Have you EVER clayed your Fit? Once you do, you will be anxious to do it again. It's THE BEST. Just running your hand over your car will be orgasmic. Mine has a coating of pollen right now but it's smooth as silk underneath, so I'm going over to the spray wash and de-pollen it...mmmmmmm you have to try clay!!

 

The current U.S. patent is #5,727,993 and is dated 1998. None of the referenced patents go back further than 1966 and they all appear to be variations on grinding ideas but not identical to claybars. As I understand it (WARNING folklore here), claybars came into use in the 80's in Japanese paintshops to remove overspray. The US patents came after. The company that holds the patent has aggressively pursued copycats and violators so there is only one source of claybar in the US - Automagic - no matter who's name is on the label. Old time detailers speak longingly about a competitor to Automagic that no longer sells in the US because of the patent. If you see a bar of 'Ricardo' at a garage sale, buy it.

Feel free to correct the folklore or provide alternative facts if I got anything wrong. You can check the patent details at the USPTO website - US Patent Full-Text Database Number Search

 

Thanks for that history! But if I see a bar of Ricardo, isn't it likely to be full of contaminants already??? Heck, if I have to throw away a bar if I drop it, how could i trust buying someone else's bar??

I need this stuff by the case. It gets slippery while you use it, especially if you use 3/4 of a bottle of detailing spray. You're bound to drop the bar.

 

dont drop the soap! lol just try to be more careful, and go slow with it. I've never honestly done a real clayjob, but I might this weekend..

 

You'll love the results. I'm serious. Just wash your car as usual, get the clay bar and some detailing spray and start. A few passes and just feel the surface...it's like silk or velvet...soft and smooth...You'll be hooked. Only problem is that you have to wax it afterward, but you were already doing that with the liquid clay (which isn't really clay).

Clear your schedule and clay your car! Well, don't break any dates or anything but...

 

I don't have a date til Saturday and I'm off tomorrow lol I've been wanting to put in my JDM tails and rear swaybar that I've had for over a month now. Ack which one should I do lol I'm kinda afraid to install those 2 things for some reason lol

 

I'll second Juliane's comments on how the paint feels after claying. The original factory paint on my 1993 Saab felt like butter (and I'm not just making a Mike Myers reference here) after claying, PC'ing and sealing with DG. The buttery feeling lasted a year. It now needs another round but I'll probably wait til next spring after the winter beating my paint will take.

Here's the decoder -

PC - Porter Cable Random Orbit Polisher
DG - Duragloss

 

I was wrong. I guess there was no patent in the 1930s. Sorry my memory is imperfect. The source of my "folklore" was an article from Autopia on detaing clay. Here's a passage:


An easy way to think about detailing clay is simply this: detailing clay is a “selective polish” with a built-in applicator. Its job is to “polish away” dirt and surface contamination from paint, glass, chrome and plastic without polishing the surface itself. A pretty simple concept, isn’t it? Detailing clay technology has been around for many years, with roots dating back to the 1930’s. That’s when the idea of combining polybutene (a soft plastic resin material) with abrasives was first put to paper.

A link to the entire article.

Detailing Clay & Pre-wax Cleaning - Autopia.org

The fact that it's in this article doesn't make it a fact. I'm sometimes skeptical of Autopia's information but I fail to see the incentive for lying about this. It could still be folklore. I did my detailing research about a year ago and if I had a photographic memory I'd work for the CIA. Needless to say I don't!

 

I'm not saying you're wrong, just that the current patents don't appear to trace back to the 30's. It's possible the idea was generated in the 30's but not patented. Since it appears to have reached current popularity through Japanese paint shops, maybe it was patented there. 30's or 80's, it still makes one wonder why a 1998 US patent was allowed to create a monopoly in the US.

FWIW, I won't tell anyone to take me as an authority nor would I suggest things like this on the internet are the absolute truth and I think autopia is a great source for detailing advice.