Carpro Darkside; blotchy, streaky??

raysaint

raysaint

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I'm an amateur detailer, as my other posts have indicated, and I thought dressing the new rubber would be simple.
Tires were cleaned with straight Brake Buster, drill brush, Tarminator, then inside to dry.
Applied Darkside to one tire with a foam waffle type tire applicator. Worked it in, ver and over. It seemed blotchy, some spots seemed to dry instantly. Left it sit for 10 minutes, wiped it with a mf cloth. It looked awful. streaky, blotchy, etc.

Left it for an hour, tried a second layer, made it worse. Tried a second tire, applied it a bit heavier for better coverage, then waited and levelled it. Not much better.

1) did I not apply enough and that's why some spots looked dry instantly?

2) not working it in properly?

Reviews on all sites praise this product, so it must be me.

I guess to remedy the 2 tires I did, I'll have to wait until it wears off as I wash the car a few times.

Your experiences please. Thanks.
 
You should be able to strip with straight BB use drill brush to be safe. Not a fan of DarkSide as I felt it never payed quite even but I would not have called it blotchy. How many passes did you do during cleaning? You Mr suppose to do till tires comes up white and I through in one after for good measure.

What brand of tire?


Don’t need a ton of arm pressure let towel do work. Go around car on all for tires then start second coat from where you started.

My 1st guess was something was still on tire. Either cleaning product or mold release agent. Clean tire with drill brush Al lease 2-3 times. Reapply. If you have an older detail brush or better yet a new/clean make up brush. Go over your tire right after applying DarkSide to level.

If still looks bad could be your tire compounds as some different tires just don’t like DarkSide. No list we just find out by trial and error.

Bad product. Possibly defective.

Your discerning eye. I wanted to love DarkSide but don’t like at all for the amount of work I but in to get it satisfactory I coulda coated it. No matter what I did other people said it looked good but never looked “level” to me couple times I used it…


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Coatingsarecrack said:
You should be able to strip with straight BB use drill brush to be safe. Not a fan of DarkSide as I felt it never payed quite even but I would not have called it blotchy. How many passes did you do during cleaning? You Mr suppose to do till tires comes up white and I through in one after for good measure.

What brand of tire?


Don’t need a ton of arm pressure let towel do work. Go around car on all for tires then start second coat from where you started.

My 1st guess was something was still on tire. Either cleaning product or mold release agent. Clean tire with drill brush Al lease 2-3 times. Reapply. If you have an older detail brush or better yet a new/clean make up brush. Go over your tire right after applying DarkSide to level.

If still looks bad could be your tire compounds as some different tires just don’t like DarkSide. No list we just find out by trial and error.

Bad product. Possibly defective.

Your discerning eye. I wanted to love DarkSide but don’t like at all for the amount of work I but in to get it satisfactory I coulda coated it. No matter what I did other people said it looked good but never looked “level” to me couple times I used it…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Good post. BTW I love Darkside and I have Michelins.
 
The dressing was applied to a new set of tires correct? You most likely didn't wait long enough before dressing your new tires. They are still outgassing would be my guess.
 
BLM said:
The dressing was applied to a new set of tires correct? You most likely didn't wait long enough before dressing your new tires. They are still outgrowing would be my guess.
Click to expand...

What do they grow into?
 
The tires are Nokian, brand new but probably are 2 months old since they came out of the factory. When I cleaned them with the drill brush, there was no brown, it was just white suds from the Brake Buster. Then Tarminator wipe.
They are still off the car, inside, so I applied the dressing inside. They are to be installed on the car in 2 days.
I'm gonna try again on the 2 tires I haven't dressed yet. I'll apply a coat of Darkside and wipe/level right away.
Maybe it's because I'm looking at the tires up close, on the car they may not look streaky.
Not sure if a second coat will help, or maybe a top coat of a different gel; I have some old Wolfgang, it's a liquid now but I still used it before winter when the car was new; however, those were the OEM tires, Bridgestones.
 
How thick is DarkSide?

One thing I've noticed now that I've used Optimum Tire Gel and Griots Ceramic Tire Dressing, is its really hard to get a good even look with the thicker products. For me, these thicker products take a lot of repeated spreading to get applied evenly, and even then they may not absorb into the rubber evenly. A good looking application when fresh might turn out a little blotchy after it dries.

Thinner, water based products like PERL and Duragloss 253 have traditionally gone on really fast and easy for me with a very even appearance.
 
I’m going to continue using thin products. My next one is going to be 253. I’ll just continue routinely reapplying
 
Is it possible for you to post a picture of the 2 you haven't dressed yet? It sounds like it could be that you didn't get all the mold release off of the tires.
 
It's very thick.
OP, I re-read the 1st post. Tires appeared uniformly even and dry during initial app ?
 
Desertnate said:
How thick is DarkSide?

One thing I've noticed now that I've used Optimum Tire Gel and Griots Ceramic Tire Dressing, is its really hard to get a good even look with the thicker products. For me, these thicker products take a lot of repeated spreading to get applied evenly, and even then they may not absorb into the rubber evenly. A good looking application when fresh might turn out a little blotchy after it dries.

Thinner, water based products like PERL and Duragloss 253 have traditionally gone on really fast and easy for me with a very even appearance.
Click to expand...

It's thicker than your typical tire dressing but the key to using Darkside is to level it with your applicator. Once I apply it to all 4 tires I go back over it with the applicator and smooth it out. I find it to be a pretty easy product to use.
 
All foam or soft foam, sponge applicator ?

A hard foam core with a softer face does help you press in to get into all its nooks and crannies .
To go back a few reply earlier, how did the tire look pre application - did it look dry and even ?
 
So the 2 tires I first did, and experimented on, after 24 hours of sitting, they didn't look that bad from 5 feet away, with some natural light. And I realize that the tire face has at least 3 different mattes of rubber; smooth dull bare rubber, embossed slightly glossy, and unsmooth courdory type design. And it all looks a bit different when dressed, so my initial perceptions may be because of that.

So today I decided to do the 2 undressed tires; laid them down and applied a good coat of Darkside with a 4" waffle type foam tire applicator with a grip on the backside. Also used a soft foam small applicator I had, for the one inch of rubber close to the rim.
Applied it, then lightly wiped it down with a mf cloth. Didn't look too bad. Definitely a darker sheen than the bare rubber before dressing. So I concluded that even after wiping, some dressing remained and the blotchy/streaky areas I saw before were maybe due to the different rubber sheens, and not wiping down properly.
I now know it isn't supposed to be too much of a sheen, unless you layer it.
So I'll have them installed in 2 days and see how they look in complete daylight. The 2 I experimented on may look different, but it'll wear down and I can make them all similar enough.
Looking at them in some daylight in my back porch, from 5 feet away, most people would know they are dressed and like the look.

Oh, and Darkside is maybe slightly thinner than other gels but it isn't thick in my opinion.

So I think my expectations and skill level probably was the culprit, and I took your up time to figure something out that wasn't the product. But I guess that's how we all learn. Thanks to all.
 
raysaint said:
So I think my expectations and skill level probably was the culprit, and I took your up time to figure something out that wasn't the product. But I guess that's how we all learn. Thanks to all.
Click to expand...

Don't apologize. As an old boss of mine used to say "the only stupid question is the one that doesn't get asked". That's what these forums are here for.
 
Sandro's Prep and Application, along with comparison to Perl and Blackout.

Take note how much he works the products, then follows after 30 minutes for a final wipe.

 
Suggestions on the wiping part on the interweb are not consistent. Some say wipe right away, some say after 30 minutes. This morning I did a second coat on one tire, worked it in well, lightly wiped, and it seemed not too bad.

One video I saw the guy used 3 or 4 squirts from the bottle for a whole tire; I tried that but it seemed like nothing was left in the foam as I moved it around the whole tire. I did 3 or 4 pumps for half a tire.
The video above he uses 3 or 4 pumps for a 1/4 tire

Wiping right away; wouldn't that remove product that should stay on the tire? Wiping after 30 minutes; might it dry unevenly?
Is wiping mainly to avoid sling?

I guess I'm used to using mass market dressings that you apply and work in with the foam applicator and then leave it.
 
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