Friendly Reminder to Decontaminate your new Type R

CanadaCivic

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Hi All,

My 2020 CTR arrived a little while ago and one of the first things I did was have the paint decontaminated. Brand new cars are absolutely COVERED in rail dust, brake dust, and tar from transport, and much of it is invisible (I couldn't really see any on mine). If you let the dealership wash/prep your car, they do not do any of these steps and all they do is grind all these contaminants into the paint causing all kinds of damage and swirl marks. I specifically requested that the dealer simply deliver my vehicle as it came off the truck/train (aside from PDI) so I could make sure this was done.

Most iron removers turn purple when they dissolve contaminants, and my vehicle needed THREE separate treatments for both tar and iron before it was clean. This is a photo from one of the treatments - one of the worst I have ever seen (sorry for the quality it's a screenshot from a video):

So buy yourself a bottle of Carpro IronX, 3D BDX, or similar product (make sure its PH neutral/paint safe) and go to town. You will want to follow this up with a clay bar or clay towel to get the rest before you apply any kind of paint protection such as a ceramic coating or PPF.

Honda Civic 10th gen Friendly Reminder to Decontaminate your new Type R Screenshot_20200920-005311
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Byron Sexton

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Jesus thanks for this tip
 

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Hi All,

My 2020 CTR arrived a little while ago and one of the first things I did was have the paint decontaminated. Brand new cars are absolutely COVERED in rail dust, brake dust, and tar from transport, and much of it is invisible (I couldn't really see any on mine). If you let the dealership wash/prep your car, they do not do any of these steps and all they do is grind all these contaminants into the paint causing all kinds of damage and swirl marks. I specifically requested that the dealer simply deliver my vehicle as it came off the truck/train (aside from PDI) so I could make sure this was done.

Most iron removers turn purple when they dissolve contaminants, and my vehicle needed THREE separate treatments for both tar and iron before it was clean. This is a photo from one of the treatments - one of the worst I have ever seen (sorry for the quality it's a screenshot from a video):

So buy yourself a bottle of Carpro IronX, 3D BDX, or similar product (make sure its PH neutral/paint safe) and go to town. You will want to follow this up with a clay bar or clay towel to get the rest before you apply any kind of paint protection such as a ceramic coating or PPF.

Screenshot_20200920-005311.png
Thank you for this.
I myself just recently learned about Iron marks from the train...
 

CWNole95

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Yep. Good tip for all. It’s literally the first thing I do anytime I purchase a new vehicle. Amazing how much crap is present. I use the exact same products, also (Carpro).
 

darrvao777

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Good lord mine wasn’t that bad from the dealership

but yes I always start with a decon wash
 


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CanadaCivic

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Thank you for this.
I myself just recently learned about Iron marks from the train...
Rail dust is bad (train) but it also comes from brake dust (truck ride) and from your own driving on the road from the car itself and vehicles around you. A full decontamination is a good idea at least once per year, or semi-annually before whatever protective coating you choose to apply. It's amazing how much damaging junk is on our cars that we can't see. One easy way to test this is to first wash your car, then stick your hand inside a plastic bag and gently feel the surface of the vehicle - if it's rough, it's badly contaminated. It's amazing how quickly it accumulates.


Yep. Good tip for all. It’s literally the first thing I do anytime I purchase a new vehicle. Amazing how much crap is present. I use the exact same products, also (Carpro).
CarPro Iron X is good stuff, it actually uses a slightly different ingredient than most other iron & tar removers. Most of them are all based on sodium salts to keep them paint safe (rather than acids like old school wheel cleaners). 3D BDX, Sonax Fallout Plus, Adams Iron Remover, Optimum Ferrex, and others are all actually almost the exact same product, they just have different concentrations of the sodium salts (active ingredient), dyes, and scents to differentiate them. Iron X uses a slightly different active ingredient but is still PH neutral and paint safe. The best value I have found is 3D BDX in 1-gallon sizes.
 

sean465

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My word my champ white looks a little raspberry ripple ice cream when I de con, but yours is the craziest I’ve seen...!
 
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CanadaCivic

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My word my champ white looks a little raspberry ripple ice cream when I de con, but yours is the craziest I’ve seen...!
Mine could have simply been worse, but it also depends how much product you use. A proper application would be roughly 3/4 of a 500ml bottle each time, and you should repeat until it is completely clean. It needs to sit on the paint for about 5 minutes and you cannot let it dry (if it starts to dry, you add more). I suspect more people's cars would look like mine if they truly saturated the car in the product (not saying you didn't), but certainly some vehicles will still be worse than others. Mine went all the way across Canada on a train before it got on a truck, so I wouldn't be surprised if it was worse than normal as well.

It looks like you're from the UK where they're made, so yours probably wasn't nearly as bad. Mine traveled ~5,500 km via rail o_O
 
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So my Type R is Ceramic Coated. I Used Chemical Guys Iron and I shit you not.... nothing on my paint turned purple at all! NOTHING. The wheels for sure turned purple.... but yeah Not even a HINT of purple anywhere on the paint or PPF.
 


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CanadaCivic

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So my Type R is Ceramic Coated. I Used Chemical Guys Iron and I shit you not.... nothing on my paint turned purple at all! NOTHING. The wheels for sure turned purple.... but yeah Not even a HINT of purple anywhere on the paint or PPF.
Did you apply the ceramic coating before or after using the iron remover?
 

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I didn't do this myself, but my ceramic installer did. He actually said it was in better shape than most new cars he encounters outside of luxury brands.
 

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I seen brand new on the lot cars with crazy swirl marks on them. Car wash guy only has one job...
 
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CanadaCivic

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I seen brand new on the lot cars with crazy swirl marks on them. Car wash guy only has one job...
Yup, you're right - Dealers don't decontaminate the cars, so as soon as the lot boy touches it with a wash mitt, it gets tons of swirls. Hard to avoid unless you order the car new and specifically request they don't touch it though.
 

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Did you apply the ceramic coating before or after using the iron remover?

Both. Lol. So when the ceramic coating was applied 5 months ago it was decontaminated then. It was also just decontaminated last week. There was no purple residue anywhere ceramic was applied. Aside from the wheels with the brake dust.
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