is claybar really necessary?

YES!! :)

If you dont clay before polishing and wax, its like putting the moisturizing gel on your face without washing :P
Sorry for my bad example mate

:lol:

Here's my example, cleaning a glass pane with diamond sand paper. :lol:

The crap on your paint won't cone off with washing and you will scratch your clearcoat if you polish/wax over all that crap.

gotcha! was hoping to give the car a "quick" detail but i guess there's no way to do it quick, if we're to do it right ;)

since you will be claying, might as well throw a layer or two of polish and sealant THEN wax :D

In the grand scheme of things, protecting your car's finish (especially going into winter) is more important than how smooth the finish is. So, in that sense, clay bar is not absolutely necessary. Having said that, however, using clay makes the finish very smooth and therefore better able to hold a protective coat longer. :thumbsup:

And it doesn't take very long to clay. I sometimes clay as I go along while washing the car, so unless your finish has an unusual amount of crap on it, it will add only about 20 minutes to the process.

So go ahead and clay and then add a couple of nice layers of protection (wax or synthetic).

Show us some picks when you are done!

Not 100% necessary in every case, but certainly beneficial and worth it in most.

I"m curious and have thought about claying my cars but have mostly washed and waxed 2-3 times a year.

So doing it the way you described, are you using the clay bar as you rinse ... or before - taking advantage of the auto soap as a lubricant? And how many of those little globs of clay does it take to prepare the car surface for a polish and wax? I'd think they are pretty much full of crap each time they are used ??