Clay-barred and waxed my car yesterday. I have the infamous little red/brown spots on my paint that will not come off. I used the clay bar and while some of the spots did come off, many did not. I really am being picky because you have to get right up to and inches away from the paint to see them.

Someone posted in the past that these spots could be from when the car was freighted by train. Supposedly the spots are caused by the train's brakes throwing sparks. (Not really sure if Maximas are freighted by train.)



Anyone use a clay bar that worked 100% ?

 

There are only 2 clay bars that I have ever used that worked really well.

The first one was from the lexus dealer.
They sell a type of clay bar that is awsome.
When my mom got her sc430 they gave her one for free and I use it.
I have never used one like this clay bar.

The close second goes to the zainos clay bar.
Works great.

I prefer the lexus one.
See if they sell it.

 

I used mothers clay bar for first time yesterday took about 5 hours & for me it was the best $hit they ever made....took out every rusted colored spots!!! I made the other thread & Victor recommended it....this stuff is the $hit.

p.s.-- make sure you wash your car fist w/ dish liquid soap to take of wax or dirt off your car...then clay bar the car...

 

heres the link to the other thread....follow instructions given in there: http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....light=clay+bar

 

I used the Mothers one and it worked awesome. You have to do it in some spots with a little more elbow grease. After I did it, many people were asking me how I got it to shine and be sooo smooth. I have done it a couple of times. Maybe a second time thru will finish it off for you. You should be 150% satisfied with the finish.

 

mine worked 100%... the paint is insane now. its better than new. the only problem is that i see every single little paint chip, cuz those are the only spots that are left. and it feels like glass!

 

If you have a import performance shop around you, you might go there and see if they sell clay bars. I got a white one from an import performance shop in San Francisco a few years back. It was imported from Japan. Worked fine and left no marks.

 

Happy with mine. Did it last weekend. I didn;t have any rust spots, but it is super duper shiny now.

 

I was waiting for someone with an Icelandic Pearl Max to respond to this. What are these spots from anyway? I have had my Max almost 3 years and I am not sure if the spots were there when I bought the car. The parts of my car where the spots are most concentrated seems to be the rear bumper and rear fenders.

Yeah, I washed my car with Dawn, dried it, clay barred it then waxed. Since this was the first time I have used the clay bar I guess I was a little squeemish about rubbing that damn thing too hard on the paint. I will try harder next time.

 

click link above-- supposely the spot are from when the car was transported on freight train. this should work perfect...spray the bottle & make sure it lubircated well, then w/ clay bar go back & forth & add a little force & it comes right off

 

Be careful how much "elbow grease" you apply! Sometimes over zealous "claying" can leave marks in your paint... marks that you will not see right away, but under certain lighting conditions (angle of the sun, flourescent lights) you will see them.

 

a) I put a mini-review of clay bars I have used in the Cleaning Your Max Sticky. Mothers was in the list.

b) I prefer the Clay Magic bars as opposed to the others.

 

Can you use a clay bar more than once? Or is it one use only?

 

I'm with you on that one Prinz. Clay Magic is by far one of the best I've used. One of the porters at Nissan hooked me up with it.

 

Yeah, I tried the ******* Clay bar last week and was not impressed. Is it technique? Is it possible that my car is just that free of debris and still look bad Nissan's grand paint?

 

Sometimes you won't see results if your paint is still in great condition.

I barred mine 2 months ago, but I didn't think the results where that significant. The paint was smooth, just like after a nice car wash at home.

 

In my review, I used the Mother's on my '94 Maxima, part of my father's Navigator, a Concorde, and a severely neglected Accord before having to pitch it.

Technically, you can get more than one use out of a clay bar. The only time you cannot is if you have dropped it on the ground.

To an extent, it is technique. You don't need to put a lot of force on it for the bar to be effective. The trick is the amount of lube and the size of the area. You apply the lube in a 2'x2' area and clay in that area.

BTW, Clay Magic Kits are $9.99 at AutoZone.

 

[Homer]Dohhhhh[/homer] I just paid $18 for the mothers clay bar kit at pep boys . It comes with a bottle of detailer spray and a bottle of polish wax.

 

Um...I don't know about that one. Everything I've heard always says that dishwashing soap is really bad for use on cars...I would avoid that.

 

I think the only reason you do not want to use dish soap is because it will strip the wax. If you are going to clay bar the car then you want to strip the wax off anyway. Dishsoap is also harsher and might not be good for your paint if used all the time, but I think it is probably OK to use it once in a while for a major cleaning.

 

yeah dishsoap, preferrably Dawn, is used to strip wax, so if you use it on a regular basis to wash your car, your not going to have a protective layer of anything to protect the paint and clear coat.

oh, and preferrably Dawn, cause it's the best. actually dawn is the only soap i think that doesn't advertise the tough on dirt not on hands things. if a soap isn't tough on your hands it's not strong enough to take wax off.

 

I just used a clay bar on my car yesterday and also waxed it to. I am satisfied with it.

 

The only bar I've used was Maguires and it came with the spray mist as well. A package deal that I wasn't thrilled about, but I bought it anyway. The bar was excellent, and I was a believer in the process after I used it on a friend's 89 Maxima that he admits probably had not been washed in 5 years! The paint was in horrible shape...rough, lots of spots and crap. After washing with dish soap to strip anything that was on there (and I'm sure it wasn't wax), the bar removed everything. I was stunned at the results and did not have thos expectations.

I subsequently did my car since I'd had about a year. True, the paint wasn't in bad shape at all, but it also made a noticeable difference.

Point is, for newer cars, it's probably only necessary after the first year and maybe annually thereafter. But it works.

srm

 

the test to see if your car needs to be clay-barred, is to wash your car and then after, with a plastic bag (like the thin ones you put sandwiches in) rub over the paint (this is with your hand in the plastic bag) and if it feels anything but smooth, you should then go ahead and use the clay.