How to Safely Decontaminate Your Car Paintwork

Why Decontaminate Your Car Paintwork? Here's The Answer...

Although paintwork decontamination isn't necessary every time you wash your car, it's still an extremely important stage when it comes to any full detail. Put simply, carrying out a thorough "decon wash' reaches deeper into the surface than your regular car wash can by removing the sort of ingrained impurities and contaminants that washing alone cannot. In other words, it sets you on the right path for any further paint correction and the application of protection layers.

At the very least, we'd always recommend decontaminating your paint at least twice a year: once before the winter, to get it ready for the protection layers needed to see out the cold season. And once after winter, in order to eradicate the harshest, and most harmful, contamination prior to getting your car looking its best for the spring and summer. For more dedicated detailing enthusiasts of course, you can decontaminate your paint more often, most significantly before any hand polishing or machine polishing processes can take place. The types of sharp particles, environmental fallout and sticky residues your decon wash will remove are certainly not the type of thing you want swirling around on your polishing pads, inflicting defects and damaging paintwork as they go.

But, what does a professional 3-stage decontamination actually involve? It's simply a group of specialist cleansing processes designed to get your paintwork cleaner than it's ever been before. On a molecular level in fact. For this we use a number of specialist detailing products tasked with specific parts of the process. Most importantly these products are desigend to be safe to use on paint a clearcoat layers, and they remove the harsest contamination safely without abrading the surface underneath.

So, that's what a decon wash is, and why you need it. That just leaves us just a few easy steps to show you the best detailing products to use, and how to get the best results on any type of gloss paintwork…

Step 1: Pre-Wash And Contact Wash

Before you can decon, you have to wash. The decontamination process is specifically designed to remove the kinds of harmful, corrosive contamination that a regular car wash can't, so it stands to reason that you need to wash your car first to remove the kind of contamination that washing can.

The wash stages are the most important process in detailing for ensuring a swirl-free paint finish. And because you'll be carrying out extra deep-cleaning and decontamination processes that come in direct contact with the surface of your paint when you perform your decon, arguably using the safest wash techniques is even more important here. It's all about reducing the risk of dragging particles around surfaces inflicting damage as you go. So, carrying out a detailers safe wash is crucial. This involves a safe pre-wash, snow foam and contact wash routine. Performed, of course, after you've cleaned your alloy wheels.

So, with that in mind, before you even get to the decontamination stage, you'll need to prepare. And, we start by pre-washing with a suitable chemical cleaner, such as a suitable dilution of Dynamite Traffic Film Remover or our ready-to-use Citrus Power Bug and Grime Remover. This pre-cleaning process is designed to break down and safely lift the heaviest soiling, allowing it to be safely rinsed away without making any physical contact with the vehicle.

Next we can take care of any bonded small particle contamination by using Avalanche Snow Foam. This heavy-hitting, citrus-infused pre-cleaner lingers on surfaces as a foam to break down the stuck-on grime.

After these two pre-washing stages, it's onto the contact wash. This is where we remove any leftover grime. As always, we'll carry out our car wash using two Detailing Buckets (one for our car shampoo, one for rinsing out our wash media), a powerful car shampoo (like Lather Car Shampoo) and a professional wash mitt. As always start with the roof, along with any upward facing panels, and follow with the front, lower half and finish on the rear. This whole process, whether it's during routine maintenance or prior to more steps in a larger detail is designed to safely clean away the contamination. For a more in-depth guide of safe car washing, check out our guide: How To Safely Wash A Car: The Detailers Guide.

The only difference here is that you don't dry your car just yet, the decon wash is an extension of the process and carried out on a wet car immediately after rinsing from your contact wash...

Step 2: Metal Fallout Removal

The first part of our decon is a process designed to remove the most harmful of ingrained contaminants - sharp metal particles. In many cases you may not be able to see these tiny pieces of metal shrapnel with the naked eye, but trust us, all cars will have fallen foul of this type of contamination. And, if this metal is left to build up on the paint surface, it can cause severe oxidation problems.

Metal contamination comes from a variety of sources, most commonly the abundance of brake dust you'll find produced, not just by your own car, but floating around in the air, especially the motorway. On a microscopic level, these sharp shards of ferrous (iron) material penetrate the surface of your paint, a problem that's only compounded with "fresh' brake dust, because it will be hot. The high temperatures caused by braking friction helps these particles to burn so far into the surface of your paint, that they simply can't be removed with a traditional contact wash.

Contra to popular belief, metal particles won't just a problem on the lower half of your car, either. Very often you'll find ferrous contamination all over, including the roof. Other sources of this kind of iron fallout includes deposits thrown up from train lines… so, if you're a commuter forced to park at the station every day, you can see why your car will be particularly susceptible.

As we said, fallout removal is impossible by traditional methods, the only way to eradicate metal contamination safely is by dissolving through a chemical reaction. This why the decon wash stage involves using a product specially formulated for ferrous material removal - Iron Out Contaminant Remover.

As long as the car is cool to the touch, Iron Out can be applied directly to paintwork, and you'll see the reaction take place almost immediately. As ferrous deposits are dissolved, they are temporarily highlighted, turning them blood red. For obvious reasons, this is referred to as "bleeding'. Once the reaction has taken place, the deposits will be dissolved in the solution and can be rinsed away with clean water.

In most cases a single spray and rinse application will be enough to rid the surface of iron particles, but for heavy contamination the solution can be gently agitated with a microfibre cloth or pad. Once this is rinsed away, your paintwork should be free of metal contamination. If you're still unsure though, simply reapply a small amount of Iron Out. The bleeding will stop when all the metal has been eradicated.

Apart from ferrous fallout, other deposits that Iron Out Contaminant Remover will eliminate are jet fuel deposits ("aviation fallout'), along with the harsh staining commonly caused by diesel exhaust smoke. Iron Out is also great for periodic deep-cleaning and decontamination of alloy wheels. As you can imagine, brake dust build up can pose a particular problem here. See our article: How To Clean Your Alloy Wheels More Effectively.

Step 3: Tar And Glue Removal

Some of the most stubborn contaminants you'll find anywhere are tar, adhesive residues, tree sap, rubber and fuel staining. Obviously, these stem from a variety of sources, but what's important is that these sticky residues need to be removed from paint before further decontamination can take place. This is to minimise the possibility of scratching and marring when you move on to using Detailing clay.

What most of these contaminates have in common is that they're sticky oil-based stains. To remove them you'll need a strong solvent-based formula, like ObliTARate Tar & Glue Remover, to dissolve them into a safe solute to allow them to be wiped away.

Rather than over the whole car we use ObliTARate in a more targeted manner. Working in small sections, simply spray on a light spritz of product and wipe over with a clean microfibre, just as soon as you see the stains start to bleed. You'll see that contaminants will immediately be lifted away on your cloth.

ObliTARate is formulated to melt away the even harshest staining, and this includes sticky wax coatings that cars come with from the factory, along with overspray and traffic cone rash. Once these types of sticky contamination are safely removed, it's essential to rewash the entire car with Lather Car Shampoo, this is to neutralise any remaining solvent residue left behind. Chiefly to stop it interfering with the next decontamination stage - strong solvents and natural clay do not mix!

Step 4: Claying

Many see using detailing clay as something of a dark art, but in reality, it couldn't be simpler. It's the final step in cleansing your paintwork and the general idea is to remove deeply ingrained impurities that, most of the time, you won't be able to see. These include mineral deposits from water, tree sap and protein deposits from bugs and bird droppings… and that's just the organic stuff. A good quality detailing clay will also remove a good degree of inorganic industrial fallout and paint overspray. All this is important because even the smallest particles can eat away at your paintwork or clearcoat if left for long periods.

Contamination of this sort builds up over time, so claying really is an essential step in keeping your paintwork contamination free. The truth of the matter is that you can actually feel the difference - run the back of your hand over your paint before and after using clay, and you'll see exactly what we mean. Not too hard though - you don't want to scratch!

What's most important is to use our Clay Bar with Glide Clay Lube to protect the surface of the paint as you work. Detailing clay is sticky on a microscopic level (it's this that helps it lift away impurities) so using lube will ensure it slides easily across the surface, further reducing the risk of marring.

As for the actual process, well, that's really easy too. First tear off around a quarter of your Clay Bar and kneed it in your hands to make a flat pad. Then work one panel at a time, spraying the lube on the panel and your clay, and working your pad back and forth in straight lines with medium to light pressure.

At first, you'll feel the resistance of the impurities in the surface, but as they're lifted away from the paint, the surface will become smoother and the clay will glide more freely. When it takes hardly any effort at all to move the clay across the surface, the panel will be free of impurities, so you can wipe it over with a clean microfibre, and move on to the next.

The only thing to remember is to check your clay after every few passes, and once it gets dirty, fold it to reveal a fresh piece. Check regularly and, if you drop yours on the floor - always grab a new piece.

Once you've completed every inch of paintwork, you can wash the car down once again, dry using a suitable Drying Towel and your 3-stage decon wash is finished… but obviously there's a couple of other steps to think about before you're done

Step 5: After Your Decon

After fully decontaminating your paintwork, you can move onto the rest of your big detail. Don't forget that you will have essentially removed any pre-applied protective layers, and we always recommend polishing after any decon. Whether that's by hand with our Tripple All-in-One Polish, with a machine polisher and our Pro Series Compounds, or anywhere in between. Besides, now is the perfect time to remove any swirlmarks, enhance your gloss and make your paintwork look all-round amazing. The key to taking any detail to the next level!

And don't forget the crucial paintwork protection, either. Using a car wax, paint sealant or ceramic coating will not only add even more shine, but lock in your work and make your car easier to clean during your next round of routine maintenance.

What's Next?

Well now you can simply marvel the results and see how your car is looking better than ever!

And, when you've finished marveling, be sure to check out more top how-tos in the Guides Section Of Our Blog, too!