Clay Bar Treatment and Why You Need It

Daily interactions with our unique Georgia environment, including pollen, bird droppings, overspray, and sticky tree sap can permanently ruin the appearance of your car if not properly cleaned.

Quick car washes and waxes do not offer long-term protection against the elements, or the ability to reverse the damage and return your car to its original, lustrous finish.

Cleaning with Clay bars

Every car finish shares a common enemy: pollution.  It relentlessly pursues your car from the second it leaves the factory until your car meets its ultimate demise.  It's in the air we breathe, it's on the roads we drive, and it attaches to your car's paint, where it bonds and begins a process of oxidation.

When contaminants get a solid grip on your car's paint, washing alone may not be enough to remove them.  Pre-wax cleaners also may not be able to remove large particles.  In this case, you have two choices: use a polishing compound, which removes a lot of paint material, or use a clay bar.  Clay isn't a polish or a compound it is a surface preparation bar that smoothes the paint and removes contaminants.

USES FOR CLAY 
Clay is not a cure-all or a replacement for polishing.  It's a tool for quickly and easily removing surface contamination.

One of the many reasons for using clay is the removal of brake dust.  Brake dust contamination, which attaches to painted rear bumpers and adjoining surfaces, is a metallic surface contaminant that can be removed safely and effectively by using clay.

Clay is also very effective on paint over-spray.  If the over-spray is particularly heavy, you may want to seek the assistance of a professional.  Tree sap and tar specks can also be safely removed with a clay bar.

I also use clay bar on windows (exterior) to remove heavy road film, bug deposits and water spots.  It works very well, and seems to outperform even the best window cleaners.

EVALUATING YOUR PAINT FOR CLAY 
How do you know if you need to use a clay bar?  After thoroughly hand washing your car, feel the surface of your car's paint.  Do you feel bumps and rough spots?  These bumps are contaminants attacking the finish of your car.  Removing these surface contaminants (road tar, acid rain spots, bug residue, paint over-spray, brake pad dust, hard water spots, etc.) will improve both the look and health of your car's paint.  By the way, you can magnify your sense of touch by inserting your fingertips into a sandwich bag or a piece of cellophane. 

No matter how well you hand-wash your car, many of the contaminants that have worked their way into your car's paint finish will remain.  Have you ever looked at your foam wax applicator pad after applying a coat of wax?  What do you think that black stuff is?  It is dirt, and you're waxing over it, sealing it in.

Before accepting the cars, we clearly inform the client "We make the finish as nice as possible, any imperfections that remain will, in contrast, be exaggerated"  
this does help with realistic expectations. 

Al