"Showroom New" Trim Restorer- info & experience

[mike nomy]

Although your cladding looks much better in the after pics, i still really think mine look better with the Gatorback finish. i don't know y everyone is so skeptical about it... it's been on my truck for like 6 months now n survived this past nasty new york winter.... and it lookd like i did it yesterday. actually, it looks like i never did anything to the cladding, it looks like 1999! the stuf u used shows streaks, but the gatorback dries to a completely smooth, even finish... and it doesn't chip peel or fade. or at least, it hasn't, and believe me when i say i'm not easy on my vx. hardly ever wash her, dirt, mud and road salt covered the cladding ALL winter, n when i finally washed it all off, the cladding looked as good as it did the day i sprayed it with gatorback. and also, it only took about 1 1/2 hours to do, start to finish....
i don't know, i'm just really happy with it and wish more of u guys would try it

[VX KAT]

Although your cladding looks much better in the after pics, i still really think mine look better with the Gatorback finish. i don't know y everyone is so skeptical about it... it's been on my truck for like 6 months now n survived this past nasty new york winter.... and it lookd like i did it yesterday. actually, it looks like i never did anything to the cladding, it looks like 1999! the stuf u used shows streaks, but the gatorback dries to a completely smooth, even finish... and it doesn't chip peel or fade. or at least, it hasn't, and believe me when i say i'm not easy on my vx. hardly ever wash her, dirt, mud and road salt covered the cladding ALL winter, n when i finally washed it all off, the cladding looked as good as it did the day i sprayed it with gatorback. and also, it only took about 1 1/2 hours to do, start to finish....
i don't know, i'm just really happy with it and wish more of u guys would try it

Glad to hear the GB is looking good and holding up so well for you. I agree, GB looks smoother and totally uniform, and SN left a few streaks. BUT, after reading tons of posts on the Chevy Avalanche and another forum (can't recall name right now), I read many accounts of GB scratching off, peeling/chipping when abraded. Already went through it with the Restore/Refinish.

I live in one of the prickliest/pokey/sharp/stickers/abrasion capital of the U.S.....the desert SouthWest AND I go off-roading, AND I live on a dirt road so EVERY day is like an off road adventure...so ABRASION is GOING to happen to my VX, no doubt about it.

He!! I got all kinds of trail rash last week when we went on an outing in the hills around here visiting 3 old mines....everything was overgrown on the trail and lots of rocky areas too, so I actually used 4Lo for a while. The stuff that grows around here is called "catsclaw"...wanna guess why? And my other friend is the ever present prickly pear cacti, but let's not forget my very BEST friend....the Manzanita bushes. Manzanita grows about 3-5 ft tall ....conveniently the same height as the side of a car, and has extremely stiff branches...and for some damn reason it lines just about every trail I've been on.....and that's what left all those purdy scratches on my paint and cladding.

The difference is, GB would scratch, chip and then start to peel in my setting. This dye product just leaves the scratch in the plastic cladding...just like it was native cladding....with no chipping or further deterioration. So for ME, this is the better choice of product. But GB may well be best for you and most others. It's just an individual choice and what meets your needs. All I wanted was darker cladding with no maintenance....and I think I've achieved that.

How long it took ME to apply it, or how many coats I chose to apply is irrelevant. And since I'm the first to try this product, I now know using the sponge covered in terry cloth is the best applicator...but unfortunately, I didn't discover that until coating #3. So folks that try it from here out should have far less streaking, if any at all, based on what I learned. Price I paid for being the guinea pig I guess.
And as an additional benny, it's way cheaper than GB. How'd I get that lucky?

It ain't perfect, but neither am I , so look at it this way, we're BOTH happy with our cladding!

[VXjunky]

i googled the gatorback....which of the four products listed is the one youre using...and what was the cost?

[mike nomy]

i used the spray cans... 4 cans total for 2 full coats. i bought the black, not the dark grey, i think it looks awesome. i think the cans were $20 each, which, to me is a small investment for such a great outcome

[VXjunky]

sue...i think your truck looks great....

[mike nomy]

no problem, i'm glad u r happy with the results u have received.
i wonder if it could b sprayed on with a spray gun, to get a perfect finish????

something to try.
i definitely was not trying to put yer results down, i was just wondering y so many people were against GB...
i guess translation sometimes gets lost over the interweb lol.

[VX KAT]

no problem, i'm glad u r happy with the results u have received.
i wonder if it could b sprayed on with a spray gun, to get a perfect finish????

something to try.
i definitely was not trying to put yer results down, i was just wondering y so many people were against GB...
i guess translation sometimes gets lost over the interweb lol.

Sorry if I came across snappy! Didn't mean to. Yes, you can spray this stuff, but I wasn't brave enough to try it. I think Mav hit the nail on the head, since I had R/R fail within about 6 months, and since I posted so much about it () I think folks are really waiting on the time test for GB. Which sounds like we're right there now and I'd guess some give it a try.

[LittleBeast]

I for one don't mind a little elbow grease pretty consistantly and I don't want anything to be permanent so I have always used "back to black" but I am glad Kat found this stuff, I would have to see it in person first though because I prefer the shine that I get with back to black and this stuff looks very matte. To each there own, but Kat this looks like a huge improvement!!!!! And almost better than new, nicely done. I have a feeling you are going to keep getting it a little darker with each coat, which is what I prefer ;-)

Do you think this would soak in to our side view mirror's plastic and our rails and rail covers? If so I would consider doing those black..... Hmmmm

[VX KAT]

I have a feeling you are going to keep getting it a little darker with each coat, which is what I prefer ;-)

Do you think this would soak in to our side view mirror's plastic and our rails and rail covers? If so I would consider doing those black..... Hmmmm

No, I'm done applying it..it's dark enough for me now.
I kinda was wondering about the other plastics myself....so I did one exterior door handle.....seems to have worked. The mirror housing seems like a different plastic. I could test on the bottom of it....hmmm.....

I'd also like to do the hood insert.....it still has R/R on it, although it's peeling on the leading edge. I did find the dye seemed to penetrate the R/R in a few areas it still remained on the cladding.

You can apply B2B or any normal topical dressing on top of this.

My hubby is rooting for me to start on another mod, and finally close the book on the cladding!

[Grif]

I'd also like to do the hood insert.....it still has R/R on it, although it's peeling on the leading edge. I did find the dye seemed to penetrate the R/R in a few areas it still remained on the cladding.

I fail to understand why people (admittedly myself at times) are tempted to treat the hood insert with the same plastic treatments we apply to our cladding.

The hood insert is entirely different material. It is traditional matte black auto paint, not solid raw molded polypropylene (sp?) like our cladding is. The dyes and refinishes designed for our plastic cladding are not appropriate imho, for the surface paint of the hood insert. Simply because they are similar colors does not mean they should be treated the same.


BTW: I pulled the trigger on two bottles of black dye. Your trail rash pics sold me Kat.

I intend on cleaning my cladding with denatured alcohol, wait till it evaporates, then dye. Walmart has some terrycloth coated sponge applicators similar to what you used. I may or may not top it off with the last of my R/R if I decide it needs a touch of gloss, but we shall see!?

[vt_maverick]

Don't feel bad Mike, honest debate is what makes this forum so useful, you can read tons of threads that show different opinions based on multiple perspectives, which I think ultimately makes it easier to choose.

I know for me (and likely others) we're not in either camp; we're waiting to see what happens with both options. You may be too new to remember, but we had a ton of folks that used the Refinish Restorer stuff a year or two ago and were just as enthusiastic as you. Although many have had sustained success, others like Sue discovered disadvantages within six months to a year.

Also keep in mind that about 90% of people who post things like "That's awesome Sue, can't wait to try it out" probably won't actually try it out for months, years, or even at all. Likewise we have tons of "lurkers" who simply read our posts and never comment, so it's difficult to know how many GB converts you've actually generated.

No matter what I know the community appreciates you diving in first to add more useful info to the site.

[VXjunky]

gotta agree love the shine for our cladding...dresses her up to the 9's imo

[LiquidVX]

This treatment looks easy enough for me to do but I want my cladding to be a flat olive-drab greyish color. How is this achieved without the texture of Line-X?

[atilla_the_fun]

Hi Guys, I ordered 3 bottles of this product two weeks ago for 53$ shipped. I applied this thursday with assistance from my girlfriend and my father. We used a foam roller and foam brushes as per the instructions. The original color for our VXs is full BLACK, not a mixture. It dries a lighter matte black than the color it looks as it goes on.

I have to say that I DO NOT RECOMMEND this product to anyone looking to have a professional looking bumper restoration DONE WITHOUT SPRAYING.

After using this I have the following reservations:
-This may be sold as a dye, but it is really a PAINT. It goes on like a paint, it streaks like a paint and it dries like a paint. It may have dye like properties - but it cannot really be classified as a "dye."
-This stuff cannot be applied to the VX bumper without streaking. Foam brushes should NOT be used - the foam roller will put the paint/dye on OK but because of the heavy curves of our cladding, it must be used along with brushes around the edges and the bolts/lights and this will result in some ugly looking borders.
-The product may be of high enough quality that it can be used to cover our cladding, but it MUST be sprayed (thinned according to the instructions) for an EVEN coating. Using rollers and brushes is a really horrible way of doing this.
-The product is NOT GAS PROOF... yeah, well this was probably obvious, but it really delineates the difference between a dye and a paint. On my way back to MN from Virginia today, my girlfriend overfilled the tank and had gas streaking down the cladding. She went to blot with a paper towel and to my surprise it came off full of black - the paint was coming off - something I wouldn't suspect a dye to do.



-THE MIRROR AND ROOF RAILS/SPOILER CAN BE DONE, BUT IT GOES ON COMPLETELY AS PAINT ON THESE PLASTICS. They aren't porous and the brush strokes on the mirror holder/door part look really horrible. You may be able to spray this plastic, but I reccommend a real plastic paint, or base/clear for these parts

-DO NOT TRY ON THE HOOD INSERT. This really shows the quality of the dye/paint as it goes on blotchy, streaky and looks like a 2$ walmart paint quart.


_____
For the price of buying a sprayer/thinner and the SN, buy gatorback. Aerosolized sprays will go on MUCH nicer than anything put on by a brush.

I can post pictures if people are interested, but I just got back from a 22 hour drive and I'm going to bed.

[VX KAT]

Oh no, I'm so sorry to hear that! Have you done a 2nd (or 3rd) coat yet? It definitely gets much better after the 2nd and 3rd light coating. Oddly, even though it says it dries completely in like 2 hrs or so, I found it looked better on day 2 and day 3 (no kidding)....

Spraying would definitely give a more uniform application, I just wasn't skilled enough to attempt it. I did succeed to be streak free in many areas, especially when I used the sponge covered in terry cloth as an applicator. But I've got to add I got the back door and bumper completely streak free with the foam brush, and again with the the terry covered sponge. I didn't have the issue around the edges of the lights.

I didn't try it on the mirrors or the hood insert....definitely won't do it now.

Doesn't gasoline have similar properties/components to turpentine and mineral spirits, which you can use to clean up this stuff? So isn't that why it came off on the paper towel?

Would really like to see some pics of what you've described. Sure hope another coat improves it for you.