Todd@RUPES
Just a regular guy
In the not-so-distant past, detailers and enthusiast used to grind away paint contamination with gritty compounds and rotary polishers. Then detailing clay because a popular way to remove overspray, iron fallout, and environmental pollution. New forms of synethic materials, foam clay block, and scrub pads have made this job even easier (and safer)!
One of the contaminates that is common to most finishes and an absolute bear to remove is "rail dust". Basically little pieces of iron settle onto the paint, oxidize (rust) and burrow into the finish. While you can use clay to remove these, the result is often scratched paint and a ruined clay bar.
Enter iron removers! These easy-to-use sprays attack the iron oxide and dissolve it, making iron fallout easy to remove. CarPro Iron-X was the first to gain notoriety, and many have followed. How would the new bread stack up against the "original."
Scoring:
These products are designed to remove iron oxidation, so that will receive the bulk of the scoring. Other factors include how they smell, how well they cling to the surface (which ironically was similar to how well they avoided drying), and how much easier they made it to remove stubborn, severely caked-on rail dust. (Most detailers will clay before or after treatment).
The best in each category will receive the maximum points allotted, with the remaining scores based on subjective evaluations relative to best performing.
Total Iron Removing Power: The bulk of this test (50 possible points) is how well these products do at dissolving the iron content from the paint. Not only was the color-changing effect recorded, but the surface was carefully evaluated as well. Each product was allowed to dwell for 7 minutes.
Cling / Resistance To Drying: This test was originally going to be two separate tests, however the results (and placement) were related, so this was combined into a test worth 20 points. To test the drying time, the products were applied to a black panel in the sunlight and allowed to bake on/evaporate. To test the clinging ability, the products were tested on a vertical panel and allowed to run off.
Ease Of Claying: The test hood used was TRASHED with iron fall out (the worst I have ever witnessed). This was done on purpose to ensure some contamination remained behind. This test was performed to see how much these iron removers "weakened" the remaining contamination.
Scent/Fragrance: Iron removers do not smell good, however some are much better than others. This test was performed using a series of human noses to find the most tolerable product. Several testers commented that one, in particular, smelled "mildly pleasant."
The Test Track:
A neglected hood was used for most of the comparison testing. This hood was covered in a horrendous amount of iron fallout. Additionally the side of the truck was used for the cling testing and a black test panel was used for the dry time testing.
The Test
I documented the power test for your viewing pleasure. First the hood was washed using Optimum No Rinse and Shine. The iron fallout was so pad that the microfiber towel would drag, as if it was being wiped across sandpaper.
The products were sprayed left-to-right, with care taken to avoid overlapping in each other's section. First was Auto Finessse Iron Remover, then Wolf's DeIronizer, CarPro Iron-X and finally, Dodo Juice Ferrous Dueller. As a wildcard, I included Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner, as it was the first truly popular product to feature iron eating, color-changing technology (as a wheel cleaner, it was not excepted, nor did it do well).
CarPro Iron-X was the fastest to begin to color change. Purple dots appeared almost instantly, while the Wolf's (visible to the left) hadn't even started to change yet.
Sonax Full Effect Wheel Cleaner (the product that introduced many of use to color-changing technology) was added for fun.
2 minutes after application: Because I sprayed left-to-right (each product took approximately 15 seconds to spray), the products on the left have additional "dwell time". None-the less, Iron-X jumped out to an immediate lead.
Keep in mind that the "speed" at which these products changed color ultimately had some (but not all) bearing on how much cleaning power they had.
Auto Finesse, 4 minutes after spraying:
Wolf's, 4 minutes after spraying:
Iron-X, 4 minutes after spraying:
Dodo Juice, 4 minutes after spraying:
Sonax, 4 minutes after spraying:
Here is a shot of the whole hood, 6 minutes after spraying.
Auto Finesse, 7 minutes after spraying:
Wolf's, 7 minutes after spraying:
Iron-X, 7 minutes after spraying:
Dodo Juice, 7 minutes after spraying:
Sonax, 7 minutes after spraying:
Because Sonax is a wheel cleaner, and the results were minor, it was excluded form the rest of the testing.
The hood, prior to washing off.
Auto Finesse vs. Wolf's
Wolf's vs. Iron-X
Iron-X vs. Dodo Juice
After rinsing the hood off, there was some contamination remaining. I used Optimum Opti-Clay to see how much easier the contamination would to remove. You would think that the products that cleaned the most, would do a better job of loosening the remaining contamination, but that didn't always prove true!
Before we jump to the results, that's talk about how each product performed!
Products:
Auto Finesse Iron Out - Let's get the bad out of the way... Iron Out Stinks, and it smells pretty awful, getting the worst "sniff test" reviews. Even my fairly chemical-resistant sniffer couldn't stand the smell.
That said, Iron Out was the second fastest to react and provided a strong amount of cleaning power. It was a great product, that improved clay's ability to clean paint. If you love Auto Finesse products (who doesn't), then this would be your easy choice!
Wolf's Chemicals DeIronizer - Wolf's is more gel-like than the other products. Even though it appeared to run off the surface, a film remained behind giving it the longest dwell time and most resistance to drying. The scent wasn't great, but it wasn't awful either.
DeIronizer had the least color-changing effect, and in this test, the least cleaning power. It was scored "just okay" on much easier it made claying, although this was likely a result of how much contamination was left on the surface. However the decent smell and awesome clinging ability kept Wolf's in the race. In fact, this was the slowest, but most consistent product in terms of color changing. Most products changed right away, then slowed down. Wolf's kept a steady, ever-increasing pace through on the test, and if the dwell time had been longer, it might have increased its score.
CarPro Iron-X - Iron-X is oldest product here (and its only a few years old!). This product produced an almost instant color-changing and it proved to be the strongest by far. Most of the iron dissolving takes place quickly, with little change after the 3 minute mark.
The smell is okay (I prefer the original to the Lemon Scent) and cling/dry time is average as well. Iron-X also shined in its ability to assist detailing clay working, after the fact.
Dodo Juice Ferrous Dueller - Dodo Juice's play on Ferris Buehler (the movie) is evident, yet the name is pretty explanitory. Ferrous Dueller is the best smelling product in this test, even being called "almost pleasant" by more than one mouth attached to a nose.
This product produced the second strongest cleaning power (again taking longer, but not-to-long, to achieve those results). Dodo Juice's Iron Remover also did good in the cling/dry test, and made claying effortless, tying Iron-X in that category.
