Liquid clay bar?

[Leadfoot281]

My brother is rolling into town tomorrow with his unwashed since August of 2000, '94 Jeep Cherokee and I'm going to clean it up. I stopped at the FLAPS and bought some Turtle Wax ICE liquid clay bar. The manager, who owns a Mustang Cobra, HIGHLY reccomended it.

Does anyone here have any experiance with it?

Otherwise I'll be sure to post a before and after shot of his Jeep. There ought to be some improvement since the paint feels like 80 grit sandpaper.

[Sharky]

I used it once. It will remove (very) light scratches, swirl marks, light tree sap, leaf stains, etc. Works great on good clearcoated paint. If the paint is badly oxidized, I don't know if it would do much good.

The best thing about liquid clay bar is: you wash the car, and while it's still wet, rub it down with the liquid clay bar then simply rinse it off. VERY easy to use. I did mine in the local coin-op car wash (at daybreak on a Sunday so I wouldn't be in anybody's way) before applying Ice polish.

If the paint on your brother's Jeep is in really bad shape you might need to buff it out with fine cut instead of the liquid clay bar.

[Breadfan]

I agree with the above pretty much. I will say I did get some small scuff scratches out of the clearcoat. Some of them took a fair amount of rubbing with the liquid claybar to fully remove.

It does work though, and you can tell it's doing something and it made my Marauder shine up pretty nice.

Will be interesting to see how it does on that Jeep.

[ctrlraven]

Make sure you take a before and after picture of it, if possible.

[Leadfoot281]

Here's what I started with. The only part of this thing that had a reflection was the glass.
http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/th_I3010081.jpg (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/I3010081.jpg)

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/th_I3010078.jpg (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/I3010078.jpg)

This is what sliding guitar cases across the hood will do. That and not washing it for years and years. Thank God it snows here otherwise it would have been really bad.:rolleyes:

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/th_I3010111-1.jpg (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/I3010111-1.jpg)

Here's the roof. At the upper left you can see where I started. The paint had the texture of drywall. Fine cut would have probably helped... But hey, it isn't the Pope-mobile. Just my little brothers Jeep!

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/th_I3010108.jpg (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/I3010108.jpg)

I couldn't help the rusty wheels. I give Mothers 'Back to Black' nine thumbs up. The stuff works wonders on plastic trim, mirrors, ect.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/th_I3010094.jpg (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/I3010094.jpg)

Four hours later. My brother is starting to at least look like a successfull musician. Meguires 'PlastX' didn't do squat for the cloudy headlights. Don't waste your $5.99 like I did.

http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/th_I3010112.jpg (http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c293/leadfoot302/I3010112.jpg)

This is what I used. (elbow grease not pictured). Overall, I like the Turtle Wax ICE liquid clay bar. I have used Mothers clay bar on the Marauder and it seemed to work fine. I say "seemed to work" because it really didn't do too much since the car was clean to begin with.

Mothers needs more detailing spray and time. Turtle wax ICE was easy to use, took off bugs that seemed like they had been clear coated over, and removed small scratches. T.W didn't make the Jeep super smooth (didn't expect it to) but it did help a LOT!

T.W liquid clay bar..$14
Mothers clay bar...$24

eh, six of one and half dozen of the other IMO.

[hdwrenchtx]

i tried the liquid clay bar on my car. wasnt impressed even after several applications. :dunno:

[Leadfoot281]

i tried the liquid clay bar on my car. wasnt impressed even after several applications. :dunno:

How was your paint when you started? I'll assume it was pretty good. I'll guess that's why it didn't make a huge difference.

That's probably why I wasn't impressed with Mothers Clay bar on the Marauder. It did pull off some tar and bugs, but didn't make the finish any better or noticably smoother.

I should have tried both products on my brothers Jeep to really test them out.

Any opinions on the Jeep or various clay bars? My shoulder still hurts since I did it all by hand.