Cladding

[RickOKC]

I now think part of my issue was that the 303 needed more cure time!

Friday evening: applied 303 to all the cladding.

Sunday morning: had some water from the garden hose splash off the driveway onto the cladding which made it look like the water caused the 303 to "evaporate" where the drops touched.

Sunday afternoon: Finally got to polish & wax the paint! Got some wax on the cladding on a couple of places near the top edge. After cleaning off the wax, I went around the top 1" of the cladding with fresh 303 to even it out - all the way around the VX, even in the places that didn't really need it.

Monday morning: 3 miles of my drive to work was in a very light rain. Later in the morning, it sprinkled for about 10 minutes.

Tonight I see that 1" line where I applied the freshest 303 washed off to a much greater degree than on the rest of the cladding. There are some light stripes on the side cladding that had cured more and some big thin patches on the front that took the brunt of the rain while driving. But that 1" line at the top left a very obvious line where the fresh 303 was affected much, much more.

Hmmm, I also wonder if the super-hard water here could make a difference. (I'm talking about water so hard you can cut yourself just by washing your hands! Nyuck, nyuck!) That's a big issue here - I have to be super careful when I wash my other car. Its paint is pretty soft and if the water dries on it, I have to use vinegar to remove the water spots. That's city water; I don't have the same problem with rain.

[workmeistr]

Hi, Rick!
I apply 303 over my Refinish Restore (1 coat) cladding every once in a while. It looks good, but I too have seen the streaks with water/rain, but thought it was due to me applying over the candy coating of the RR, not allowing the 303 to soak into the raw cladding. My RR still looks good and I was planning to do another coat as a few door strikes and other nicks have "chipped" the RR off in a couple of places. Now I'm worried to add another coat, give the potential for normal chipping, especially on the front. The RR did wonders on my Saab which has it's share of black plastic all around.

[VX KAT]

Looking over some older posts yesterday, I found I first posted about R/R starting to chip just 4 months after I applied the 1st coat. I didn't see any on the front (which I would expect would chip first), just some on the sides. If yours isn't chipping by now, it seems more likely my surface wasn't prepped properly.

[mrlarrys]

Hey everyone,
I will post some pictures of the VX with the armourdillo today - it went on easy, satin finish not collecting any dust, seemed to make it darker although mine was a bit faded. A definite improvement - it has stood up well and the only problem is I used only one small wipe to do the car and I think it would have came out better using two - more is better. Of course I can now put on a second coat to even things out.
Larry

[mrlarrys]

Just posted pics in my members photo's - did not clean the VX and it was taken on a rainy day - no drips like the armorall gave me and looks like the day I put the TS-1 on - still satiny as you can see and stood up to 3 hand washes and one car wash since using and a few rainy days.

[VXR]

303 needed more cure time

X2 a few months back I did the 303 thing but it rained a few days later and made zebra cladding.

Well I got lucky and applied a second coat just before we had 80+ days with no rain. A few days ago I drove through my first rainstorm and I am happy to report it still looks nice and dark.

So for whatever reason cure time is a must with 303