First time using iron remover

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paulsiu

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Recently, I decided to use a iron remover on the car in case there was metal contaminates. I washed the car and spray Optimum FerreX on the car. The instructions indicated that the spray should be left for a minute and then rinse off. I tried this on two different car, a new car that needed to be rewax any way and an older car with existing wax job.

The product smells rather nasty in a industrial solvent sort of sense. The product sort of gels and run down the surface. Any water beading would immediately flatten out. Unlike the video, I did not see any purple particles not even the rims, just a lot of white stuff. Both car are red and perhaps the purple doesn't show against the red background. Keep in mind, I had clean the car earlier, so perhaps there weren't any particles left.

The instruction said to leave on for a minute and then rinse. It took a lot of water to rinse the product off, it foams when rinsed. I can't tell if it did anything, though it did stripped the car of wax. I accidentally forgot to rinse two of the wheels so that the product dried on the rim. I notice this an hour later and rinsed it off. There seems to be no lasting damage (so far).

I had to re-wax the car. It's not clear if the product actually did anything.

Paul
 
Did you then notice any color on the ground after rinsing?
 
Never used Optimum's Iron Remover, but it gets good reviews here, and suspect it works properly as designed.

I have used Carpro's Iron-X, and suspect the instructions for use on virtually all are the same.

I've noted with Optimum's directions, it says to apply, then spread. Let dwell 1-2 minutes, then rinse off.

How I used Iron-X, was to spritz it on a panel, a couple-few sprays, then I spread the product with a well dampened Sponge. I might've let Iron-X dwell for a period of 5 minutes, maybe slightly longer. I just made sure it didn't dry before hose off.

To try and cover panels fully with product, one will use and go through a lot of product, and these Iron Removers do cost a good amount of money.

Carpro's instructions do caution against letting the product dry upon the paint.
Hence why slightly wetting it after applying helps prolong the dwell time without drying too quickly.

With that being said, one should do such on a cloudy day to cool paint, or find good shade. The longer the dwell time without drying, I'd assume the better.

When I have used it, I have seen lots of the reddish-purplish color on the ground after rinsing.

And yeah, Carpro's Iron-X stinks to high heaven also, like a combination of rotten eggs, and women's hair dye combined. I could smell the stuff outside almost 2 weeks later after its use.

And yes, Iron-X is also sort of "soapy" when rinsed.
 
There was no purple bits in the ground either. Most likely explanation is that I don't get a lot of metal in the area, just a lot of bird poop and tree sap which probably doesn't react with the iron remover. I was generous with the product, but it look rather disturbing like it was gelling on the panel but fortunately washed off.

The other possibility is that the car was professionally detailed half a year ago. They might have clayed off or polished off the contaminates.

Paul
 
I have two Fords. One gets lots of iron contaminants and the other gets almost none. In my case I think it has to do with the brake materials.
 
I've used iron-x once recently and it's a mixed bag. We've all seen the pics and videos of cars oozing purple streaks, i think there's a famous one of a white bmw. Anyhow, it's satisfying to see the "bad" coming free, and on the other hand if you're not seeing any purple, you didn't have any contamination... or so you hope. Because without the purple, you're just guessing if you did it right. That's how I felt anyhow. I did get some small purple streaks in sections on my silver car so I chalked it up as a success.

I'm not sold on how necessary this step is, but we're enthusiasts so we push the line. If you follow the directions and look really closely and still dont see any purple (i had to really get in close to see some on my car), then chalk it up to a clean environment.
 
I used Gtechniq iron remover on my black car, and I didn't notice anything...at least not until I saw purple pools of water in my garage. If you rinsed off your car on a slope, maybe all the remnants of the iron remover went down the driveway.
 
I just had a thought. My metal table has rust stains on it because someone left a pizza pan on the surface and it rusted over the finish. The table has a powdercoat finish. Do you think it's safe to use the Ferrex on it? It would be interesting test to see if it removes the rust stains.

Paul
 
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