I think the cladding looks much better dark! This coating gives it a kind of metal flake look that you can't see in the pics but that might diminish some. In some places, it is a bit like sand paper because I held the can too far from the surface - those are the areas I hope to improve tonight.
As far as rock chips go, my cladding has suffered from some of that too - but it is looking much better now. In SLC, they lay down road salt or sand during snow storms so that is where most of my pitting comes from. I hope the coating holds up better than the bare plastic.
Sent from my "two hands on a keyboard"