Review: CarPro Iron-X
Background
This is now the 2nd winter that I have had my car, and each spring I find that the rear bumper, and to a lesser extent the sides, of the car covered in small contamination spots that are in the clear coat, "Rail Dust" being the common term to describe it.
I don't know whether it is just from the brake dust or from the train tracks that I cross twice a day on my commute, but then with the combination of the salt and moisture of winter, it turns into small rust spots. I only get this during winter, and never see it during the summer.
My car is always protected with a couple layers of sealant prior to winter, but it didn't seem to provide a layer of protection against the contamination (water was still beading very nicely however, so it was still there).
Last year, the clay bar wouldn't even touch it (Riccardo Yellow), so this year I wanted to try a decontaminate remover.
Process
I started off by washing the car with a paint prep ratio of CG Wash and Gloss, as I was going to be completeing a full detail afterwards.
After the car was washed, and lightly dried, I began spraying the Iron-X on the vehicle, working in small areas at a time. Right away you can see it start working, in a similar fashion to Sonax Full Effect on wheels. I left it sit for 5 minutes and work away. Next I took my sponge and a bucket of fresh water, and washed away the Iron-X. After I made sure to fully rinse the surface with a hose, making sure that it was clean.
A note of caution, I used a mask and goggles while using Iron-X: This stuff smells awful! It has a really strong smell, that almost takes your breath away - Think skunk/sulfur/lime. Really nasty! And I cannot image getting this stuff blown in you face with the wind, so I put on a set of goggles
Results
As you can see, the car was pretty messy before, but this stuff worked amazingly!
I'm very happy with the results, and went on to apply it to the entire car, working in small areas at a time. Afterwards, I washed the car again just to make sure all of the Iron-X was removed from the surface, and continued with my detailing process. Clay bar'ing after this was incredibly easy as there is virtually nothing left on the surface.
I was very impressed with this, so I thought I would share my experience with the rest of the e90post community. There must be others with Alpine White or other light colours that live in the nothern regions and experience these painful spots.
