Bilt Hamber Autoclay. Soft or Regular?

Bilt Hamber Autoclay. Soft or Regular?

Author
Discussion

Parabola

Original Poster:

1,849 posts

198 months

Saturday 10th October 2009
quotequote all
Am going to give my Alfa a good days wash next weekend.
Have decided to buy a Bilt Hamber Clay Bar. Like the fact I can use water as lube.
Was going to just buy the regular bar but a couple of people have recommended the softer version.

Any views or experiences? Many Thanks

smile

Parabola

Original Poster:

1,849 posts

198 months

Saturday 10th October 2009
quotequote all
Should probably have mentioned. The car is black and very dirty.
It's covered in tree sap which doesn't shift with a normal wash!

Ta.

PJ S

10,842 posts

228 months

Sunday 11th October 2009
quotequote all
Soft is good, especially when the cooler climate doesn't affect its malleability, but I still prefer the original more, even if it means splitting the piece into two, and keeping one in a jug of warm water, and alternating between the two every panel.

Tree sap is best handled with hot water, BH's Surfex HD, and a pressurised sprayer, then rinsed off with hot water after 2 mins of dwelling on the panels.

TheDetailDoctor

8,785 posts

211 months

Monday 12th October 2009
quotequote all
Always start soft.

Parabola

Original Poster:

1,849 posts

198 months

Monday 12th October 2009
quotequote all
Soft it is then!


smile

Edited by Parabola on Monday 12th October 18:19

marlinmunro

3,057 posts

206 months

Friday 16th October 2009
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Just used the soft, and it is very good easy to use, can not believe the difference claying does to the final shine eek

airsafari87

2,626 posts

183 months

Saturday 24th October 2009
quotequote all
Bit of a late reply but it might be still of some use hopefully.

How badly contaminated is the car? Get rid of the sap as mentioned above then check the paintwork.

If there's only light contamination present I'd definitely go with the soft clay, bear in mind though that it is very mild (it's main intention of use is for cars which are clayed regularly and only have minor contamination) and it will struggle to remove any heavy contamination.
If it is heavily contaminated then you are going to have to go with the hard clay which in my opinion is too hard and `Plasticy' you definitely need to have 2 bits on the go with one bit in a tub of warm water softening.

Bilt Hamber have an excellent range of products but for my money I'm not overly impressed by their clays, I've used a fair few different clays and the Bilt Hamber ones are lagging behind a fair few others in my opinion. They are good value though.

Also I haven't found water to be an adequate lube either, it's definitely worth adding a bit car shampoo to the bottle or using a watered down lube such as Dodo's Born Slippy.