I am done using the kit. Setec, you were right on with the smell of the step 1 stuff. I'd take the smell of AIO or UPP over that anyday. I must say that the decontamination procedure didn't live up to my expectations. It did reduce some tiny rust spots on the car, but they didn't go away completely. Some clay afterwards took care of that quickly.
The contamination seemed to be reduced, but not anywhere close to gone like I was hoping. I applied the second step 3 times to all of the horizontal panels, still with little improvement. On the bright side, I've been claying for the last hour, and it's SOOOO much easier than before. The horizontal panels are a bit more difficult than the vertical ones, but that's to be expected.
This is the process that I did:
Wash car with normal method (car soap, MF mitt, etc...)
Rinse car
Wash car with Step 1 and water 4:1, applied with a firm sponge.
Allow to dwell for 7-8 minutes.
Rinse off well
Throw Step1 sponge on the lawn (to be discarded later)
Spray Step2 product directly on a new sponge and apply that directly to the surface. Let dwell for 7-8 minutes.
Rinse off well
Spray Step2 on sponge again and apply directly to the horizontal panels.
Watch the time until 8 minutes passes, then rinse off well.
Inspect paint...still contamination.
Apply Step2 again in the same fashion to all the horizontal panels.
Wait 8 minutes and rinse well. By this time it was starting to drizzle a bit too.
Stand out in the rain and rinse the car off while the neighbors drive by.
Wash the car with another brand new sponge and the normal method (car soap - several times stronger solution than usual). Watch more neighbors drive by.
Rinse car again. Watch the neighbors that drove by an hour ago come back and see me out there STILL rinsing my car in the rain. :lol
Leave the car out to get rained on.
Take a shower and eat lunch.
Rain stopped, so I dried the car and threw away the MF that I used to dry it. Then I dried all the door jambs, hood/trunk jambs, inside gas filler door, etc...
Clay... (here I am now)
Overall I wasn't very impressed with the FK1 kit. Maybe my car was an unusually severe case of contamination, but it didn't deliver the results I expected from reading about it, and visiting the Finish Kare website.
I was VERY impressed at how easy the particles were removed by clay afterward though. On the vertical panels it's like the particles are just laying on the surface. :up