Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
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Review and How-to: McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover
McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover
Iron contamination is more common than most people think...
Iron contamination is a real problem for your car's paint and the age of your car doesn't matter. A brand spanking new car can have HORRIBLE iron contamination and left untreated the iron particles will cause corrosion to the precious thin clearcoat paint that comes on a brand new car. Older cars are also very likely to have iron contamination and also need to be treated to remove the iron. This is especially true for horizontal panels as it is the horizontal panels where iron contamination will tend to build-up the most and it is also the horizontal panels that are attacked by the elements and other contaminants.
Removing Iron Contamination = Chemical Decontamination
The process of removing iron contamination is called chemical decontamination in the professional car detailing world. This is an important first step to restoring neglected paint back to show room new condition. This process uses chemicals to dissolve contaminants off the exterior of a vehicle.
Removing Above Surface Bonded Contaminants = Mechanical Decontamination
The process of removing above surface bonded contaminants is called mechanical decontamination in the professional car detailing world. This is an important second step to restoring neglected paint back to show room new condition. This process uses a mechanical means of removing contaminants like overspray paint, tree sap mist, industrial fallout, airborne dirt, traffic pollution, etc. off the paint using the physical contact from rubbing tools like detailing clay or replacements for detailing clay over the paint with some form of lubricant.
Questions and Answers
Question: Does using an iron remover take the place of using detailing clay?
Answer: No. Iron removers only remove iron contamination. Iron removers will not remove non-iron contaminants like overspray paint, tree sap mist, industrial fallout, traffic pollution, airborne dirt and other airborne contaminants.
Question: Which order do you decontaminate a car? Chemical first followed by mechanical decontamination or do you start with mechanical decontamination followed by chemical contamination?
Answer: You always start with chemical decontamination followed by mechanical decontamination. The reason why is because if there are any forms of iron contaminants bonded onto or embedded into your car's paint - if you were to remove them with detailing clay, you would risk rubbing them over the paint potentially instilling scratches into the paint. This is why you do the chemical decontamination first, to avoid the risk of rubbing iron particles over the paint and scratching it.
Question: Do I have to use a product like McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover?
Answer: No. It's an optional step but it's a step that I personally recommend that a person do at least once. Doing this procedure one time will tell you if your car's paint is contaminated or not. If it is contaminated you'll know and you'll take comfort in the fact that you've removed the contamination. If the paint is not contaminated, (no bleeding or color changing effect), then you can take comfort that your car's paint was not contaminated.
Question: Does McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover have a foul odor or strong foul scent?
Answer: The answer is "no".
Products like this are known for their intense foul odor. Out of all the iron removers I've ever used, McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover has the LEAST noticeable scent. While chemical odors never bother me personally, I know a lot of people don't like working with products that have odors that are foul and overpowering. I'm very happy to say that this is not the case with McKee's Xtreme Iron Remover.
Paint is thin
The factory clearcoat is around 2 mils thin. A common post-it note is around 3 mils thin. This means the clear layer of paint on most cars is thinner than a post it note. All you have to do is feel how thin a post-it note is between your thumb and forefinger to understand how important it is to properly take care of your car's finish to avoid problems down the road including catastrophic problems like clearcoat failure where the only way to repair it is to repaint the car or the affected panel.
The Car Insurance Analogy
I like to explain the importance of using an iron remove like the importance of having car insurance. When it comes to car insurance, you want to have it but you never want to use it. When it comes to McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover, you want to use it but you hope that it doesn't work.
Say what?
That's right, you want to use it but you want to hope it doesn't work.
The Bleeding Effect (the color changing effect)
If iron contamination is present on your car's paint, McKee's 37 Iron Remover will find it and dissolve it. As it dissolves it the resulting residue turns red. The effect this has is it appears as though your car's paint is bleeding.
Most people think this looks kind of cool and I have to admit, it does look kind of cool when you see it and when you understand why you're doing it. But if you see your car's paint turning red that means it is contaminated and that means there is corrosion taking place. Corrosion from any contaminant is bad for your car's clearcoat finish.
Car Insurance
What's is better is to use it and to NOT see the bleeding effect. This means the pant is not contaminated and there was no corrosion taking place. So while "yes" it can be kind of cool looking to see your car's paint turn red when doing the chemical decontamination step it's actually better to not see the color changing visual effect.
In this way it's like car insurance. You want to have car insurance but you never want to use it.
Here's the deal...
You don't know if you need it until you use it. Then when you use it you either have a sigh of relieve that you've removed all the iron contamination OR you have a sigh of relieve that your car's paint didn't have any iron contamination at all. Both experiences are good but in reality, it's better to use a product like this and NOT see the bleeding effect.
Getting the most bang for your buck
This is a product where I tend to break all the rules. The normal way people use a product like this is to rinse off the car first to remove loose dirt and then apply the iron remover. The problem with this approach is that by spraying the loose dirt off first, you now have a wet car, that is you now have water standing, pooling or clinging to the body panels. If you next spray on the iron remover, the iron remover breaks the surface tension the water has to the paint and the water then runs off and onto the ground taking the iron remover with it.
Seems like a waste of product and thus a waste of money to me.
So here's how I do it...
First - McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover is formulated to spray onto dry paint. The important directions for using this product correctly on dry paint are,
1: Don't let the product dry on the paint. (This means you're rinsing the product off before it has a chance to dry)
2: Work on a cool surface in the shade. (This is just common sense but I want to stress this for that portion of our society that is common sense challenged)
So as long as you abide by the two above directions for correctly using this product to remove iron contamination from your car's paint, here' how you do it.
How to use McKee's 37 Iron Remover
Step 1: Spray down the painted body panels, glass, and other exterior surfaces with McKee's Xtreme Iron Remover
Step 2: Allow the iron remover to do its thing, finding iron contamination and dissolving it.
Step 3: Rinse your car off with a strong blast of water to remove all the iron remover and dissolved iron residues.
Step 4: Wash your car as you normally would wash it.
That's it. That's all there is to chemically decontaminating your car's paint.
Now let's take a look the same directions with a few pictures to share the story...
Step 1: Spray down the painted body panels, glass, and other exterior surfaces with McKee's Xtreme Iron Remover
Step 2: Allow the iron remover to do its thing, finding iron contamination and dissolving it.
Step 3: Rinse your car off with a strong blast of water to remove all the iron remover and dissolved iron residues.
Step 4: Wash your car as you normally would wash it.
The iron remover focuses specifically on finding, dissolving and removing iron contamination. After you rinse the McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover off the car you still need to use a normal washing process to thoroughly wash the car and remove any and all loose dirt, road grime and other non-bonded contaminants off the vehicle, wheels and tires.
McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover
Iron contamination is more common than most people think...
Iron contamination is a real problem for your car's paint and the age of your car doesn't matter. A brand spanking new car can have HORRIBLE iron contamination and left untreated the iron particles will cause corrosion to the precious thin clearcoat paint that comes on a brand new car. Older cars are also very likely to have iron contamination and also need to be treated to remove the iron. This is especially true for horizontal panels as it is the horizontal panels where iron contamination will tend to build-up the most and it is also the horizontal panels that are attacked by the elements and other contaminants.
Removing Iron Contamination = Chemical Decontamination
The process of removing iron contamination is called chemical decontamination in the professional car detailing world. This is an important first step to restoring neglected paint back to show room new condition. This process uses chemicals to dissolve contaminants off the exterior of a vehicle.
Removing Above Surface Bonded Contaminants = Mechanical Decontamination
The process of removing above surface bonded contaminants is called mechanical decontamination in the professional car detailing world. This is an important second step to restoring neglected paint back to show room new condition. This process uses a mechanical means of removing contaminants like overspray paint, tree sap mist, industrial fallout, airborne dirt, traffic pollution, etc. off the paint using the physical contact from rubbing tools like detailing clay or replacements for detailing clay over the paint with some form of lubricant.
Questions and Answers
Question: Does using an iron remover take the place of using detailing clay?
Answer: No. Iron removers only remove iron contamination. Iron removers will not remove non-iron contaminants like overspray paint, tree sap mist, industrial fallout, traffic pollution, airborne dirt and other airborne contaminants.
Question: Which order do you decontaminate a car? Chemical first followed by mechanical decontamination or do you start with mechanical decontamination followed by chemical contamination?
Answer: You always start with chemical decontamination followed by mechanical decontamination. The reason why is because if there are any forms of iron contaminants bonded onto or embedded into your car's paint - if you were to remove them with detailing clay, you would risk rubbing them over the paint potentially instilling scratches into the paint. This is why you do the chemical decontamination first, to avoid the risk of rubbing iron particles over the paint and scratching it.
Question: Do I have to use a product like McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover?
Answer: No. It's an optional step but it's a step that I personally recommend that a person do at least once. Doing this procedure one time will tell you if your car's paint is contaminated or not. If it is contaminated you'll know and you'll take comfort in the fact that you've removed the contamination. If the paint is not contaminated, (no bleeding or color changing effect), then you can take comfort that your car's paint was not contaminated.
Question: Does McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover have a foul odor or strong foul scent?
Answer: The answer is "no".
Products like this are known for their intense foul odor. Out of all the iron removers I've ever used, McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover has the LEAST noticeable scent. While chemical odors never bother me personally, I know a lot of people don't like working with products that have odors that are foul and overpowering. I'm very happy to say that this is not the case with McKee's Xtreme Iron Remover.
Paint is thin
The factory clearcoat is around 2 mils thin. A common post-it note is around 3 mils thin. This means the clear layer of paint on most cars is thinner than a post it note. All you have to do is feel how thin a post-it note is between your thumb and forefinger to understand how important it is to properly take care of your car's finish to avoid problems down the road including catastrophic problems like clearcoat failure where the only way to repair it is to repaint the car or the affected panel.
The Car Insurance Analogy
I like to explain the importance of using an iron remove like the importance of having car insurance. When it comes to car insurance, you want to have it but you never want to use it. When it comes to McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover, you want to use it but you hope that it doesn't work.
Say what?
That's right, you want to use it but you want to hope it doesn't work.
The Bleeding Effect (the color changing effect)
If iron contamination is present on your car's paint, McKee's 37 Iron Remover will find it and dissolve it. As it dissolves it the resulting residue turns red. The effect this has is it appears as though your car's paint is bleeding.
Most people think this looks kind of cool and I have to admit, it does look kind of cool when you see it and when you understand why you're doing it. But if you see your car's paint turning red that means it is contaminated and that means there is corrosion taking place. Corrosion from any contaminant is bad for your car's clearcoat finish.
Car Insurance
What's is better is to use it and to NOT see the bleeding effect. This means the pant is not contaminated and there was no corrosion taking place. So while "yes" it can be kind of cool looking to see your car's paint turn red when doing the chemical decontamination step it's actually better to not see the color changing visual effect.
In this way it's like car insurance. You want to have car insurance but you never want to use it.
Here's the deal...
You don't know if you need it until you use it. Then when you use it you either have a sigh of relieve that you've removed all the iron contamination OR you have a sigh of relieve that your car's paint didn't have any iron contamination at all. Both experiences are good but in reality, it's better to use a product like this and NOT see the bleeding effect.
Getting the most bang for your buck
This is a product where I tend to break all the rules. The normal way people use a product like this is to rinse off the car first to remove loose dirt and then apply the iron remover. The problem with this approach is that by spraying the loose dirt off first, you now have a wet car, that is you now have water standing, pooling or clinging to the body panels. If you next spray on the iron remover, the iron remover breaks the surface tension the water has to the paint and the water then runs off and onto the ground taking the iron remover with it.
Seems like a waste of product and thus a waste of money to me.
So here's how I do it...
First - McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover is formulated to spray onto dry paint. The important directions for using this product correctly on dry paint are,
1: Don't let the product dry on the paint. (This means you're rinsing the product off before it has a chance to dry)
2: Work on a cool surface in the shade. (This is just common sense but I want to stress this for that portion of our society that is common sense challenged)
So as long as you abide by the two above directions for correctly using this product to remove iron contamination from your car's paint, here' how you do it.
How to use McKee's 37 Iron Remover
Step 1: Spray down the painted body panels, glass, and other exterior surfaces with McKee's Xtreme Iron Remover
Step 2: Allow the iron remover to do its thing, finding iron contamination and dissolving it.
Step 3: Rinse your car off with a strong blast of water to remove all the iron remover and dissolved iron residues.
Step 4: Wash your car as you normally would wash it.
That's it. That's all there is to chemically decontaminating your car's paint.
Now let's take a look the same directions with a few pictures to share the story...
Step 1: Spray down the painted body panels, glass, and other exterior surfaces with McKee's Xtreme Iron Remover
Step 2: Allow the iron remover to do its thing, finding iron contamination and dissolving it.
Step 3: Rinse your car off with a strong blast of water to remove all the iron remover and dissolved iron residues.
Step 4: Wash your car as you normally would wash it.
The iron remover focuses specifically on finding, dissolving and removing iron contamination. After you rinse the McKee's 37 Xtreme Iron Remover off the car you still need to use a normal washing process to thoroughly wash the car and remove any and all loose dirt, road grime and other non-bonded contaminants off the vehicle, wheels and tires.
