Every car finish shares a common enemy: pollution.  It relentlessly pursues your car from the second it leaves the factory until your car meets its ultimate demise.  It's in the air we breathe, it's on the roads we drive, and it attaches to your car's paint, where it bonds and begins a process of oxidation.

Surface contamination, as shown by this diagram, is difficult to clean or polish off, yet paint cleaning clay removes it with ease.

When contaminants get a solid grip on your car's paint, washing alone may not be enough to remove them.  Pre-wax cleaners also may not be able to exfoliate large particles.  In this case, you have two choices: use a polishing compound, which removes a lot of paint material, or use a clay bar.  Clay isn't a polish or a compound, it is a surface preparation bar that smoothes the paint and exfoliates contaminants.

USES FOR CLAY

Clay is not a cure-all or a replacement for polishing.  It's a tool for quickly and easily removing surface contamination. One of the many reasons for using clay is the removal of brake dust.  Brake dust contamination, which attaches to painted rear bumpers and adjoining surfaces, is a metallic surface contaminant that can be removed safely and effectively by using clay.

Sonus offers the most gentle detailing clay available on the market today.  Sonus SFX Ultra-Fine Detailing Clay removes light to moderate contamination with very little effort.  Its very low abrasive content reduce the chances of scuffing even the softest paint finishes.  Customers report using this clay as often as monthly with fantastic results.

Clay is also very effective on paint over-spray. If the over-spray is particularly heavy, you may want to seek the assistance of a professional. Tree sap and tar specks can also be safely removed with a clay bar.  Recently, I have also started using clay on my windows (exterior) to remove heavy road film, bug deposits and water spots. It works very well, and seems to outperform even the best window cleaners.