Cladding

[vt_maverick]

(11/23/2010) - Also applied a second coat of TS-1 the weekend before. I used only one pad the first go-round (about 5 weeks ago) and it started sprinkling as I was just starting the rear fenders and back door. I got B2B-style streaking about a week later, so I decided to give the cladding a good scrub and then use a second pad, this time working from the back to the front. All the panels look great now, and this stuff is much more impervious to dust and rain as B2B or that Meguiar's crap I tried a few months ago.

I think I can reasonably say that if you're not doing Gatorback, TS-1 is definitely what you need to be using. You're just throwing your money away by buying B2B.

(12/13/2010) - It's definitely a topical treatment, no matter what the packaging says, and I didn't do any surface prep other than a simple wash with a plastic-netted sponge. I did have streaking after my first application, but that's because it started sprinkling before I could finish. A good wash and second coat later and it looks great. (Btw, the TS-1 packaging doesn't mention any such elaborate surface prep process.)

A note on price: one of the guys in the AV forum quotes a price of something like $21/towel, but that's not accurate (at least as I understand what he means by "towel"). A box of 6 pads was $40 shipped, and it takes 2 to do all of our cladding in a nice thick coat. That's not exactly cheap, but if it lasts 2-3 months as advertised I figure you get nice looking cladding with minimal maintenance for about $50 a year.

Well it's been 4 months since I put on my first coat of TS-1, and 3 months since I followed up that first one pad application with a second one pad application (wasn't thick enough the first time around to resist streaking). Below are before and after pics from this weekend, the first two are before reapplying TS-1, the last three are after. You can see that there is some fading and slight streaking in the before pictures, but a ridiculously small amount for 3-4 months. Basically looks like the two week point after your last Back to Black treatment.

(Sorry for the low quality pics, my camera phone was having focus issues.)

Cladding 3 months after last TS-1 treatment:




Cladding after most recent TS-1 treatment this weekend:






Where to Buy:
http://shop.armordillots1.com/