A white Range Rover covered in tar and industrial fallout -- brake particle contamination and likely rail dust from a train line nearby. Gary identifies a rust blister starting under the badges from caustic car wash products. Clay, polish, Matrix Blue ceramic coating on paintwork and wheels.
A white Range Rover -- and white shows everything. This one has tar from road splatter and heavy fallout from metal particles covering the bodywork. The lady first noticed the tar; the fallout was a bigger issue. Gary also spots a rust blister starting under the badge surrounds, caused by caustic products from a car wash being used on the bodywork rather than just the wheels.
What Industrial Fallout Actually Is
Virtually all cars have some degree of metal particle fallout -- brake dust coming off the discs and pads, carrying a static electric charge that makes it cling to the paintwork. On a white car you can see it clearly. On darker cars it is there too, just less visible.
This one has significantly more than normal. The distribution suggests rail dust as well as brake fallout -- electric trains moving down tracks produce a lot of it, and cars parked near railway lines or station car parks regularly come in with this level of contamination. We have seen severe industrial fallout from cars near grinders, welding operations, extractor fans, furnaces, docks and shipyards. The soot from ships is corrosive in itself and contains metal. Limescale, tar and paint are other common contaminants that all need to come off before a coating goes on.
The problem with metal particle fallout: as the particles get wet they rust. As they rust they become acidic, and that acid begins to eat through the lacquer down to the metal. Left long enough you get rust blisters -- there is one starting on the scuttle of this car.
The Treatment
Gary uses Red 7 -- a neutral pH fallout remover that is safe on all surfaces including chrome, aluminium, rubber and trim. You can see it turning purple on the paintwork as it reacts with the iron particles. The caustic products that some car washes use will also shift contamination, but they mark the badge surrounds and rubber seals in the process. The badges on this car had already been affected before it arrived.
After fallout removal: clay bar, machine polish, then Matrix Blue ceramic coating on the paintwork and wheels. The interior had a light detail and leather conditioning. A ceramic coating will not stop fallout being attracted to the car -- the static charge still draws the particles. But the ceramic itself is resistant to corrosive acids, which means the fallout has a harder time eating through to the paint.
Clay Bar and Ceramic Coatings
A clay bar will not remove a ceramic coating, but it can damage it in the process. The clay picks up metal particles from the surface -- and those particles are now on the clay bar you are rubbing across the paintwork. As tough as ceramic coatings are, they will suffer from that. We clay cars before polishing precisely because we are then going to machine-polish out any marks the clay leaves. On a coated car you should not need to clay or polish -- the surface is resistant enough that normal washing should be sufficient. If you love detailing your car, a ceramic coating may frustrate you; if you want minimal maintenance and a car that stays clean, it is ideal.
See our exterior fallout removal service and Matrix Blue ceramic coating.
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