Meguiars Clay Bar Kit Review

Meguiars Clay Bar - Used and New

Over time I’ve found myself using Meguiars Clay Bar Kit more than any other clay bar kit on the market. It’s good, readily available almost anywhere and does the job perfectly.

Meguiars Clay Bar kit is formally called Meguiar’s G1016 Smooth Surface Clay Kit. It comes in a box with two 80-gram bars of clay, a bottle of clay lubricant (which is nothing more than a quick detailer) and a microfiber towel. It’s pretty much everything you need to clay your car.

I’d wish the kit came with a larger bottle of Quik Detailer though. I once clay barred my truck and found myself having to run to the store for another bottle of Quik Detailer to finish off a remaining panel or two. It’s not really a problem with regular-sized cars though.

Meguiars Clay Bar Kit

A Meguiar’s clay bar is very safe, as most off-the-shelf detailing clays are. Safe, meaning it’s not aggressive. At least I’ve not found it to be very aggressive at all. By aggressiveness, I mean how strong it is at removing contaminants from your paint. You’d think then that the more aggressive the better, but there’s a tradeoff. In untrained hands, very aggressive detailing clay can be detrimental to you paint. Gentle is safer. It might take longer to do the job, but it’s safer.

At times I’ve found myself wanting a more aggressive bar of clay than the Meguiars clay bar. This has been when I’m dealing with really contaminated paint on a car that has been sitting in the sun with no wax for months. I have the experience, so I know how to use it and I know when I need a more aggressive clay bar. However, with a little bit more work, I’ve found Meguiar’s clay bars to be more than adequate for most detailing projects.

Meguiars clay bar kits are also a great option for novice car detailers. I’ve heard people disagree about this but I think it really does make a great beginner’s kit. The main reason for that is what I mention above about it not being aggressive. The best way to describe it is as gentle detailer’s clay.

I’ve used other clay bars and clay bar kits over the years. Some are better than others. However, it seems that the formulation of clay bars is not rocket science. Most clay bars and kits that I’ve used over the years have worked fairly well for me. I’ve yet to come across a clay bar kit that was useless or damaging.

By the way, you can use a Meguiars clay bar with different quick detailing solutions or clay bar lubricants out there. You’re not necessarily stuck with the tiny bottle of Meg’s Quik Detailer supplied with the kit. I’ll often use my Meg’s clay bars with Chemical Guys Synthetic Quick Detailer with perfect success.

Meguiar's Smooth Surface Clay Kit

So, if you’re thinking about it or have never used a clay bar kit before, don’t wait. Go ahead and pull the trigger. Using a clay bar kit is really the best way to remove surface contaminants from your paint before compounding, polishing or waxing. Most experienced detailers will not even start a detailing project if they know they will not have enough time to clay first. There’s really no point in rubbing a bunch of wax or polishing compound into dirty paint. Even if you just finished washing your car, if you haven’t clayed it in a while, the paint will be dirty — specially over the hood and roof.

A Meguiars clay bar kit will be perfect for the job. If you use the image below to click and purchase your Meguiar’s clay bar kit, you help RallyWays continue doing what we do, as we get a small commission. Rest assured though, at RallyWays we only recommend stuff we use ourselves. All you’d need to see is all the empty boxes of Meguiar’s clay lying around in my garage!




If you need more information about the benefits of claying your car, or how to do it, I go into more detail in this article: Clay Bar for Cars Equals Proper Auto Detailing

For the complete process to professional car detailing results, and more about clay bars, visit this story: The Complete Professional Car Detailing Step by Step Process

Finally, for a case study, see how I went about performing a 28-hour detail job on my truck: Ultimate 28-Hour New Car Detailing – RallyWays Toyota Tacoma TRD

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