Anyone use these? Magic clay bars? Someone recommended it to me. I previously used the mothers kit but am looking into other possibilities and recommendations this time around. Anyone have suggestions?

 

i've had good experience w/ clearkote.

 

Do you mean clay magic?

 

Just about everything other then Clay Magic is an offspring of the company. Clay Magic is probably the best available unless your overseas, which would allow you the opportunity to purchase a more elastic type clay.
Cant go wrong with Clay Magic though...

 

i use the meguiars clay kit...

 

I've used it and have had excellent results.

 

Well, the story is that the gentleman I helped out today offered me magic clay bars or clay magic. He recommened I use the red one for my silver car, and he said that his in particular were better because the ones he gets he makes sure it that they are the ones made in japan. Does that have any significance?

 

i dunno what the diff is. For what its worth, the one I've been using (car is DG) is blue and have not had any problems.

 

clay magic's red clay bar is their medium aggressiveness claybar, which will remove contaminants faster than their mild blue claybar, but has more of a chance of marring the surface. I would stick to the blue bars if you aren't planning on machine polishing afterwards

 

1. Fine- clay that abrades or shears light surface or imbedded paint contamination and encapsulates it. This grade of clay can be used on a regular basis for paint surface ‘maintenance’ Sonus SFX or Pinnacle Ultra Fine Detailing Clay - http://autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/ or
Pinnacle Ultra Clay -http://www.pinnaclewax.com/piulfigrdepo.html

2. Fine / Medium-clay that is used to remove heavier surface contaminants (bird excrement and bug reside) it is slightly more abrasive than the fine grade and abrades the paint surface, while the clay encapsulates it
Clay Magic® - http://www.automagic.biz/specialt.htm

3. Medium to Heavy duty- clay that is used to remove paint over-spray; it contains slightly stronger abrasive or larger particles that abrade the paint, while the clay encapsulates it. Clay Magic®

Abrasive Ratings (on a scale of 1 to 5)
1 Clay Magic® - Red- very aggressive; most surface marring - 5/5
2 Top of the line purple- slightly less aggressive - 4/5
3 Clay Magic® -Blue- less aggressive; less marring - 3/5
4 Mother's - Yellow- 2/5
5 Sonus Ultra Fine -Green- 1/5

There are only a couple manufactures of clay and patents protect the technology, with some subtle difference in consistency and firmness, a recent court hearing found components of the “elastic clay” to be a patent infringement and the judge ordered sale of the product to be halted. (In the United States, Auto Wax Company Inc. (now owned by Illinois Tool Works Inc.) owns the US patent rights (No. 5,727,993) and reads thus- "Conventional compounds comprising an elastomeric resin mixed with abrasives used to remove protrusions, projections, and/or strongly adhered foreign matter from vehicle surfaces"

Auto Wax owns six patents relating to clay products and provides private label clay too many of the detail industry’s leading companies - http://www.automagic.biz/specialt.htm As a result, all of the Polybutene (Polyisobutylene) or plastic clay being manufactured now comes from the same factory in Japan, which as the only patent holder has a monopoly on the market. Meguiar's, Mothers, Sonus, Zaino, et al get their clay either from Japan (Source Chem. Inc. one of Japan's biggest clay manufacturers) or from a US licensed manufacturer.

But the formulation can vary significantly, mainly;
-Density or plasticity
-Abrasive particulate size
-Abrasive used (i.e. silica sand, calcium carbonate, alumina, ceramics, or silicon carbide)
-Abrasive density ratio (abrasive content to clay)
-Colour (to identify differing abrasive strengths)

 

redlude97 hit the nail on the head. The blue bar is the fine grade bar and the red is the medium grade bar:



I usually will recommend the blue fine grade bar for most applications, but for paint overspray or heavily contaminated vehicles, the red medium grade is a great choice.

Everyone else offered great information on this thread as well.

George

 

I'm actually using Mother's claybar to remove overspray from my dad's avalon. I detailed the whole thing before giving it to the shop. They proceeeded to put overyspray over the whole car! arg.

Claying actually was the fastest/easiest way to remove overspray. Polishing would have entailed at least a two step process.