14 July 2010 autoexpress.co.uk 69

Kim Adams

BEST BUY

2010

RECOMMENDED2010

To give your car’s paintwork the ultimate look, you should prep it with a clay bar. We tested 12 to find the best

smooth ope raTorsProducts Clay bars Clay bars Products

RECOMMENDED New to the UK and already a rival to more established names. You get two 100g bars, making it among the cheapest here. It can be used with water or a lube; we chose the former as it’s cheaper. It was among the best performers on the paint, but left a bit more overspray.

DetaIleD instructions wrapped around the resealable case set this clay apart here. You need a lube for the 170g bar, which adds £10 to the cost, but you get an effective combination that was only beaten by the top cleaners.

althoUgh cheaper than its Medium stablemate (opposite), it struggled to match performance on our roof. It fared better on the glass overspray, though. Both products are very sticky to the touch and a bit harder work than some when used with water alone.

ClaYBloCK is essentially a fine sponge with a stiffer than usual clay bar surface on one side. It needs a lube, which adds to the hefty cost, but the design means you can cover big areas quickly. It starred on the glass and roof, yet was tricky to use on alloys.

aS with Race glaze (opposite), Smartclay is pricey – which we could forgive if it was more effective. It gets the job done, but not as quickly as its rivals, barely touching the overspray. on the plus side, there’s a 180g bar in a resealable case, and the £9.99 473ml lube delivers a wide fine mist, so a little goes a long way.

Once a dark art practised only by diehard detailers, claying has gone mainstream in the past few years, with bars now lining the shelves of most accessory shops.

And there’s something magical about them, as they can pull off contaminants and debris from freshly washed and apparently clean paintwork, providing a pristine surface for a wax or polish. As the clay bar glides over sprayed-on lube or water, it effortlessly removes tree sap, overspray and bird droppings from paintwork or glass, and stubborn disc dust from wheels.

As trees, bugs and birds do their worst, now is a good time to banish all traces of them from your paintwork, then add a protective coat of wax or polish. But which clay bar should you stick with? We tried 12 to find out.

Vertar V-clay medium VPrice: £9.45 Rating: HHHH

sonüs sFX Ultra FineDetailing ClayPrice: £19 Rating: HHH

Vertar V-clay Fine VPrice: £8.95 Rating: HHH

smartwax ClayblockPrice: £25.60 Rating: HHH

smartwax smartclayPrice: £21.94 Rating: HHH

the Race glaze bar is pricey. You get only 100g for your money, and it will cost £19.99 if you include the required 500ml trigger pack lube. It also performs less aggressively than rivals, needing more passes over the paintwork.

NothINg could touch this clay in either test, although Bilt-hamber came close, and that’s the problem. add the 354ml lube to the 140g bar and the combination is £45. a fantastic product, but you have to be serious about your detailing to justify the outlay.

aUtoglYM pack comprises a 100ml sample bottle of polish, 100g clay bar, microfibre cloth, stockinette and 500ml of lubricant, which goes some way to justifying the high price. While it matched the Meguiar’s (above) on our test roof, it struggled with the paint overspray.

BEST BUY our new champion offers superb performance and value for money. You can also use it without lube. It ripped through our tests, removing virtually all the overspray and left a super-smooth finish on the roof, despite the limited number of passes.

thIS kit contains a lubricant, large microfibre cloth and a 118ml bottle of cleaner wax, which will run out long before the two 50g bars are spent. the clays work effectively, if a little less aggressively than the top performers, and dealt well with the overspray. our pick of the kits.

It might have lost its crown to its Regular stablemate, but this Soft version is still brilliant at lifting grime. It’s very sticky to the touch, yet it’s able to glide over paintwork with just water to ease the way. two 100g bars and a plastic storage case are included, but who needs more at this price?

DeSpIte its name, this is a kit, which includes a pair of 80g bars, 473ml bottle of lube and a good-quality microfibre cloth. although the cheapest of the kits here, it lacks the polish or wax of rivals, or a container for unused clay. It worked well on the roof, but wasn’t so good on glass.

Race Glaze Clay BarPrice: £12 Rating: HHH

Zymöl Lehm-Klay IIIPrice: £30 Rating: HHHH

Autoglym surface Detailing Clay KitPrice: £27.99 Rating: HHH

Bilt-hamber Auto-Clay RegularPrice: £9.95 Rating: HHHHH

meguiar’s smooth surface Clay KitPrice: £24.99 Rating: HHHH

Bilt-hamber Auto-Clay softPrice: £10.95 Rating: HHHH

mothers California Gold Clay BarPrice: £21.95 Rating: HHHH

1 FeelINg the paint through cellophane or plastic helps accentuate any imperfections in the surface. try it before and after using a clay bar.

2 oNCe a clay bar has been dropped, it must be thrown away as any tiny pieces of grit it picks up can damage paintwork. Don’t take the risk.

3 SoMe clays require a lubricant to make them work, while others just use water. generally, a lube is easier and water more cost effective.

4 Wheel cleaners can leave behind stubborn baked-on brake disc dust spots. however, these can often be lifted off by using a clay bar.

5 eVeN a few passes over an apparently clean, freshly washed panel can remove ‘invisible’ grime. Save money by dividing the bar.

The testKeY to this test is how well the bars clean, so we used them all to the maker’s instructions, with water or lube. We carried out limited wiping on a section of roof, looking for the smoothest finish. We also lightly spray-painted a side window and checked how much was removed after a set number of passes over the area. While you only need to use a clay a few times a year, they can be expensive, so we awarded marks for value for money. In addition, we assessed whether they needed lube to work, and came with extras such as storage boxes, cloths, polish or wax.

VerdictReIgnIng champion Bilt-Hamber (Issue 1,037) hangs on to its crown, but this time with its Auto-clay Regular. It combined super cleaning with a cracking price. Past winner, the Soft, slips to third place. Splitting the Bilt-Hamber pair is the new Vertar Medium V bar. Among the kits, Meguiar’s just snatches the verdict from Mothers.

1. Bilt-Hamber Auto-clay Regular2. Vertar V-clay Medium V3. Bilt-Hamber Auto-clay Soft

ContactsAutoglym 01462 677766 www.autoglym.com

Bilt-Hamber 01277 658899 www.bilthamber.com

Halfords (Meguiar’s, Autoglym) 0845 762 6625 www.halfords.com

Meguiar’s 0870 241 6696 www.meguiars.co.uk

Race Glaze 01780 749449 www.raceglaze.co.uk

Smartwax 01992 466481 www.smartwax.net

Ultimate Finish (Sonüs, Mothers, Bilt-Hamber) 0845 838 1200 www.theultimatefinish.co.uk

Vertar 0800 177 7808 www.vertar.com

Zymöl 0845 474 0167 www.zymol.co.uk

claying top tips

68 autoexpress.co.uk 14 July 2010