If anything, the clay bar makes it work better. The clay bar just takes surface contaminants off, and takes that dealer prep black crud off really easily. The surface was smooth like glass before putting the wax on. I just didn't see how it was any better than the meguiar's gold class, which I've used in the past. Then again, I've had black cars my entire life and you can REALLY see a difference when you wax a black car. But on the SSB, I dunno. Time will tell how good this tech wax is and how it holds up.