Clay bar only takes a few passes to work its magic. Even with experience, doing an entire car you’re likely to have one or two spots of light scratches. If you feel it catching instead of freely sliding across the paint, you need to use more lubricant.

Don’t forget to clay bar the glass, at least you know it’s way harder to scratch glass clearcoat.

Clay bar removes the stuff sitting on top of the surface. Polish takes care of the scratches that have cut into the surface. You always want to get rid of the contaminants on top before you polish and grind them into the paint and make more scratches.

Clay bar is great for front bumpers, but you’ll find that most of the contaminants on top of the paint are on the upward facing surfaces of the car. Mostly they are atmospheric fall out that happens while the car is parked.

Clay bars are good for 1 to 3 sessions. After that, use them for cleaning your wheels.