Which chemical decontaminations should I use?

bennylava

bennylava

New member
I`d like to hear which chemical decontams I should use on a neglected car. I like the idea of putting some liquid on the car, and letting it eat the contams, and rinsing it off. That way you`re dragging less contams across the clear coat when you clar bar the car afterwards. Which ones do you prefer? Is there an all in one, or will I be needing more than one type of chemical in order to cover all the bases?
 
I would not advise a "wheel cleaner decon" for your paint but you can use "general fall out cleaner" for both paint and wheels just on the side of caution. Honestly they are pretty much the same chemical reaction. I used Meg`s Dub wheel cleaner on paint before to remove some pinhole rust spots with no problems. I use Meguiar`s Dub wheel cleaner and it`s just as good as Iron X and Sonax Full Effect and half the price.
My advice buy something in your price range and don`t over apply. If possible get one that is one of the thicker gel type so it clings to vertical panels and wheels. You should be able to do the average size car with 500 ml or less of iron remover. People tend to over use these products. You need a paint safe sponge like a cheap foam wax applicator. Mist it lightly with H20 then decon spray. Mist the panel you are working on with decon spray, not soak. Use the sponge to spread product over the panel. If the sponge gets loaded up then squeeze it out on the panel and spread it. If it looks like surface might be drying mist lightly with H20 and spread again. The trick is to be patient and let the chemicals do the work. The way I do it is a tad slower but I`m able to work multiple panels outside in the heat without worrying about the chems drying on paint
 
I use Gyeon Iron for iron deposits and car pro Tar X for sap and tar. The also have an combo spray that does both, which I’ve never tried. Both highly effective. Other good products out there also.
 
Nobody ever seems to go for the ValuGard ABC that I use, but there are lots of choices on the market these days. Gotta admit that I`d kinda like to use one of the Indicator Color products some time! Visual feedback = satisfying if only for subjective/psych reasons :D

I wouldn`t expect there to be a true AIO version though, as neutralizing alkaline and acidic contamination are pretty much mutually exclusive processes and that neutralization is the, uhm...actual dog, with the loosening/removal of the contamination *material* being the wagging tail that most of us are focused on.
 
I would start with something like this. Britemax Grime Out.

https://www.autopia-carcare.com/britemax-grime-out-degreaser.html#.WmeYJJdwE1I
By the gallon more bang for the buck.
https://www.autopia-carcare.com/britemax-grime-out-degreaser-128oz.html#.WmeY2ZdwE1I

Then moving on to this combo which I have seen review of. But looks very intresting to clay and loosen up the iron contaminants at the same time. Little innovation I think.

https://www.autopia-carcare.com/britemax-iron-max-iron-remover.html

https://www.autopia-carcare.com/britemax-clay.html#.WmeaGZdwE1I
For 5$ more you get a new channel mf mitt and a car soap :)
https://www.autopia-carcare.com/britemax-decon-kit.html

And if you want one of the best degreaser out there go with Bilt Hamber surfex HD and test out something else from that brand as it`s a really strong line of products. Their clay is awesome and effective if you work inside or at a warm climate go with the regualar or in a little cooler place the soft. Their car schampoo is good also and has no wax or glossenhancer in it and is a high dilution. And the iron remover is better than ironx that says a little about it and is called Korrosol.

https://www.hstuning.com/product_info.php?products_id=4061

https://www.hstuning.com/product_info.php?products_id=3767

https://www.hstuning.com/product_info.php?products_id=3764

They didn`t have the soft one but medium is great also and as effective as the regualar one just a little more user friendly. If it`s little cold when claying have a warm water bath so the clay is easier to fold.

https://www.hstuning.com/product_info.php?products_id=3761

If I were you I would test Bilt Hamber surfex HD and Korrosol and the clay medium. Use surfex HD undiluted to degrease and read up on the versitale product as goes as a APC. But don`t get fooled by that as in tests of degreasers it almost get top scores. I have this also and have not problem to recommend it. I use it in the foamcannon with a 1:10 dilution as a traffic film remover. And 1:10 In a kwazar spray bottle as spot cleaner on paint. At 1:100 It`s a mild APC so a very versitale product. Then use the Korrosol and it`s quick to desolve iron corrosion and you can clean rinse the iron contaminants off the car with a pressure wash or strong water pressure from the hose. Then clay with your favorite claylube even if they says it only needs water.
Would be fun to hear a american use this and what you think of it :)
 
Looks like there is more to this than I initially thought. Yes I wanted to try Bilt Hamber products, but do they have an outlet in the U.S? Not sure if I`d want to pay the shipping fees all the way from UK. Then again I haven`t looked real hard either. But for now, I`m looking for some budget stuff. I`ll check the store here and see if they have some poorboy variants of decontams. Or maybe I`ll go with the Megs Dub wheel cleaner since it is priced pretty low.

So from this thread, it looks like you`ll basically need 2 types of decontams. 1 for tar and sap, and a different type for iron and industrial fallout/exhaust/etc.
 
bennylava;2128301/ said:
for now, I`m looking for some budget stuff. I`ll check the store here and see if they have some poorboy variants of decontams.

So from this thread, it looks like you`ll basically need 2 types of decontams. 1 for tar and sap, and a different type for iron and industrial fallout/exhaust/etc.
Click to expand...

APC and Iron Remover will do the job easily ... The APC dilution will depend on the contamination.
 
bennylava said:
Looks like there is more to this than I initially thought. Yes I wanted to try Bilt Hamber products, but do they have an outlet in the U.S? Not sure if I`d want to pay the shipping fees all the way from UK. Then again I haven`t looked real hard either. But for now, I`m looking for some budget stuff. I`ll check the store here and see if they have some poorboy variants of decontams. Or maybe I`ll go with the Megs Dub wheel cleaner since it is priced pretty low.

So from this thread, it looks like you`ll basically need 2 types of decontams. 1 for tar and sap, and a different type for iron and industrial fallout/exhaust/etc.
Click to expand...

HS-tuning is based in the US!

I know carpro trix is a combined tar remover and iron remover.

Often is the more dedicated products more effective. And different chemicals desolves different kind of dirt. Bilt Hamber surfex HD and Korrosol comes in 1 liter bottles is about 34oz. If you have heavy contaminants on the I would use a dedicated product to the dirt I try to get off. Cause if it`s not effective you are going to more product and more than one application. So either brand you chose useing look into what kind of dirt it is for.
 
I use whatever "general fallout" cleaner I can get the cheapest. It`s all the same stuff. This stuff is going to over spray on trim, rubber, glass and plastics so I go with a cheap safe fall out cleaner. I get the cheapest color changing wheel cleaner I can get. In the Spring I can get Meguiar`s Dub for $6 22 ounce bottles and I will buy 5 of them. It`s just as good as any of the other color changing wheel cleaners. I only decon my wheels and paint once every year or two if needed. I coat my wheels so cleaning them is car wash shampoo until the coating fails. Then they get clayed and polished coated again. Once my paint is corrected and the LSP is applied I only decon when the paint starts to feel rough and then it`s only spots that may need it. I try not to punish my paint anymore then needed.
 
I don`t know how good the dub wheel cleaner is to desolve oxidized iron to iron. But general speaking the red color is the effect of an added ingredient that changes color after a certain chemical reaction, it does NOT indicate how well the product works. Only how much of that ingredient is added. You can however apply it multible times to see how effective it is. It has removed oxidized iron particals when the color bleeding stops and often when that it`s done the iron particals gets rinsed away. So after rinsing the first application and applyied one more time and you still get the bleeding effect the wheel cleaner or the iron remover has not desolved it enough. It`s simple to test this with multible applications. Then you see how effective different iron removers is. And something like carpro ironx and Bilt Hamber Korrosol is very good for do this on the first application. So it comes down to how concentrate the different products is to do effectively. And does the dub wheel cleaner or another cheaper wheel cleaner or iron remover then use it. But I would test multible times to see how effective they are.
 
SWETM brings up a great point I forgot about, strength. The only testing I did was Sonax FE, Meg`s and Colourtec and of those three Sonax and Meg`s did not remove any additional iron deposits left behind by the other. Colourtec however left behind deposits that Meg`s and Sonax were able to clean up. Meg`s was much slower to react then Sonax but with wheel cleaning I still had to scrub with both cleaners. Sonax ran right off the wheels. Meg`s clung to the wheels. I have only purchased Meg`s since then because it`s cheap. Sonax FE really did not do that much more for me to warrant the extra expense. With wheels you are still going to scrub really filthy wheels. It may take multiple applications of any wheel cleaner to get a wheel clean. Once I was able to get my wheels done which took cleaning, polishing and prep for a coating I did one more test with Dub and no color change. My Dlux has lasted on my rims no failure. I always tell hobbyists buy the best quality you can afford. Just because it`s cheap does not mean it`s not good. Read reviews.Sometimes the best products out there are just as good if not better then the most expensive. The products will work some just faster then others. I just prefer if I have to do multiple applications of a $5 or $10 product then a $20 product but that`s my preference.
 
SWETM said:
HS-tuning is based in the US!

I know carpro trix is a combined tar remover and iron remover.

Often is the more dedicated products more effective. And different chemicals desolves different kind of dirt. Bilt Hamber surfex HD and Korrosol comes in 1 liter bottles is about 34oz. If you have heavy contaminants on the I would use a dedicated product to the dirt I try to get off. Cause if it`s not effective you are going to more product and more than one application. So either brand you chose useing look into what kind of dirt it is for.
Click to expand...

Dirt is actually the main problem here. Lots of old dirt on the car, and you can just tell by looking at certain spots that there must be a fair amount of dirt that is embedded in the clear. Is there one that is known for dissolving actual dirt better than others?
 
bennylava said:
Also wanted to ask if any of you guys have ever tried a product called Brown Royal.

https://www.amazon.com/Flash-Brown-Royal-Non-Acid-Cleaner/dp/B00WR99152
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Benny Lava --
No, do not know anything about Brown Royal Non Acid Cleaner... Sorry...

But I do know a lot about Meguiars Wheel Brightener, and have successfully cleaned hundreds of brake dusted black wheels and never had an issue with it..
I like to pressure wash the wheels first, to help remove as much as possible that way..
Then, spray the entire wheel, especially the inner wheel, all around the brake caliper, the outside of the wheel, and let it dwell for about a minute, then pressure wash off almost everything, and rinse everything really well...

Sometimes some wheels will need another spray and brush them a little more, especially behind the wheels where its hard to get the pressure washer to hit it directly...

All of them have always come out beautifully clean and ready to apply something to keep that dust from sticking to to them again so quickly...

It IS an acid cleaner, you need to be careful, do Not get it on your face, eyes, etc... Use common sense... Do Not use it on bare aluminum wheels...

Mind how much you mix to water, never use it full strength...keep it off your skin... Follow the recommendations on the bottle, believe its 4:1, so that means in the standard Meguiars 35 oz plastic bottle with sprayer, you would put 7 oz of the cleaner in first, and then fill the bottle with 28 oz of water...

Here is the link to the store here at Autopia ---- https://www.autopia-carcare.com/meguiars-wheel-brightener.html#.WmlnL655X3g
Dan F
 
Even the meguiars wheel brightener cleaner is effective to desolve oxidized iron. That is since it`s a acid based wheel cleaner and certain acids is doing the desolveing of oxidized iron to iron even in the ph neutral bleeding iron remover. So in theory meguiars wheel brightener is a great way to do both iron remover and cleaning on paint too. But it`s design to be as effective as possible on rims. Since it`s acid based it can stain bare aluminum rims. And if used on the car the clearcoat can handle it without a problem I think. The part it`s getting tricky is other parts of the car such as glass and rubber seals and bare aluminum parts on the car. That`s why I is carefull to use any wheel cleaner on the car as a degreaser.

There is foam soap with iron remover capability out there that is good to remove different kind of dirt also. Carpro ironx foam and tac system has one to. Sure it`s expensive but it`s not used as to a maintance product but a decon wash. Also is iron remover in general used on decon washes a couple of times a year. The degreasers can be used more often to break down road film and other contaminants. The iron removers as ironx has some capabilitys to desolve other kind of dirts also that you don`t get with a car schampo. But for a decon wash different kind of chemicals gets different kind of dirt.

Sure you can go with a iron remover and a APC and see what it does. Don`t remember if you were going to clay. If you are going to clay that will pick up iron contaminants and tar and tree sap too. But at the expence of more possibility to clay marring. So if you are going to polish after it`s maybe such of a big deal for some. And if you are going to use a cleaner wax/AIO they are going to get some contaminants also as they are design to clean and has more solvents in them than a compound or polish. The downside is that it`s going to be useing more pads when polishing with the AIO.

So when it`s comes down to how we all do things it`s up to us how we want to do them. Some like to cut corners and some like to get as clean as possible. In the end we want as glossy car as possible it`s just different ways to get there. And we use different methods to do that and believe in how to get there.
 
Poorboy said:
APC and Iron Remover will do the job easily ... The APC dilution will depend on the contamination.
Click to expand...

Both of these work great for me! I personally prefer a dedicated solvent tar remover, but the truth is here in the northwest there`s not enough tar to justify it. Clay takes of care the little bits that do stick.

If wheels are apocalyptic bad grab some spray and rinse but I`ve never needed it myself.
 
I`ve had little luck with any iron remover I`ve tried - just not as effective as I`d hoped they would be. For "bad" wheels, meguairs wheel brightener has all but eliminated all other wheel cleaners in my arsenal. I bought the Valugard ABC system based on some recommendations here, and I`ll be trying it out this spring.
 
kdgs touched on something that could be critical on some vehicles- gotta keep acidic/highly alkaline stuff off of bare aluminum. Makes me think of the aluminum trim on our Audis. "But it`s not bare"...maybe not when it was brand new (big "maybe" IME) but once it gets a tiny bit compromised...and that might not be readily visible to the naked eye, it`s sooo fragile and once it`s [messed] up it`s never the same. I`m nervous using "B" on it, and that stuff is awfully gentle.

SuperBuick said:
I bought the Valugard ABC system based on some recommendations here, and I`ll be trying it out this spring.
Click to expand...
Repeating...I predict it`ll be awfully mild compared to what you`re used to, not that I consider that a bad thing. I *do* wish it were a bit more potent, but then it`d be merely Accumulator-proof, rather than foolproof.
 
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