What Does A Clay Bar Do?
“What is a clay bar” you might ask? Or more specifically “what does it do?” Well…the simple answer is that it’s a way to decontaminate the paint on your car from deeply embedded contaminants. You might be totally confused by that so I’ll go into a little more detail. Basically, when you wash your car it looks clean, right? Well…yes, however if you were to take a microscope to your car paint surface even after washing it. You would see all the deep canyons and valleys (magnified scratches) in your clear coat that tend to collect contaminants such as tree sap, brake dust, road salt, paint overspray, etc. Essentially what a clay bar does is it removes these contaminants. Here’s 3 reasons why you might want this.
First off, these contaminants make your paint dull and ugly overtime…and there's nothing pretty about an ugly car
Secondly, contaminants like brake dust, road salt, and paint overspray will damage your paint in the long term
And finally, in order to apply a ceramic coating, clay barring the paint is one of the most important steps to ensure proper bonding of the coating
And that’s basically all you need to know about what exactly a clay bar is and what it does! The truth is that the best way to protect your car for the long term is with a ceramic coating…but more on that here. If you have any questions at all about ceramic coatings or all things auto detailing, feel free to give us a shout at anytime!
