How to clean your car's paint with a Clay Bar

Have you ever noticed that after you have washed your car, and you lightly rub your fingers over the paint, that it still feels rough and gritty? This is completely normal, and thankfully, it's also very easy to fix by "claying" your car. After doing so, your car's paint will feel smooth like glass, and best of all, it's so easy to do!

To clay your car, you need just 3 things:
1) A clay bar
2) Some clay lubricant (usually a quick detailer)
3) A microfibre cloth

You can usually stop by your local auto-store and pick up a clay kit which will contain all 3, or at the very least, the first 2 items on the list above. Meguiars and Mothers both have such clay kits on sale that are readily available

So, what causes all this grittiness? It’s caused by airborne contaminants such as paint overspray, tree sap etc that has landed on your car, and bonded to the paint. If you park your car outside, it’s inevitable that more and more of these things will bond to your paint over time. How often you need to clay will be determined by how often you have to park outside, just feel your paint after each wash and you'll know when it is in need of clay bar treatment again. Just be warned though that claying your car will make it necessary to polish and wax your car again straight away. Typically, you should clay your car every 6 to 12 months as a guide

When you open up your clay kit, you'll get a small clay bar. Break it up into 2 or 3 pieces, you don't need much, just enough to form a small pancake about 5cm in diameter. Put the rest of it away for another day. If you drop your piece of clay on the ground, just throw it away and get another piece, otherwise all of the dirt that you pick up will be ground into your paint work.

Now, spray a small area with clay lube, and just lightly rub the clay bar back and forth over the paint. You don't need to use any weight behind it, just let the clay do the work. Add more lubricant as needed, and when you have completed a small area, dry it with the microfibre cloth. You’ll feel it if you don’t have enough lube, the clay bar will stick. You’ll also be able to feel when you have rubbed enough, because the clay bar will begin to just glide over the surface with no resistance at all. That area that you have just done should now feel smooth like glass, if it doesn't, then do it again. Keep turning the claybar in on itself. Eventually, it will get dirty, but you should be able to do the whole car with one piece of clay.

Don't throw that piece away when you are finished, save it for doing glass, trim and wheels as needed. Store all of your clay pieces away in a sealed container, just spray a little clay lube in there before you put the lid on and it will stay fresh till you need to use it next time.

Claying is really easy to do, you should be able to do your whole car in less than an hour, and given the great results that it gives, it's really surprising that the majority of people have never heard of it before. But now that you know about it, get stuck into it, I guarantee that you will be happy with the outcome