Clay bar vs abrasive polish

[blitzracing]

So clay bar is used to remove dirt and ingrained pollution in the top few microns of paint, but what's the difference between doing this and a mildly abrasive finishing compound or polish? Surely both simply remove a fraction of coating to leave an ultra smooth finish?

[Belle427]

Claying just removes the bonded contaminants from the surface, if you machine polish without doing it the pads will pick it all up and scratch the paint.
It will inflict some micro scratches but that’s where the polishing comes in.

[Chris32345]

Clay bars do not remove the top layer of paint
Not unless it's really badly done and peeling off allready

[roscopervis]

blitzracing said:

So clay bar is used to remove dirt and ingrained pollution in the top few microns of paint, but what's the difference between doing this and a mildly abrasive finishing compound or polish? Surely both simply remove a fraction of coating to leave an ultra smooth finish?

Clay pulls contamination out of the paint, it doesn’t remove paint like polish.

Abrasive polishes push everything around fast using pressure and heat to remove swirls. If there is contamination, this will get mashed up into the paint/polish/pad which can clog them up quicker or can even cause new scratches if they are big enough.

Some ‘polishes’ are more like chemical cleaners and these can do a similar job to clay and are best used by hand.