Cladding Restoration

[bssage]

Mile High

Sounds like the application is the same as the dye I uses on the last VX. I had never tried that on the roof rails or mirrors. I had in the past scotchbrighted the hood insert and used primer/paint satin black bumper spray with good results on the hood insert. Although I am a little chicken. When I removed the insert from the last VX several of the attachments pulled free from the insert. I did not have much success reattaching them. Also the pins from the heat blanket were impossible to find replacements for. So I'm kind of guilty procrastinating that part of the job.

When I used the die on the cladding. It looked like complete shtt,,,,,until I got to about three coats (complete dry between coats). But once I had it done it was so nice. After the dye job, all I needed to do at a wash was dry the cladding to make it look new. If I did not dry, the dye tended to hold waterspots.

In my opinion when the trim is black it really makes the whole thing just POP!

The biggest problem I had with the dye was around the fuel port door. If I slobbed any gas on it at all it would dull that area for sure.

[bssage]

I saw Christine's test piece yesterday and it looked good. It's very dark, but it's shiny. If you don't like the glossy look this is not the product for you.

I dont know. I would imagine a light scotch bright rub would take some of the shine off. Not that I would ever do that.

[JMNY]

Someone on the forum gave me this tip a few years ago for the hood insert and it really works great. Dont use the chipstick unless you have really deep chip - I just use the color magic. Just be careful by the body... have a proton and this stuff is really dark. I apply really slow by hand - especially by the body paint. Wait five minutes and take it off. You will get some black powder flakes...I slowly take those off and even use a blower to get rid of the tiny pieces that remain because of the yellow.

http://www.amazon.com/Turtle-Wax-T-3.../dp/B00062ZJ4O

Just keep in mind a few things - wear gloves - this is a black dye and it will dye everything including your hands - and some people say put a wax sealant on it afterwards. I leave my VX in the garage and it doesn't see rain - so not sure how it holds up to constant weather changes, washes, etc.

[Mile High VX]

I used that before I had mine wrapped with good results.

[creeg]

How many bottles of the 6 oz forever black are needed to do all the cladding? And it sounds like 2 coats are needed, based on what everyone is saying.

[bssage]

The FB sounds so similar to what I used before. I used a bottle and a half, butttt, my cladding was in terrible condition lots of really deep scratches ect. And I was dialing in the process I.E. paint brush, applicator pad, foam brush. I expect to use under a bottle this time with better original condition of cladding, and just using a foam brush.

And when I did mine it took three coats. Also if these are the same thing. You want to have a little left over for touch up. Especially of you occasionally slob (drip) gas at the gas cap.

[creeg]

Great- 2 bottles ordered. Mine is in pretty bad shape.

[Jayd-S]

I am only testing the products that claim to dye the plastics and rubbers because I have tried at least 10 different reconditioning type products and none of them lasted longer than a few months on my VX.

Hi CatFish,
I got one of the last shipments of "Showroom New" in July 2014. When I tried to re-order it was no longer available, BUT, I found the owner of the company, Michele Calhoun and she told me that she had stopped selling the product to the public in favor of selling only to Detail centers across the US. Because she was selling by license/franchise, she could no longer sell to the public anymore.

Showroom New is still available but only through detailing centres such as Ben's Auto Detail Centre in Georgia, http://bensautodetailcenter.com/?page_id=46 and Detail King: http://cardetailingblog.com/automoti...uto-detailers/ and others.

I applied a coat to my hood insert back in July 2014 and it still looks like new today twenty months later! Pure and simple, it works! It's worth paying a detail center that uses Showroom New, to restore your cladding.

Jayd-S aka Geoff

[CatFish]

*I do NOT recommend Forever Black*

I applied the product to the VX and waited a week before washing it, I went to the car wash and washed it as I normally do (run of the mill do it yourself high pressure car wash) after I rinsed it I noticed some area looked discolored so I drove home and waited to see how it looked after drying it. Well it looked like crap, some of the product washed off and it was then splotchy grey and black. They claim it dies the plastic but it did not on the VX. I cleaned and prep'd it better than they instructed so I do not believe that was why it did not color the cladding. I plan to remove it all at some point and just live with it the way it is, I am not impressed with the results.

[ALC1717]

Spray The VX Black Cladding With Gatorback Paint & You Will Never Have To Put Anything On The Cladding Ever Again - Just Wash Normally !

[bssage]

*I do NOT recommend Forever Black*

I applied the product to the VX and waited a week before washing it, I went to the car wash and washed it as I normally do (run of the mill do it yourself high pressure car wash) after I rinsed it I noticed some area looked discolored so I drove home and waited to see how it looked after drying it. Well it looked like crap, some of the product washed off and it was then splotchy grey and black. They claim it dies the plastic but it did not on the VX. I cleaned and prep'd it better than they instructed so I do not believe that was why it did not color the cladding. I plan to remove it all at some point and just live with it the way it is, I am not impressed with the results.

Same results here.

[Igor]

I saw a video on YouTube recently showing a guy using a heat gun to restore his faded plastic. The only draw back is it is a slow process. I'm just wondering if anyone has tried it on a VX yet. Sorry if this has been mentioned in the past, I'm still new here. Here's the link to the video I'm referring to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQDBTeIObak

[CatFish]

Have not tried the heat gun, I am afraid it will smooth out or distort the texture making it look worse and there is not going back once you have heated it, at least the products can be removed. Maybe I will try the heat gun test on a damaged piece of cladding I have and see what it does.

[Mile High VX]

I recently used Mar-Hyde Bumper Cover. It's a coating in a spray can. Just got tired of all of the rub on products and having to redo every few weeks to few months. I removed the front and rear bumper covers, masked and draped the rest of the VX and applied 3 coats. Love the look and if the hold up of a few years is true then worth it to me. Took me about 6 hours total from start to finish.

If I can get the site to let me upload some photos I'll post them.

[CatFish]

I recently used Mar-Hyde Bumper Cover. It's a coating in a spray can. Just got tired of all of the rub on products and having to redo every few weeks to few months. I removed the front and rear bumper covers, masked and draped the rest of the VX and applied 3 coats. Love the look and if the hold up of a few years is true then worth it to me. Took me about 6 hours total from start to finish.

If I can get the site to let me upload some photos I'll post them.

I think that Mar-Hyde is the stuff with the Fiero on the can, I have herd it works pretty good, I will see if I can get a dark grey so when my cladding gets scratched it would show.

The site has yet to let me post photos so I just upload them to my photo bucket and paste the image code, works every time.