Meguiars Smooth Surface Clay and ONR Lube

[crxman2010]

Last fall I bought the Mequiars Clay Kit and clayed a couple of cars with it using just one of the supplied bars cut in half in case I dropped it. When I ran out of clay lube this summer, I ordered some ONR and mixed up a batch of ONR Clay Lube and ONR QD to see which I liked better.

Since I have started using the ONR for clay lube the clay has started to act different. It could be the clay has reached its end of life and I need to open the other bar but I wanted to check and see if anyone has had problems with ONR not playing well with some clays. The one bar bar cut into two pieces has probably done 5-6 cars.

Problem - the clay will stick to my fingers leaving a layer of clay attached to multiple fingers when I am kneading it. Like the clay at times has lost its ability to stick to itself. I figured rolling the clay bar over the clay stuck to my finger would take it right off, no dice.

I am basically wondering if there is some human error here, clay is past its expected life, or ONR maybe doesn't play well with some clay??
Megs is my go to clay when I expect some heavy cleaning to be done, I have pinnacle poly for new cars or finishes in good condition. Would I be better off going to a different general purpose clay?

[Belair]

Last week I used Mothers' clay with their lube & sometimes it stuck to my fingers too when kneading it. it's a fresh package.

[poweraid]

while I do cut a bar down into 2-4 pcs , I only use it that one time on that particular vehicle and it gets tossed, or I save it to use on wheels. I have never used the Meg's clay but I have used onr as clay lube and never had any problems .

[tuscarora dave]

I use ONR as clay lube but I mix 3 ounces of ONR with 37 ounces of water into a 40 ounce spray bottle. I feel that the stronger mixture works better and it still costs me less than $1 per 40 ounce bottle. I personally prefer a clay that sticks to my fingers like you discribe in your post because it is less likely to hit the ground and pick up dirt and grit rendering it useless. I've noticed that i can spray my hand with the ONR before beginning to clay and that helps to prevent the clay from sticking to my fingers. But as stated I prefer it to stick like that.

[crxman2010]

Just so we are talking about the same thing, when you say it sticks to your fingers, you actually have a layer of clay that sticks to your skin instead of the bar itself.


The clay has always stuck to my hand where I could press it into my palm turn my hand upside down and not have to worry about it falling, and when I peeled it from my hand there would be just skin.
Now if I was to do that, I will peel it from my palm and it would leave a layer of clay stuck to my hand to be scraped off.

[weavers]

I wash the car with ONR(wash strengh) and then clay. Don't dry, and clay in the shade. then dry and polish or wax.

Like others said tear clay into 2-4 pieces and you can reuse the same piece of clay for 5-10 cars then use on wheels. Some cars are so bad you can only use that piece of clay once. just keep kneading the clay like dough. If clay sticks to car then you need more lube. If you drop clay through it out, its not worth saving cause it will scratch up your car.

[Ryan R]

My order is coming today..in it I have ONR and the Megs smooth surface clay bars (3pk)
I'll be using the same combo,which I've never used before, and I'll let you know how it works and/if I come across the same problem

[Lasthope05]

I believe it happens to all claybars after a while. I suspect the polymers/silicones/surfactants used in clay lubes, qd, and or shampoos after a while start to degrade and weakens bonding or reconstituting of the clay. Characteristics of this is the clay becoming somewhat gritty or crumbly.

I just use a 1/4 of the bar 1 or 2 times depending upon the amount of contamination and dedicate it to wheel/glass afterwards. Clay is pretty cheap.