Chemical Decontamination: what is it?

Chemical Decontamination is the process of removing foreign objects from your cars paintwork that washing with a Microfibre Mitt will not shift!

There are many different types of this contamination and each one has its own type of product to aid in its removal. As you know from reading the information on our website, we use cleaning products from a company called Gtechniq. Gtechniq produce 3, products that we use to remove specific types of decontaminate, they are:

• W6 Iron & General Fallout Remover

• W7 Tar & Glue Remover

• W8 Bug Remover

In this article we are going to concentrate on what Iron Fallout is, how we pick it up on our paintwork, and how to safely remove it.

What is Iron Fallout?

Iron Fallout is tiny pieces of metal in the air that attach themselves to the paintwork of your car! It is predominantly seen on your car's wheels in the form of brake dust. This dust attaches itself to your wheels and over time will eat into them, allowing the air to get to the metal, which in turn leads to corrosion. This will happen to the paintwork of your car in the longterm. However, as a valet we are concerned that these pieces of metal will mark your paintwork as we go through the process of cleaning.

An extreme example of Iron Fallout on the boot of this Volkswagen EOS

How do we pick it up?

We do not have to do anything wrong to expose our cars to fallout. By simply driving on a busy motorway, or parking in an industrial area or near railway lines, we expose our vehicles to higher levels of fallout in the air.

Don't think because you have a new car that it will be free from Iron Fallout! This two-week old, 350 mile Audi TT was covered in it when it came to us for a machine polish.

How do we safely Remove it?

Iron Fallout can be safely removed by the use of chemicals and with a clay bar (more about this in a future post). By spraying on a fallout remover and leaving it to dwell, the product will react with the metal and dissolve it as can be seen in the photos; each pink run is a piece of metal dissolving. You should never let the fallout remover dry on your paintwork, so avoid carrying out this process in direct sunlight. By spraying water onto the product, it will help to avoid it drying out, allowing the chemical process to take place for longer and ensuring the best possible outcome.

Another example of Iron fallout on a car that is predominantly kept in a garage, however, the owner's house is near a railway line.

How often should you be carrying out Iron Fallout Decontamination?

This is one of those questions where the answer comes down to where you live, where you park your car, and how many miles you drive! I would certainly suggest that you carry out all forms of decontamination prior to polishing your car, as you are then putting polish onto fully cleaned paintwork. A tell-tale sign that your car is in need of decontamination is that when you run a Microfibre cloth over your paintwork after your usual wash routine you feel it catching! This would indicate that you still have foreign bodies on the surface of your car.

We carry out chemical decontamination as part of our Silver and Gold Valet options! Additionally, we would also always carry out decontamination prior to any machine polishing.

If you have any questions on the above, or any other car-valeting processes, then please get in touch.