Issue removing all of the rail rust from car.

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Temple90

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I have an 07 Satin White Pearl Sti and am having difficulty removing all of the rail rust from the car. After washing the car I used Iron X (spray) spread it around with the applicator and waited 5 minutes before rinsing. This took some of the rust of but not all of it. I repeated this step 2 more times and still have some rust.

Can anyone give me some suggestions on how I can get the remaining rail rust off?
 
Polish it off. Only way to get them all. I have a white toyota truck, speaking from experience.
 
Iron-X is not a good product to remove rust. Not sure what you mean by rail rust (pictures maybe). In general rust has to be sanded away in one form or an other. You can use rust converter also. Once it's gone, you will want to make sure to seal that area very well or the rust will return.

Again, pictures would help.
 
I think the rail rust is dust produced by rail road cars (trains). I hope he was not trying to remove real rusted parts with Ironx.
 
Calendyr said:
Iron-X is not a good product to remove rust. Not sure what you mean by rail rust (pictures maybe). In general rust has to be sanded away in one form or an other. You can use rust converter also. Once it's gone, you will want to make sure to seal that area very well or the rust will return.

Again, pictures would help.
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Rail rust or rail dust is a term that describes contamination when a vehicle is transported by train. Iron particles from the train and tracks fly into the air landing on the vehicles. By the time the vehicle arrives at the dealership, the particles start to rust. Although, you can get this contamination from just about anywhere, not just from a train...No need to sand these spots!

Like conquistador, I also detail a white Toyota pickup, and it usually has some spots on it as well (from the brakes I think).

Temple90 - did you try clay after IronX?
 
Definitely clay it. From what I hear, subarus have soft paint so you might get some marring and have to do a light polish on the car
 
I swear I could IX my fiancées white Accord every time I wash it and have it bleed. If you have a white car you'll have to deal with iron particles quite a bit.
 
Ah rail dust, never heard it called rail rust before.
 
I had your problem on a brand new 2003 Yellow Ford Cobra. It was covered with little red specks.
This was long enough ago that there was no Iron-X type of product. I had to use clay. And only the most aggressive clay would pull out all the iron specks. I used red Clay Magic which did finally get out all the rail dust. It also left plenty of marring in it's wake.
But that was easy to polish out. The rail dust had never "come back" either.

I would try giving the car a good going over with clay. Then use the Iron-X. Then give the paint the plastic glove test to see if it still is rough. If it's smooth and you no longer see the rust spots you are good to start polishing if necessary.
 
Decontaminating a car, simply put is a two-step process. Chemical (IronX) and mechanical (clay/polish or compound - or a combination). You have done the chemical decon, now you need to do the mechanical decon by claying & polishing to remove the remainder of the contaminates.
 
Rail dust is what I was referring to! It was a late night, not sure why I put rail rust. So I tried a very mild clay (pinnacle) after the Iron X and it did not really help. I want to try the least abrasive routes first in terms of removing the "rust" spots. I have used Meguiars Compound when I first saw it but now realize that might be too agressive. Would swirl x or scratch x be less abrassive?
 
Try a more aggressive clay. There are 3 or 4 grades.

Roger T
 
Its a 2007 auto. How do you know its iron deposits/rail dust and not tree sap, industrial fallout, tar, road grime....?
 
jmsc said:
Its a 2007 auto. How do you know its iron deposits/rail dust and not tree sap, industrial fallout, tar, road grime....?
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They are orange rust colored specs. The iron X turns them purple but does not completly remove them. Based on this I assumed it was rail dust.
 
Iron X paste has always worked well for me. Also, I have used IX spray on rusty parts on numerous motorcycles and it works very well at removing the rust from bolts and fittings.
I have clayed quite a few subies in my time and to get all the the rail dust off of your car, you might have to step up your clay aggressiveness. Yes it will marr, but will polish out easily with a polishing pad and polish of your choice. When you're done with everything, would recommend you get some IX snow foam for for maintenance washings. Will help remove any new rail dust that you might get. Good luck.
 
Temple90 said:
I want to try the least abrasive routes first in terms of removing the "rust" spots. I have used Meguiars Compound when I first saw it but now realize that might be too agressive. Would swirl x or scratch x be less abrassive?
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Like most have said, besides IronX, a clay product will be the least aggressive. Maybe try an OTC clay like Meguiar's. It should be slightly more aggressive if the Pinnacle clay is an fine a it sounds.

Like you may have found, a compound ("Ultimate" I assume) may leave a sort of marring of it's own on soft Subaru paint. I use Optimum compound, which is rated similarly in cut, and it needs to be followed up with a polish if use on soft Subaru paint. It may also not do much for removing the embedded rail dust.

Meguiar's Ultimate compound is more aggressive than ScratchX which is more aggressive than SwirlX.

SwirlX should probably be fine for removing light marring from clay if you get some.

You could also try letting the IronX dwell longer. Maybe try to do it early the morning or late evening. Say spray, let it dwell, check it, spray some on a damp sponge and agitate a little, and let dwell more, maybe repeat the sponge and dwell, just not letting dry.
 
I agree with the Ironx first, then you will have less contamination to remove.
 
Calendyr said:
Ah rail dust, never heard it called rail rust before.
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Sometimes it's so bad 'rail dust' doesn't do it justice :props:
JcMGEfM.jpg
 
fly07sti said:
Iron X paste has always worked well for me. Also, I have used IX spray on rusty parts on numerous motorcycles and it works very well at removing the rust from bolts and fittings.
I have clayed quite a few subies in my time and to get all the the rail dust off of your car, you might have to step up your clay aggressiveness. Yes it will marr, but will polish out easily with a polishing pad and polish of your choice. When you're done with everything, would recommend you get some IX snow foam for for maintenance washings. Will help remove any new rail dust that you might get. Good luck.
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Thanks for the advice. I was hoping to avoid polishing and simply seal the car after claying. I will give the Iron X paste a shot. Im assuming the Iron X spray is running down the door and not sticking on the spot it needs to remove. Hopefully the past solves this issue. If not I'll try a more agressive clay. Will IX snow foam help prevent the rust spots from settling on the paint?
 
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