected, and the clay looked like it had been smoking 60 a day. I completed the car within a couple of hours, rinsed it and washed it again. Even though there was no polish on the car at all the improvement was outstanding, the paintwork just seemed to have moved up another couple of notches and the lower door panels were refection itself. Although I couldn`t see any contamination before I started I could certainly see the improvement afterwards. I just didn`t want to stop claying!



Although the clay moulds itself easily to the panels, it is quite hard and not very easy to knead to a new shape. Having strong structural integrity (i.e. it doesn`t fall to bits easily) is an advantage in use but I feel that it might not absorb the dirt particles as well as a softer clay would. I`m not a fan of kneading the clay to produce a clean surface, as I feel that this just distributes the particles throughout the clay. I used a thin section of clay and reversed it when it became dirty, then threw it away. The whole process was far easier than I expected.



Even my wife and daughter noticed the improvement. Later we clayed my wife`s Toyota, a white solid colour, which is cleaned and polished more frequently than the Rover. The lift in the colour here too was dramatic. Neither car was in any way marked by the clay.



In all claying has produced exceptional results on both cars, even bearing in mind that they both needed it and that the clay is not the most expensive you can buy. I would think repeat claying would produce lesser gains. I used about two-thirds of the bar to do both cars. The funny thing is, I seem to have ended up with more clay than when I started!



Regards, Kes.

[Brad B]

Great review! Thanks for the report!:xyxthumbs