Iron Decontamination on Plastic - PPF Staining

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chefwong

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I know it's best practice to avoid plastic when doing chem decontamination

The other day, I timed doing a chemical decontamination on my PPF *which is esentially the car's wrapped in plastic*.
I mean PPF is plastic....
PPF is known to take on staining from those guys using those fancy colored foams

Anyhow, I timed it right before a extended rainfall.
Pull the car out of the garage, sprayed, dwelled, rinsed it off the the PPF and about 20 minutes later, it rained for the next few hours.

For those with PPF , are you guys avoiding chemical decontamination or just take special precaution with iron decontamination on PPF
 
I have PPF on my car and have never felt like I needed to use an iron remover.

That said, if you feel the need, this FAQ is on the Carpro website (manufacturer of IronX):

"Is IronX safe to use on 3M and Paint Protection Film?
Yes, there is no problem at all using it on clear bra and modern PPF when used properly."

Personally, if I am not 100% certain a given product is safe for PPF, I usually email the manufacturer of my PPF (in my case, Xpel) and ask their support team if it is safe to use it. I have found Xpel to be very responsive to these types of questions. I trust the word of the PPF manufacturer more than the manufacturer of the product.
 
Rsurfer said:
??Feed back please
Click to expand...

There have been a few times when I was considering buying a product and the manufacturer of the product said it was safe for PPF. But then when I took a close look at the product or when I checked with Xpel customer service, it turned out the product was not safe for PPF.

For example, when I first had my Xpel PPF installed, the Xpel website said to avoid using waxes or sealants that are more than 5% petroleum distillates, since such products could damage the PPF. At the time, I was considering using HD Poxy on my PPF. I contacted the manufacturer to ask if HD Poxy was safe for PPF and they said yes. But then I found the SDS sheet for HD Poxy, which said that the concentration of petroleum distillates in HD Poxy was 30-36 percent. Therefore, I decided to not to apply the HD Poxy to my PPF.
 
Gyeon PPF Wash has a mild iron remover in it. I've used it on Xpel PPF with no issues.
 
I briefed the Gyeon *PPF* centric line.
IMO, if I'm going to use an iron product, I'd like it straight and neat....and I will dilute as needed.
I do plan to look at the PPF Renew - however, I think to some degree, like paint polishing and clear coat, I may be diminishing some portion of the self-healing layer of the flm.
 
I’ve doused both my STEK & XPEL PPF’d cars with Gyeon Iron periodically w no ill effects. Used as directed w standard precautions as noted for paint and no issues.

Cars were coated on top of PPF FWIW.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
Subjective Question or Opinion BP1.

Prior to full wrap, I've always had coatings on the paint.
IME, coatings or anything for the most part doesn't last nearly as it does on paint.
So I won't do a high solid coating, but just something -lite-. I top and I top often.

Now, if there was something that actually stayed of plastic for longer....ahem, less maintenance on top and top often comment, I'm all in.

Have you tried or used the so called PPF centric coatings ?
 
chefwong said:
Subjective Question or Opinion BP1.

Prior to full wrap, I've always had coatings on the paint.
IME, coatings or anything for the most part doesn't last nearly as it does on paint.
So I won't do a high solid coating, but just something -lite-. I top and I top often.

Now, if there was something that actually stayed of plastic for longer....ahem, less maintenance on top and top often comment, I'm all in.

Have you tried or used the so called PPF centric coatings ?
Click to expand...

I had a film-specific coating on our STEK car for a while and it did well for 2 ‘seasons’ albeit only about 7500 miles, generally April thru November daily driver. I recoated with a non-film-specific coating about 13 months/5000 miles ago, and it’s still doing well. It was our first PPF’d car which I didn’t do an Iron decon on for 1st 2 years which was a mistake; it got a bit crunchy and eventually I had to clay it to get it smooth again. I currently have a sealant on top of the coating just for fun as it pleases me with regard to look & feel. Heresy in some circles but oh well, it works for me

I had/have a non-film-specific coating on the XPEL car, daily driven year round for 5000 miles a year since April 2021 and it’s still doing well.

To be quite honest, both cars don’t get washed crazy-often, maybe every 3-4 weeks as they always look acceptably good to me with little attention. For the last 18 months or so I’ve only been dropping a little ‘boost’ on ‘em every 6 weeks or so.

Coatings won’t last as long on top of PPF, especially PPF like the STEK which has a hydrophobic ‘topcoat’ built in but I like coatings so I’ll always coat PPF.

Last year at SEMA I asked a mfg rep what the main difference between their PPF & regular coatings was; his answer was that for the most part the largest difference was that PPF coatings focus on ease of use (high spots on PPF are troublesome) as opposed to any other aspect of their formulation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
chefwong said:
Subjective Question or Opinion BP1.

Prior to full wrap, I've always had coatings on the paint.
IME, coatings or anything for the most part doesn't last nearly as it does on paint.
So I won't do a high solid coating, but just something -lite-. I top and I top often.

Now, if there was something that actually stayed of plastic for longer....ahem, less maintenance on top and top often comment, I'm all in.

Have you tried or used the so called PPF centric coatings ?
Click to expand...

Great point!

On my gf's vehicle I tried CarPro Skin. I'm not the best ceramic coating installer guy, and I didn't really care for it's performance.

I lightly polished it with Optimum Hyper Polish on one of the black waffle pads, hit with Paint Prep, and installed Gloss Coat (which was on the rest of the vehicle), and I'm very happy with the results.

At work we recently received their new line of coatings, and they specifically say to use their Lite coating on the ppf. I always prefer when the customer opts for the Fusion Film with the coating already in it!
 
chefwong said:
I know it's best practice to avoid plastic when doing chem decontamination

The other day, I timed doing a chemical decontamination on my PPF *which is esentially the car's wrapped in plastic*.
I mean PPF is plastic....
PPF is known to take on staining from those guys using those fancy colored foams

Anyhow, I timed it right before a extended rainfall.
Pull the car out of the garage, sprayed, dwelled, rinsed it off the the PPF and about 20 minutes later, it rained for the next few hours.

For those with PPF , are you guys avoiding chemical decontamination or just take special precaution with iron decontamination on PPF
Click to expand...

I'm not sure if this will help in your situation, but we recently had a customer come in with bird dropping etching in his film. So we brought it in the shop to see if we could remedy it. I hit it with some chemical, and even used a soft polish pad by hand - very lightly with 3D ONE. Had no effect whatsoever.

Then I remembered the boss saying that it has some seal healing properties. Boss also said to remind him that the film is doing it's job by preventing this from happening to the paint.

I pulled the car back out front in the sun. In the time it took me to explain things to him, the spot vanished. The sunlight always have activated the "self healing" feature of the film.

If you were to come in the shopnwith this issue, I'd have ya thoroughly wash and dry the vehicle and leave it in the sun to see what happens.

Outside of that I'm not sure.

The boss is offering to everyone in the shop training for window tinting and ppf installation at the end of October. I'll know more after that.
 
BudgetPlan1 said:
Last year at SEMA I asked a mfg rep what the main difference between their PPF & regular coatings was; his answer was that for the most part the largest difference was that PPF coatings focus on ease of use (high spots on PPF are troublesome) as opposed to any other aspect of their formulation.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Click to expand...


I was thinking the PPF coating formulation is different to accommodate for -base- movement.
Akin to when the bodyshops paint plastic/rubber trim, often a flex additive is added to the paint for best practice.
 
joebruin77 said:
Personally, if I am not 100% certain a given product is safe for PPF, I usually email the manufacturer of my PPF (in my case, Xpel) and ask their support team if it is safe to use it. I have found Xpel to be very responsive to these types of questions. I trust the word of the PPF manufacturer more than the manufacturer of the product.
Click to expand...

Joe -

I have not payed that much into it....as I trust my shop and how he would treat issues
Nor do I expect issues within how long I have the car
However, for the PPF Xpel read of AGO
Xpel made a warranty change in spring 2023 for new and previous installs
The warranty is ONLY valid only if Xpel Coating is used on their film - which I get to some degree....they are supporting what chems are applied on their film
With that said though....it's not like I have ever considered having such on my film but for those that may keep their cars longer than 3-4 years and have Xpel film installed, something to pay note of
 
It ended up getting 2 Iron Decon Process...

The 1st time, maybe the car was clean
Day 1 - I did a High PH Foam Soak, wash and topper for winter...
Day 2 - While putting stuff away, I spied the Decon bottle so I ended doing a full Decon Dwell and wash.

The only purple I saw was from the rotors...and not any evidence on anything that dripped from the paint.
I suspected either my Iron Decon had *expired* - beyond it's usable shelf life...


2 Week later, I gave it another decon. The paint+ wheels were dirty as it hadn't gotten its weekly wash yet.
I didn't care much for purple as I knew it had road debris on it already.....
So decon wash and dry.

I gotta say, the previous decon definitely must have been past due as the run the hand over test, I can definitely tell it feels smoother for sure !
I really got to get out of getting tricked into buying the Gal Jugs since it's cheaper by the oz.....
 
I treat my Matte painted covered with Matte PPF car the exact same way I treat my non matte, non PPF cars in regards to prep work for coating EXCEPT no correction or polishing obviously.
Descale foam, dwell, rinse
Iron X, rinse - or light claying with TRC Clay Sponge if needed with IronX acting as lube
Tar X where needed
Oberk APC hand wash
Rinse
Dry
Prep spray down
Coat

I have done this twice now on the car, once every 2 years, and it has been perfectly fine. Companies and people put too much worry into the “PPF Process”, which I kind of get since a large cost and don’t want to mess it up. You won’t……

First go was with a PPF specific coating, GTechniq HALO. This time I tried GYEON Matte Evo as I love the Mohs and Pure Evo coatings. Time will tell, but guessing will be similar.

As mentioned above, PPF is more “thirsty” and you’ll use more coating.

When I recoated the Matte PPF car, since you don’t want to polish that in any way, I hit the PPF with a lot of chemical and dwell time to help kill off the Gtrchniq HALO product as best I could before applying the Gyeon product……and it’s perfectly fine.

PPF is Suntek PPF-Matte for anyone wondering.
 
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