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Claybar your car!
Feb 4, 2025
Chris Carpenter takes you through the steps and benefits of claybarring your car. (This is a heavily edited version of an older video done under Allpar.)
View Video Transcript
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[Music]
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hi this is Chris from allpar.com and I
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am here at the 2013 Carlile all Chrysler
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Nationals and uh today I'm just going to
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be talking about um what clay barring is
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so when you wash and wax a car um
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especially an older model um you're
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going to find that sometimes the Finish
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um gets a little bit rough so there's
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contaminants and things that build up on
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the cars finish so it isn't quite as
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smooth and when it's rough like that um
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dirt will cling to the car a lot easier
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and so what you want to do is if you
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really want that nice smooth finish
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that's almost showroom quality um what
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you're going to want to do is use What's
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called the clay bar now clay bars are
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you can get it from megu you can get it
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from others the one that I'm going to be
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using is from mothers and you can pick
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it up at your Advanced or AutoZone or
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any store like that um but today I'm
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just going to go over a little bit of
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how you do it just sort of the basic one
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two step of course um as always if you
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have if you want to try this yourself on
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your own car I would just say be sure to
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read all the directions and follow them
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step by step as well as all the warnings
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and stuff as well so um anytime you're
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working with chemicals just be careful
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and uh take all the appropriate safety
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precautions so anytime you do um clay
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barring you want to make sure that you
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clean the panel thoroughly first um but
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if you're looking at we got a 2000
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Chrysler 300M here um with a flat deck
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lid and as with most cars that have a uh
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have a flat trunk this is going to be
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the spot that gets pretty rough either
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from setting things down on it or dust
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settling and right now when I run my
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hand across it I can feel there's
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there's little bumps here and there um
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where the paint is just getting a bit
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rough so what I'm going to do is um this
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car's actually already been washed
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actually several times so far during
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this show um I'm just going to wipe it
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off one more time just to get it make
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sure that it's clean and then we're
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going to start with the Maguire's uh
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clay so product that I'm going to be
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using today is Mother's um clay bar and
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it's it comes in a kit so looks like
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this you just get a little box you can
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pick this up Walmart Advanced Autozone
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and it comes with absolutely everything
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you need um you will need to was the car
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first and I'm just going to tell you
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right now this is not something you're
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going to want to rush if you have an
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hour to wash your car and get it ready
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for a show you're probably not going to
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want a clay bar um because in order to
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do this properly you need to take your
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time so um wash the car good first and
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then what you do
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is it comes with
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this clay piece and you don't really
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need to use the whole thing um you know
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I just use a piece of
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it and this Clay is specially formulated
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to really work into the paint and remove
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all of those contaminants that get built
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up and stuck in here so what you do is
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when you tear off a piece just like this
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it's a little little
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packet you want to make sure that you
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sort of knead it together
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make loosen it up a little
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bit and then as part of this kit you get
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this this special detail spray all right
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so what you're going to want to do is
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you're going to want to spray a little
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bit
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on if I can get it to work here a little
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bit on the area that you want to do now
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what I'm going to do to basically offer
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you a comparison is I'm going to do just
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basically from here to the seam I'm
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going to use the clay bar and then I'm
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just going to leave this alone so uh
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that Dave can come in and uh see the
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so what we what I've done here is I've
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just spr a little bit of the detail
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right on the right on the deet here and
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I'm going to take the clay it's an
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A and all all I'm doing I'm not really
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grinding it in what I'm doing is I'm
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just doing some nice Strokes back and
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forth and as you do this it may not be
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evident in the video but you'll feel the
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clay sort of drag in the rough spots all
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right and what you do is you just keep
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folding the clay over it may get a
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little dirty but that it's still good to
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use and as you do this you'll start
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seeing some of the some of the dirt and
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contaminants come right up off that
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paint the kit you get this little shammy
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cloth microfiber towel and um what
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you're going to want to do is you know
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clean any bits of the clay that that
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have come off and you're going to see a
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little bit of uh the liquid still
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remaining um that's dirty
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so Dave if you want to come on
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over this car has been play barred
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before right Chris so it's not going to
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be as Extreme as it would oh wow so if
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you feel here see how see how smooth
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that is smooth all right versus over
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here see how it's a how it's a little
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bit rough oh there's a huge difference
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and like I said you've already clay
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barred this car a times right y so if I
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was to take one of my cars that hasn't
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been clay barred in ever right and I was
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to do it with my car I would see a l
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more dirt and I would feel a much bigger
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difference yes well and especially I
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mean if you've got a car that's garaged
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a lot you know and not sitting out very
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often it may not you may not see as big
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of a difference but especially on an old
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older vehicle you know that's what you
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know 14 13 years old um that sits out a
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lot in the weather uh you're going to
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see quite a difference and then after
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you after you clay bar and you apply
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your wax and you do your your polishing
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you're really going to notice a big
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difference especially when you
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photograph the car and stand back and
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see the how the reflection go so that's
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just a little bit on how you do um clay
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barring um and you you know I what I
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would suggest is to make it easier on
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you don't do the whole car at once do it
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panel at a time so it cuz it you know
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depending on the size of the car it
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it'll take a while so all right thanks
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Chris thank you Chris carpet
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