Meg's clay really kinda sucks.

[JustinR32]

Not surprising. Is it just me, or does it seem that Megs releases products, then they work on making it a good product. I have about 60 bucks worth of that old clay (3 months old that is) that I cant use and now they figure out how clay should really work. I mean its clay. Everyone else had it figured out with less means at their disposal.

Megs is now replacing their Detailer line with an all "new and improved" line. It may be that Megs is trying to be VOC compliant but other companies already have compliant products on the market.



Ive always defended Megs but Im done with it. I refuse to be a test pig for Megs all new line of prematurely released and unproven products, on my dime. Im out of space for anymore stuff on the back of my shelves for product not worth using. My patience and wallet cant take it anymore. I'll just find a more stable line to use.

I think it's more like there are so many products, you have a better chance of picking the wrong one. Let's see;



For vinyl and rubber (including tires), there's NXT Protectant, #40, #38, S-Dressing, W-Dressing, GC Dash & Trim Foam, GC Trim Detailer, Endurance High Gloss, Endurance Natural Gloss, #39 (for cleaning), #57, Hot Shine Aerosol, Hot Shine Pump Spray, Accent Dressing, Natural Shine Vinyl and Rubber Protectant.... I'm sure I missed some, as well.



Anyhow, my point is that you have a better chance of picking the wrong one, if you want to pick only one. There's really no need for 15 different rubber and vinyl dressings.



And I think everyone knows I'm a Meg's fan.





Tom

 

[imported_Aurora40]

Not surprising. Is it just me, or does it seem that Megs releases products, then they work on making it a good product. I have about 60 bucks worth of that old clay (3 months old that is) that I cant use and now they figure out how clay should really work. I mean its clay. Everyone else had it figured out with less means at their disposal.

Megs is now replacing their Detailer line with an all "new and improved" line. It may be that Megs is trying to be VOC compliant but other companies already have compliant products on the market.



Ive always defended Megs but Im done with it. I refuse to be a test pig for Megs all new line of prematurely released and unproven products, on my dime. Im out of space for anymore stuff on the back of my shelves for product not worth using. My patience and wallet cant take it anymore. I'll just find a more stable line to use.

Have you expressed your dissatisfaction with your $60 worth of clay? Give them a chance to fix your dissatisfaction.



That said, why can't you use the clay? I still have some D-2100 (yellow detailer) clay that I use. It isn't the best, but it works well. I've never had issues with it smearing/streaking on the paint, only all over my fingers... Recently I tried it with carwash soap, and it didn't get on my fingers or on the car. I tossed the clay ball in the soap bucket, washed an area, rinsed it off, then re-soaped it with the washmitt and clayed it down. Then I rinsed and moved on to the next panel. It worked great.



In regards to the Detailer line, the retooling was as much motivated by what sold and what didn't as by VOC regulations, and not by product shortcomings (though, I wouldn't consider not being VOC compliant yet a real shortcoming as the legislation hasn't yet taken effect). Were there Detailer products that you think sucked that are now being changed to perform better? I think it sucks they are dropping Engine Kote because I liked it and it worked well, but it isn't because they were experimenting on me with a sucky/unproven product. It's a great product. It's just that no one buys it...



Other than the clay, what other Meguiar's products have you felt really sucked initially, only to then be improved upon? And what companies release a perfect product and then never make any changes or improvements to it? :nixweiss

 

[n2_space]

Haven't used the Meg's clay... I use Clay Magic. I have some Mother's and I really didn't care for it. The lube dried so quickly, and as many times as I used it, the panel barely felt any differently. I finally got some CM and the lube kept the panel lubed for a long time, and I noticed a DRAMATIC improvement on the panel after claying, finally got that true "glass" feeling

 

[JasonD]

So far, I've only used Clay Magic products and have always had great results with it. You guys are mentioning consumer versions and detailer versions. Am I missing out by not buying the detailer versions, or is it all really the same stuff just bigger bars and such?

 

[David Fermani]

So far, I've only used Clay Magic products and have always had great results with it. You guys are mentioning consumer versions and detailer versions. Am I missing out by not buying the detailer versions, or is it all really the same stuff just bigger bars and such?

Clay Magic from AutoWax corp. is the originators of Clay. I think they mostly market themselves to professional detailers.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

Meguiars has changed their clay....the white consumer version we used at the Autopia meet was notiably denser and performed very well. The previous white bar was pretty soft and useless, IMO

Scott, I found the complete opposite. I bought a Quick Clay Kit last year, and the bar was hard and dry (even had cracks in it before I even opened the bag). Almost impossible to knead.



I heard they had changed it, so I bought another kit, and that is soft and pliable. Both came directly from Meg's, so presumably it wasn't an inventory control problem (getting the older one the second time), plus the new one had the Meg's logo on the bag as discussed above.



I haven't used the new one yet, only squeezed it thru the bag, so I can't tell if it's "soft and useless".

 

[Woob]

Isn't Erazer and Clay Magic the only 2 producers? Guess Clay Magic is AutoWax. Funny how many companies there are! Thank goodness for Autopia :up



I've used the Old Meg's Consumer version, Mothers, and Adam's clay bars. The old gray bar SUCKS! Worst stuff you can use. Mother's is pretty good for consumer stuff. Adam's takes it away. Used the Mother's one day and noticed it wasn't picking up enough. Changed to Adam's and seemed to work better. Its pretty dang big, elasticky, and works very well with the Detail spray. Good packaging too, I can put both of my bars in there

 

[Quik89si]

I always used the Mother's bars until this last one. They always seemed to work great for me. Just too expensive - $20 for some clay and a bottle of QD? No thanks - so I picked up some Perfect Shine clay from the Autopia store. Any opinions on this clay?



And by the way, the level of service from the Autopia-carcare store is AMAZING!



Alex

 

[94BlkStang]

Not surprising. Is it just me, or does it seem that Megs releases products, then they work on making it a good product. I have about 60 bucks worth of that old clay (3 months old that is) that I cant use and now they figure out how clay should really work. I mean its clay. Everyone else had it figured out with less means at their disposal.

Why would you buy so much clay from a company without knowing how it works first? No offense, but you can't blame Megs for that. The major problem over the years has been the lack of manufacturers. Like somebody pointed out, Auto Wax company held the patent and you had to pay them royalties to market thier clay under their own name. I'm sure they were charging plenty for that. Some companies, and this may be the case in the Megs clay, tried to find an alternative, but it was hard to compete with the quality of the Auto Wax (Clay Magic) clay. The majority of clay sold on the market is rebranded Clay Magic.

 

[detailforfun]

.........



And by the way, the level of service from the Autopia-carcare store is AMAZING!



Alex

Thanks for the info., It's very good to know from someone shopped there.....Just visited the site and it looks good...:xyxthumbs

 

[Scottwax]

Setec Astronomy-the last time I bought the Meguiars consumer bar was probably 3-4 years ago. It was a very soft bar. The new one has similar consistancy to the Clay Magic blue bar. Much firmer than the version I bought. Nowhere near as hard as the Mother's version which seemed like plastic to me (then again, that was a few years ago that I tried it too).

 

[canisestinvia]

I got the one that had the meguiars logo on the plastic wrap of the clay. Is that the newer one? If so, I still think it's no good. It leaves clay behind on the car. Yeh it might be my method, but clay magic doesnt do that to me.

 

[imported_Malachi]

The Quik Clay (grey) is a HUGE improvement over the last one that I tried. It did not fall apart and was actually pulling some contaminents out of the paint. I would say it performed as well as my measuring stick which is the Mother's clay.



I tried the new Agressive Clay the C-2100. GREAT CLAY!!! Here is how I judged it.



After claying the car with Quik Clay (BTW, I used it with both soapy water and QD and it performed the same), the paint still felt a little rough. So I brought out the Mother's clay and re-did the hood, roof and back lid to see if the Mother's would smooth things out better. It didn't. In addition, using the Mother's clay I began working on a spot that had another paint color on it, like the car had been run into by an red/orange car or some other object. Neither the Quik Clay or the Mother's clay would get the foreign paint off. I thought this would be the perfect time to test the "New" aggresive clay the C-2100.



I began to rub the new clay on the foreign paint and it started coming off I than began re-claying the top half of the car. The strange thing about the roughness of the car was that I could not see the contaminents, only feel them. After claying with the C-2100 the paint was smoooooth. I felt the clay and I could feel the bumps on the clay but again, I could not see them.



So, the C-2100 clay is everything I hoped for when I bought the D-6200 (which was a miserably failure).

 

[SilverLexus]

I think the clay bar to beat now is the Sonus clay. I had some good luck with it this weekend.



:xyxthumbs

 

[mtodde]

I think the clay bar to beat now is the Sonus clay. I had some good luck with it this weekend.



:xyxthumbs

:xyxthumbs I've gotta give the Sonus a thumbs up too...I used it with the Glyde lube and got a lot off that didn't come off with Mother's Clay & Lube 6 weeks earlier...some of that is probably improved technique, but overall I was happy with Sonus.



Has anyone tried the Top of the Line Clay Away?