Tried the liquid clay bar last year. Three applications, all as per bottle directions and lots of elbow grease resulted in still having tree sap on my paint. Other than that, it was clean and shiny, but it couldn't take off tree sap so I haven't used it since.

 

The liquid claybar is just a marketing scheme, it isn't really claying, you are actually polishing. This won't even come close to removing what an actual claybar can.

Riptide

If I was doing any kind of polishing I would make sure the whole vehicle is claybarred, this is a very important step in the process. The prep work is what gets your finish looking its best, ex: claying,swirl removal and polishing.

I don't ever polish a car without claying the whole vehicle first.

 

Buy a clay bar and use it on a small area.

Then look at it....you'll see dirt and particles embedded in the clay. Imagine if that were on the paint when you took a buffer to it?

Claying sucks...but it's necessary!

 

Wonderful. So that's 2 "professional" detailers I've talked to and I guess neither one of them is really trustworthy at this point? Now I don't know what to do. I don't want to do the work myself, at least the first time. It just needs to much done to it. But how am I supposed to find someone competent without driving my car to frickin Denver?? [:@]

 

Not everyone who details uses a clay bar.

I happened to talk to a detailer in my area a couple weeks ago and he wipes the car down with mineral spirits, which I'm sure works fine...but everythingthat doesn't dissolve is going to be stuck in the rag getting rubbed all over the car and the times I've used mineral spirits on my cars before I knew what I was doing, it would take several attempts to work whatever was stuck to the paint off.

Riptide, it's really not all that hard of a job to do. It's a little time consuming, but after some practice you'll know what needs to be done the moment you see the imperfection you are trying to work out.

 

Meh I realize it's not rocket science. But the car needs a lot of work. There are swirl marks pretty much everywhere over the entire car. Some nasty scuffs. A couple scratches that are pretty deep.

I'd just rather pay a professional to get the bad stuff out the first go around. Then concentrate on babying it myself after that. I don't have the porter cable tool or any experience with it. The issue is everyone here seems to think clay bars are absolutely necessary. Based on that, every detailer I've talked to so far is incompetent.

I love some things about MT. But the fact I live in a relatively small state makes finding professionals to do certain types of work a difficult and frustrating thing.

 

Figure you can pay atleast $150 for a good job that doesn't include any touch-up reparing and spending a lot of time on the scuffs.

The Porter Cable and the compounds are going to be about the same price and you'll have a tool that'll last the life of the car and products that'll last a long time. In the long run your wallet will thank you!

I would seriously consider a Porter Cable kit from ObsessiveDetail.com and do the work yourself, save money in the long run and know you aren't getting ripped..