Grey cladding

[bssage]

Sure but remember they are just My Opinions. Although I have been extensively involved in this stuff. I AM NOT A CHEMIST.

In a nutshell it is a type of paint that may/will lock in the bloom by creating a hardened barrier for it to try and pass.

I dont want to get myself in trouble here. But some of their claims appear to be a flat out lies.

This is the claim

Gatorback Textured Plastic Cleaner is a unique blend of mild solvents formulated to remove contaminates from plastic and metal surfaces, painted or unpainted. This product does NOT contain mineral spirits! It leaves no oily film on surfaces like other cleaners.

And this is what the MSDS sheet list for the cleaner:

Aliphatic Petroleum Naphthas (mineral spirit)
*Xylene (oil based solvent)
Isopropyl Alcohol (oil based solvent)
Heptane
Isobutane/propane aerosol propellant

What does that mean to us? Nothing really. Almost all solvents are oil based otherwise (the Napthas even say Petroleum) they would evaporate as soon as you opened the lid because many have a flash point lower than room temp. I expected those things to be there. For you all it really means you should wear gloves and apply in a ventilated area. For me the problem is just lying right out of the gate. For me that makes their other claims suspect.

The coating is kinda what I said in the OP it uses both in the coating itself and the prep for the coating Xylene, Toluene, & Naptha. These will absolutely remove the bloom from the surface. This is important for two reasons. Bloom is a function of time so it will take it longer to become visible. And for the adhesion of the coating/paint.

The good news. If the claims are to be believed it appears to be an approved process for gm. If that is true there would have to be a significant amount of testing involved in getting GM's stamp of approval. And it is my opinion that it must be approved. Or that claim would open a large can of wupp @ss from GM.

I would stick very closely to the application process recommended by GatorBack. These guys spend a significant amount of time making the product and process easy as possible and robust. It is very likely each and every step has a value attached to it statistically.

What is specific to gatorback is the

Acrylic Resin

or hard barrier to the bloom. This is a extremely difficult thing to do. Paint over a semi rigid substrate. And its even harder as a secondary process where we are unable to bake the coating to the surface.

The question I would have is when it fails. And I believe eventually it will. What will that failure consist of. De-lamination, Discoloration, ect. Without knowing that it may be worse than the original problem. It might not: I dont know. Heck it may last years, again I dont know.

My opinion is that if it were the perfect fix. They would have stamps of approval from all the big three. Bloom has been a major problem for plastics and rubber for many years. So my summary is that it probably is the best fix at this time. You are going to be our beta tester. That is made more significant by the fact that you are a long time respected member of this forum. I would take your word over the product claims any day. And the same goes for Kat.

IMHO
bssage