Claybar: Before or After drying?

Save your money. Mothers clay is pretty cheap and I think it would work as well as Sonus or Griots.

 

I believe the Sonus or Griot's is even cheaper. Unless there's some way you can pick up just the clay bar from Mother's. It usually comes in a kit along with their QD, doesn't it?

 

I hate how damn expensive clay is. I swear every bar is around the $22 mark.

 

Well I forgot the actual price. My memory was recalling the amazon.com price of around $15. I think its $30 where we live at Canadian Tire.

 

I have found that the "harder" claybars like Detailed Image Fine Blue Clay will mar just a little if the surface is warm outside and the lube is insufficient.
ClayMagic bars on the other hand, have never marred anything I clay.

I do both - clay after the wash and rinse, leaving the water on the surfaces, and inside my garage on a dry and then spray-lubed surface. To me, its how sensitive you are to how good you are claying the car.

If you are really good at getting every square of inch clayed and as much residue removed, then you can clay after the rinse, and probably save yourself a lot of claylube because you already have water on the vehicle . The only thing you cant do very well is "hear" the bar while it's removing residue as well if the surface is really wet with water (at least to me).

In my experience, the "stickier" claybars will mar surfaces easier than the non-sticky bars. For me, Clay Magic and BlackFire Poly Bars work great, are not sticky and have never marred any surfaces for me that were lubed properly or wet with water.

I also like Chemical Guys Luber but its not inexpensive, so I bought a bottle of concentrated Born Slippy to try out when I run out of Luber.

Dan F

 

Well it looks like the most cost effective option might be the mother's clay even if it comes with the extra's, as long as it performs just as good as the others do.

Mothers Clay: $30.50
- 2x 80g bars
- MF towel
- 473mL Showtime Detailer
- 120mL Carnauba Cleaner

Sonus: about $30
- 2x 100g bars

Griots: $27.02
- 8oz = 226.8g bar


Sonus and Griots obviously aren't available locally but the mothers kit is

There is also the meguiars clay kit but that is 29.99 + taxes so it comes out to way over $30 and I don't think it's really worth I used it on my cars and it worked great but it's a bit to much

 

Weird that mothers kit is unknown to me. I checked the Mothers site and it says 2x80g, 473ml QD, 15x15 MF towel. Which confirms what I got nearly 2 years ago.

 

it's at Canadian Tire

Mothers® Clay Bar System | Canadian Tire

 

83ml clay... That's an old kit I'm sure. The new ones have a total of 160g, check it out in person to see.

 

Haha thanks for pointing that out after zooming in all the way i see that its 2 x 80g

 

Z-18 jar contains 4 ounces (two 2 ounce bars/ 56grams) I can do 3-4 cars per jar... depending on how dirty it is

Z-18 ClayBar: Zaino Store

and shipping is not bad, its a great clay, ive been using it for years.

 

I have also noticed this ... thanks for sharing it with everyone!

 

I'll partially dry the car to help minimize any chances of getting HEAVY waterspots. I'll go over it with a waffle weave getting about 90% of the water off the surface then pull the car inside and blow out all the cracks, crevices and trim pieces then get to work with the clay.

 

I dry first to avoid water spotting. Griot's clay is a huge bar, and now available at many Advance Auto parts.

 

First, I dry my car to avoid water spot too, but if your tap water is without chlorine you can clay first.

 

If i use BH soft clay, I don't dry my car since I use water as lube. Other clays like Meguiar's, Mother's, Clay Magic, I would at least sheet the water off my car beforehand.