Meguiars Clay Bar – Which Is Best One To Choose & Why?

As one of the world’s best known car care brands Meguiars offer a range of clay bars for your car, truck or motorcycle. But which is the best Meguiars clay bar for you? Today I will guide you through each of the different Meguiar’s clay bar products to help you make that choice.

This article will also include user reviews, product videos, where to buy and also a link to one of my most popular articles on what is a clay bar and how to how to use them.

The main benefit of using a clay bar can be likened to the prep you would put in when painting the woodwork in your home. Ideally you will want to get it as silky smooth as possible before painting. Claying is just the same.

You don’t want to be applying a coat of wax over paint that still has contaminants bonded into the surface. Meguiars clay bars, like other brands are made to remove these bonded contaminants to leave your paintwork silky smooth, ready for polishing and waxing.

Meguiars Clay Bar Range

Currently Meguiars offers five main options when buying their clay bars, not including replacement bars. Although the availability of these does vary from country to country. The Meguiars clay bar options are:

    1. Smooth Surface Clay Bar Kit (G1016)
    2. Quik Clay Detailing System – Starter Kit (G1116)
    3. Professional Detailing Clay – Mild (C2000)
    4. Professional Detailing Clay – Aggressive (C2001)
    5. Meguiar’s Hybrid Ceramic Synthetic Clay Kit (G200200)

It is also possible to buy replacement bars for the Smooth Surface Kit as well as replacement clay bar lubricants.

Having established which clay bars Meguiars offers let’s have a look at the pro’s and con’s of each one to help you choose which is best for your car detailing regime.

Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Bar Kit

Meguiar's Smooth Surface Clay Kit - Safe and Easy Car Claying for Smooth as Glass Finish - G1016 This was, until 2020, the most recent addition to the Meguiars Clay range. The kit includes 2 individually wrapped 80g clay bars (total 160g), a 473ml bottle of Meguiars Quik Detailer (clay lube) and one Supreme Shine Microfibre cloth.

The Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Bar kit retails around the $45/£35 mark which just on a $/£ per gram of clay bar works out to around $0.28/£0.22 per gram. It is possible to find it online at around $34.51 .

As a quick aside the box that the kit comes in has a unique way of demonstrating the difference Meguiars clay bars can make to your car, truck or other vehicle by including both rough a smooth surfaces on either side of the image of the car bonnet on the box. Rubbing your fingers over this allows you to get a “feel” of what a Meguiars clay bar can help you achieve.

The two 80g clay bars should be adequate to last you at least one detailing season for one average size family car. This will of course depend on the environment in which you drive and park your car.

However once you have used up both bars it is possible to purchase separate Meguiars Smooth Surface Replacement Clay Bars.

Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay Kit Reviews

Excellent results – Used the product today and the finish is great, its like running your hand over a mirror. I am going to give my other car the same treatment tomorrow.    Bob – Wales

Really good product – It does what it said on the pack. My son used it on his Fiesta paintwork to get rid of what we think was some residual volcanic dust fall out. This product worked well and the paint work is gleaming. Can thoroughly recommend it.    Mike Harrison – Southampton

Great Stuff – I bought this stuff for a car i bought that had a lot of contaminate’s over the roof and bonnet, overspray or something, so i got this to try out as it was cheap. It worked wonders took two applications and it’s now smooth as the proverbial.    Matthew – Swansea

Excellent – Used it on my fiesta ST  plate and I’m a complete beginner, I could not believe how the bodywork came up, really worth the money.    Dan – Berkshire

 EXCELLENT – Just used it on the bonnet and boot and both are now so smooth.It removes the contaminate’s with little effort.I’m very impressed, I will complete the rest of the car tomorrow.    Graham Freeman – Dorset

  Easy to Use – Had this product exported as its unavailable in DXB. Excellent product for beginner and very easy to use.Results were amazing, finish was very smooth and following polishing had an as new mirror effect. Will definitely be using again. Used half a bar and it will be good for another session! Brilliant    Samantha – Dubai, UAE

Meguiars Quik Clay Detailing System

Meguiar's G1116EU Quik Clay Bar Starter Kit with 80g of clay and 473ml Detailer to safely remove surface bonded contaminants such as tar, tree sap, overspray and industrial fallout This was the original Meguiar’s car clay bar kit and one that many detailers started with. The kit includes: 473ml of Quik Detailer clay lube plus one individually wrapped 80g clay bar.

The Meguiars Quik Clay Starter Kit retails around the £24. Whilst it is still available in the UK it appears to have been discontinued from the range in the US. The price comparison is £0.30 per gram.

As with the Smooth Surface Kit it is possible to find the Quik Clay Kit at lower prices online at around$31.63.

Meguiars Quik Clay Kit Reviews

First rate product – This is a great introduction to the use of the clay bar. I found that it rejuvenated the paint on my old motorcycle and provided the perfect finish on which to apply a good coat of wax polish. Try it, you will not be disappointed.    Norman – London

I called the guys at Performance Motorcare for some advice on bring my wife’s new car’s paintwork back to life and they mentioned starting with this Clay system. I had been a bit wary of using a clay bar in case I used it wrongly. But this was so easy to use and the results were absolutely fantastic   Rich – Hampshire

Great Product – A great kit that achieves superb results with ease.    Conrad – London

 

Works a Treat – I’m a keen polisher anyway, but this product removes every last spot of hardened tree wax, tar or whatever. The finish becomes like new and so smooth to the touch. Wouldn’t now be without it.    IPC – Bristol

Excellent… Another top product from Maguires, the clay bar is very effective at removing stubborn marks, tar, bugs etc. even on the windscreen and leaves your paint super smooth and gleaming even before you apply your polish……top stuff…    –

Meguiars Professional Detailing Clay

In addition to their consumer range of products, of which the Smooth Surface and Quik Clay form part of, Meguiars also offer a Professional range of products for the more serious and business detailer. Within this range they offer two clay bars that come in their own separate storage containers and in the large bar size of 200g.

Meguiar's C2000 Mirror Glaze Detailing Clay, Mild, Safely Remove Bonded Surface Contaminants - 7 Oz Clay Bar The first is the C2000 Mild clay bar and the second the C2001 aggressive clay bar. Even though the Meguiars C2000 clay is termed as “Mild” is still more aggressive than consumer bars and would be suitable for home use where there is a fair amount of overspray or the paintwork has been neglected for some time. You will just need to ensure you continue to spray plenty of lubrication a you go.

Meguiar's C2100 Mirror Glaze Detailing Clay, Aggressive, Remove Defects & Restore a Glassy Finish - 7 Oz Clay Bar The Meguiars C2001 aggressive clay is really suited the bodyshop environment or home use where there is heavy contamination in the paintwork and you intend to machine polish as part of your detailing process.

The recommended retail price on both grades of clay is around the $40/£41 giving it a price per gram of $0.20/£0.21 but equally, you do not get any clay lubricant as part of the purchase. Again it is possible to buy these new online for discounted prices at around $29.99 ($4.28 / Ounce) mark.

How To Use A Meguiars Clay Bar

Using a Meguiars clay bar is essentially the same as how you would use most other clay bars. One essential ingredient being the lubrication you provide during use, between the clay bar and the paintwork. Full details of which can be found in my detailed article on what is a clay bar and how you use them.

Buying Meguiars Detailing Clay

The prices for the various Meguiars clay bar products have already been mentioned above. You are more likely to fin the Meguiars Quik Clay and the Smooth Surface Clay Bar Kit in your high street or out-of-town auto store.

The Professional range will however be harder to come by via these outlets and are more likely to be found in specialist detailing stores.

All the products are however available to buy online through various outlets including eBay and Amazon.

Over To You

Have you used a Meguiar’s clay bar? What was your experience like. Can you recall the first time you used a clay bar – did it amaze you at the amount of brown dirt that it pulled out of your seemingly clean paintwork?

Please share your thoughts and experiences with me and your fellow readers using the comment section below.

 

2 Comments

  • Kevin
    Posted November 4, 2020 8:42 am 0Likes

    Hi there, seems you missed the review of the ceramic clay kit. really interested to know how that compares to the smooth surface version.

    • robmobberley
      Posted November 9, 2020 9:18 pm 0Likes

      Hi Kevin. Many thanks for the heads-up on this. We’ll get this sorted shortly.

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