Clay bar can only be used twice?

[JoyzGreenVert00]

I just read on another site that you can only use Meguiars clay bar two times and then you have to throw it away. Is this true?

~Joy

[ZoranC]

I just read on another site that you can only use Meguiars clay bar two times and then you have to throw it away. Is this true?

Plain and simple: No.

From my (small) experience there are two factors that decide longevity of clay bar: 1) amount of bonded contaminants on surface, and 2) how quickly clay bar detoriates ("crumples") away.

First factor is not related to clay and any clay in the world gets equally affected by it.

I have not experienced any issues with Meguiar's clay when it comes to second factor. I have with one other major brand though, whose name people often confuse with Meguiar's.

[Murr1525]

Just to sum up a little more, Meguiars does not recomend using car wash soap as a lubricant because it can make the bar crumble. Not always, but can. So if a person did that, then they might only get one or two uses.

Second, if a car has lots of contaminants as mentined above, a clay bar will fill up more quickly. I could go a year or two at a time probably if I kept the bar dedicated for paint that long, because I keep after it. But if you were to clay a car from the 1980's that has sat outside under trees beside a factory the whole time, you might need a couple bars.

[Michael Stoops]

I've had Meguiar's clay bars that I've used on several cars, and I've had one that I only used once because the amount of bonded junk on the vehicle was so bad. There is no "set" number of times that a Meguiar's clay bar, or anyone else's as far as I know, can be used. It really becomes a judgment call as to when it's loaded up to the point where you no longer want to use it.

For someone to say "you can only use Meguiars clay bar two times and then you have to throw it away" is simply an example of the level of misinformation/disinformation found all over the Internet.

[jfelbab]

FWIW.

When I clay, I cut the bar into two or three pieces. I use one piece for the paint, then the glass and finally the wheels. After that, I toss it. A single piece of clay will be enough to do a sedan unless it is really dirty.

[TKDDAD]

that's like saying you can only use a razor blade twice to shave with and then you have to throw it out...unless your beard is like Grizzly Adams, probably not true...it all depends on the amount of stuff that gets trapped in the clay...there is no magic answer...but I live by this rule:
when in doubt, throw it out!

[Raymond]

I don't measure the length of using my claybars by how many times, but by how well the claybar is holding up. Once I've used the claybar on a really bad car (like on my girlfriend's Accord that had never even been waxed before), it usually doesn't last long afterwards. :laughing:

[G Force]

FWIW.

When I clay, I cut the bar into two or three pieces. I use one piece for the paint, then the glass and finally the wheels. After that, I toss it. A single piece of clay will be enough to do a sedan unless it is really dirty.


Good idea

[3.9square]

So this is where you got your answer Joy! Calling me the newb! lol. I was the one that said you can use it about twice and then toss it. Granted I don't care about buying another one if it means not grinding a bunch of junk back into the paint. On my Mustang I was able to use it twice before it started to turn a nasty grey color.

[Michael Stoops]

So this is where you got your answer Joy! Calling me the newb! lol. I was the one that said you can use it about twice and then toss it. Granted I don't care about buying another one if it means not grinding a bunch of junk back into the paint. On my Mustang I was able to use it twice before it started to turn a nasty grey color.
Fair enough, but just because you felt the clay was effectively used up after two uses doesn't mean that a general statement about clay life can be made based on that experience. Like I said earlier I had an experience where a single use of a clay bar was enough to kill it. Blanket statements just don't work when it comes to car detailing.

How long does a wax last?
How often should I polish?
How often should I clay?
What's the best wax?

There is no single correct answer to any of the above questions because there are so many variables for each. How well is the surface prepped, what's the exposure like - rain, snow, salt, industrial fallout, heat, humidity, quality of materials used, etc.

[JoyzGreenVert00]

So this is where you got your answer Joy! Calling me the newb! lol. I was the one that said you can use it about twice and then toss it. Granted I don't care about buying another one if it means not grinding a bunch of junk back into the paint. On my Mustang I was able to use it twice before it started to turn a nasty grey color.
Hee hee! I was going to link this thread to 3.8 after it got a few more responses. :xyxthumbs

Don't worry, I'm a detailing newb too. I bought a G110 a month ago and we haven't used it yet. Heh.

Scottwax2

[ZoranC]

On my Mustang I was able to use it twice before it started to turn a nasty grey color.
That must have been very neglected vehicle and/or you live/drive in very polluted area.

[3.9square]

Fair enough, but just because you felt the clay was effectively used up after two uses doesn't mean that a general statement about clay life can be made based on that experience. Like I said earlier I had an experience where a single use of a clay bar was enough to kill it. Blanket statements just don't work when it comes to car detailing.

How long does a wax last?
How often should I polish?
How often should I clay?
What's the best wax?

There is no single correct answer to any of the above questions because there are so many variables for each. How well is the surface prepped, what's the exposure like - rain, snow, salt, industrial fallout, heat, humidity, quality of materials used, etc.

Tis why I joined here.

That must have been very neglected vehicle and/or you live/drive in very polluted area.

I put 60K miles on it in two years. Driving any where from L.A. to Moreno Valley, to Oceanside in those two years. She went through 3 sets of tires and I only started to really keep her clean near the end of me owning her.

[ZoranC]

I put 60K miles on it in two years. Driving any where from L.A. to Moreno Valley, to Oceanside in those two years. She went through 3 sets of tires and I only started to really keep her clean near the end of me owning her.
Yup, that would do it. It is incredible how much of "dirt" gets embedded in the areas of vehicle "fronting" the air when driving. I have a "pleasure" of putting my share of miles in conditions of L.A. traffic and having to deal with it on my vehicles. Keeps putting an emphasis on last step in Meguiar's 5-step car care cycle: "Maintenance, Maintenance, Maintenance" I'm finding that without regular maintenance I verry quickly have to go back to Step 1 and that it takes much less time to do regular maintenance than having to go back from scratch.

[onawrxhigh]

I still have my first clay bar from about 4 years ago. I bought the detailer line fine clay which is a 200gram bar. I then cut in into 3rd's and used the first 3rd until it was not able to be used anymore then I got rid of it. the second 3rd is almost ready for the garbage, and I still have a 3rd left. That was the best 23 dollars I spent on clay.

Andrew

PS yes I clay every vehicle and some really nasty ones at that.

[Sprzout]

I have used a clay bar once and then had to toss it; I've also used a clay bar 4 times before it got so nasty that I had to toss it.

The very first time I clayed a car (2002 Saturn SC2), I had to toss the bar after the first use. The car was 4 months old and had been parked, day in & day out, under the flight path of John Wayne International in Orange County. It's amazing how a silver car can turn a hazy bronzish type of color in a few weeks due to jet fuel fallout on the car's paint! I wish I had pictures of the clay bar to show on here, but it looked like a rust color when I was done, and it took several passes over each panel of the car to get all the contaminants off.

I've also used a clay bar only once on a truck; my dad's F150 got pretty nasty one day, and so we cleaned it off and stripped it down with the clay bar. It came off brownish black. But, the current clay bar I've got, I've used it 3 times and it's still very clean. I've not found a lot of contaminants on my cars lately, but that's because they've been either covered or garaged.

I think, ultimately, how many times you can use a clay bar depends on 1) how much your car is exposed to contaminants that can bond to the paint (i.e. do you work/live under the flight path to an airport, do you have trees that drop a lot of sap, are you near a house that's being repainted/re-stuccoed, etc), 2) how large your car is (are you doing a sub-compact like a Geo Metro, or are you doing a full sized SUV like a Suburban or Expedition?), and 3) how often your car is clayed (if you only clay your car once a year, you're probably going to have a lot more contaminants on the car than if you clayed it once a month).