Iron decon and clay combined...

[briarpatch]

Don't feel bad. I've never used one and not really seen the point. I used a color changing wheel cleaner wheel cleaner years ago, and it never changed color, so I didn't really see the value there either.

Back on topic. One thing I haven't seen anyone mention regarding using an iron remover together with a clar bar is lubrication. How slick are the iron removers? After some terrible experience with Nanoskin Glide offering no lubrication, I'm very conscious of that every time I pull out a claybar. The last thing I want is the clay bar to inflict more marring on the paint than it normally would under normal circumstances.

Only time I've done something close to this....was using DoDo Juice Supernatural Ferro Lube....essentially two products in one. I don;t think you can even get this product in the U.S. anymore.

[DFB]

I'm not a huge user of iron decon products, but oddly enough I've had the same experience with wheels, maybe it's from changing over to ceramic pads, but I get very little color change on my wheels. However, I have had some pretty extreme color changing on a trunklid/back bumper, but that was on a car that sat on a highway dealer lot for a while, not far from an airport, if that had anything to do with it. I don't think I did the whole car, I think it felt gritty in the back there so I sprayed it and it bled quite a bit.

Regular maintenance makes a HUGE difference to how much iron reaction you get.

This is a set of unmaintained wheels on a Holden Cruze using NV Purge. In this case, the wheels had not been cleaning in over 12 months.









While not perfect, the result below is WITHOUT even touching the wheel, just spray, dwell, rinse.




Now onto a set of my own wheels, in this case ceramic coated with NV Wheel, with NV Boost applied to the wheel face after each wash. I only use an iron remover type product (Purge) every 6 - 9 months as a preventative. You can see the rotor has reacted, but the wheel itself is free of iron.





The same concept applies to paint. If you have a good LSP and regularly wash and maintain that LSP, you will get minimal iron reaction.

[DFB]

Don't feel bad. I've never used one and not really seen the point. I used a color changing wheel cleaner wheel cleaner years ago, and it never changed color, so I didn't really see the value there either.

Back on topic. One thing I haven't seen anyone mention regarding using an iron remover together with a clar bar is lubrication. How slick are the iron removers? After some terrible experience with Nanoskin Glide offering no lubrication, I'm very conscious of that every time I pull out a claybar. The last thing I want is the clay bar to inflict more marring on the paint than it normally would under normal circumstances.

I have used Carpro IronX and NV Purify (which is a combined iron remover/clay lube) as clay lubricant and both seemed more than slick enough for the job.





In fact, it can actually be quite a bit slicker than you might imagine. The only thing to note is tainting your clay media with the horrid scent of iron remover, not mention getting all over your clothes as you reach around the car.

[Setec Astronomy]

Regular maintenance makes a HUGE difference to how much iron reaction you get.

The same concept applies to paint. If you have a good LSP and regularly wash and maintain that LSP, you will get minimal iron reaction.

Yeah, sure, the more you clean something, or the more it sheds contaminants, the less buildup there will be. But I'm not exactly the 'Geekiest member here, not the person I was years ago when I would wash my wheels IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WEEK because the car was still clean from a weekend wash but the wheels were black. I've got Akebono Pro-Acts in all my cars now and you can't tell me the pad material has no impact on how much bleeding you get with an iron-eating wheel cleaner. But what do I know, most of you guys do more washes in a month than I do in a year now (or if you're Klasse...maybe more washes in a week than I do in a year), with the latest/greatest products, while I'm (mostly) stuck in the past trying to use up stuff I bought years ago. Plus I don't put that much mileage on my vehicles anymore, either, and I've got them all inside now, so less washing, less brake dust, etc.