Severe Cladding fade

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Originally Posted by Whaleboy

I am very tempted to give this a try...

http://www.properautocare.com/cohifato.html

I was also debating about powder coating. Not sure how it would adhere to the plastic. Haven't even researched it.

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So my VX always had a dull look to the cladding, but since I've seen some nice displays of what it should look like I tried the mothers and other stuff, but got annoyed with how quickly it went to bad. My front bumper was a completely different grey and it didn’t matter how much back to black I used, it didn’t match. Also, my rear bumper had rings from backing up into things and stretching the plastic. I went ahead and tested this stuff and it looked like it would be leaving streaks, but I did the whole truck anyway. I thought it was a pain to put on and the applicator is already falling apart after 1/2 to 3/4's of the bottle used, but I'm excited with the results so far. The cladding looks absolutely new from a distance, and it rained all day yesterday so it seems to have held.
http://www.geocities.com/bugging75/cladsidegood.JPG

I did apply a second coat to some area it seems as though I was re-applying the gel while the previous coat was not completely dry, lifting it in some places and causing it to clump. One section came out not-so-good
http://www.geocities.com/bugging75/cladsidebad.JPG

however, I think I'm getting the hang of this stuff and will try it again when the sun starts to go down tonight, says not to apply in the sun. I kinda did it in the middle of the night under some nice lights but got a bunch of shadows underneath the cladding. here's before and after shots where you can see the original cladding with no gel and the portion I applied.
http://www.geocities.com/bugging75/c...rfrontbump.JPG
http://www.geocities.com/bugging75/cladlighbeaft.JPG

so my take on it is the stuff definitely doesn't adhere well to the cladding with just one coat. However, I'm gonna be giving it another few coats tonite so we'll see how it is tomorrow. I think if you have really bad fade or even un-matching cladding like mine, this is a cheap alternative to painting. I’m happy so far.

Looks like shoe polish, and looks like you can definitely see "brush strokes", which I gues are actually applicator strokes. Did the photo amplify this effect, or is that how it looks?

Are you using the Forever Black or the tire gel from them, you mentioned gel thats why I ask.

I'm using Forever Black Liner Gel.. appearantly forever in this case is only six months as indicated on bottum left corner of the box:
http://www.geocities.com/bugging75/cladbox.JPG


I think it ended up giving pretty good results, getting as much as 80-90% or the swirl and streaks out with a thin second application. I know I definately put too much the first time, but this thin second/third coat helped a lot. plus the camera did make it look worse in the previous pix..

http://www.geocities.com/bugging75/cladquarter.JPG

http://www.geocities.com/bugging75/cladfull.JPG

However, I still feel the same way, that this stuff is more for severe fading/discolor. I am starting to really question if will stay adheared to the cladding. I'll post in more pictures if it starts to flake or look nasty. I looks so much nicer now then before, but I don't trust this stuff after seeing this earlier today:

http://www.geocities.com/bugging75/cladscratch.JPG

Going on more than 3 months with tons of rain, snow, road salt and car washes and mine hasn't appreciably faded and definitely no flaking. But I used the tire gel, I don't think there was bed liner gel available when I did mine. The applicator that comes with the tire gel is great - it's 5 x 2 x 2.5 inches with a thick foam blue "handle" and a softer gray spongy part.

Your second picture looks really weird, almost like the gel had seperated in the bottle and that part got the thin part of the mix.

I bought the Forever Black Bumper & Trim reconditioner, says it permanently recolors plastic, how is that compared to the bedliner and tire gel? This stuff comes in the shoe polish applicator but it appears to be more watery than gel. I have yet to try it and I'm a little scared because my trim isn't all that bad I'm just trying to fix my front bumper I scuffed in a losing incident with a pole and I don't want to mess up all my trim just for a little scuff!

Whatever you do,, don't try the powder coat idea. The stuff cures at like 375 degrees and you'll end up with a puddle of plastic in the driveway. hehehe Was a good thought though. I have taken small scratches out of my cladding with a heat gun. It will bring also bring up the oils in the plastic and make it shiney again, but you have to be reall careful or it will wind up looking awful.

When I first tried this, I bought both the trim conditioner and the tire gel. It took me 3 hours to do one coat of the cladding with the watery trim conditioner, and even that was after ripping the sponge off the bottle and using my own hand-sized applicator sponge. Plus the end result was realy, really streaky. When I used the tire-gel over it for a second coat, it took about 15-20 minutes to do the entire cladding and it was much more solid, still slightly streaky, but a second gel coat took care of 95% of that streakiness.

My recommendation is to use the trim stuff for actual trim and use the tire gel for the cladding - not only does it go on real fast, it also comes with a much nicer applicator sponge.

You will find that it is all or nothing, you can't do just one part of your cladding because it will end up significantly blacker than the untreated cladding. One bottle of tire gel is more than enough to do 3 coats of all the cladding.

I had that concern with the plastic and powder coating - though as I understand they use some type of UV curable powder coating for plastic and other heat sensitive substrates.

I could be wrong though, I was just going off a website of a local powder coating shop. Haven't even called them.

I am on the fence with the 'forever' product. I like back to black and it works well... yet does fade eventually. Maintainance is needed-

I have considered, Line X'ing all my panels but if I could find a colorway near identical to stock, and to see it in a texture with less wrinkle-