Putting DLux To The Test

[Setec Astronomy]

Well, I'm not really sure how this happened, but I let my back valence panel get a little faded. I think part of the reason is that when I first got the car I got rear-ended, and the panel was damaged. I think I may have put some WETS on it once or twice. This panel was never black, it was a dark gray when it was new. Here it is after a sponge wash with some OPC 1:3 and an IPA wipedown:

So FWIW, this is the expiration on my unopened bottle:

Since I've used C4 before, and once spilled half the bottle, I was happy to see this dropper doohickey in the neck of the bottle (and unhappy to see it as I had bought a bunch of dropper tops from USP last time I ordered, that I apparently didn't need). Unfortunately, I'm not really sure how this dropper thing is supposed to work:

It was actually good that I couldn't figure out how to get the product out of the bottle, because I've applied C4 too heavy, and I was trying to do the DLux really thin. Here's the first third of the panel:

I guess my cleaning wasn't that great, because here's what my "applicator" (a folded square of Scott blue shop towel) looked like after:

Here's 2/3 of the way done:

And the final third, you can now see the impact marks again:

My applicators:

And here it is all done; I did a MF towel wipe right after application, so hopefully I don't have too thick a coat and this stays good for a long time. You can see the (painted) bumper damage that I never touched up from when I got rear-ended if you look closely. That dappled unevenness you see is the sunlight through the trees.

Sorry the pictures weren't that great. I'll try and update this in a year or something to see how it's held up.

 

[shadwell]

nice job, massive improvement, i'll be interested on the longevity.. great post..

 

[GSKR]

What kind of car.looks like a caddy am I correct.

 

[MarkD51]

On my vehicles, and from some experience where trim is just not in the best of shape anymore, that one will not receive the hopeful perfection, and fully hiding of damages from these "clear" coating products such as C4 and DLX.

On my beater-mobile daily driver, I've resorted to products such as Turtle Wax Endura Trim Coating on basically all black trim with very nice results.

Sure, I doubt TW Endura is in the realm of C4-DLX as far as longevity. But the TW was a relatively cheap product. Note I say "was".

I bought a few bottles of both the tire, and trim coatings from that famous auction site a few months back. At least I'm good to go for the foreseeable future when I need something that will hide weathering and damage.

 

[FrankS]

Looks much better with DLUX applied.

Interested in the longevity. Keep us posted.

 

[Jaretr1]

I had pretty good luck with Dlux. Its just a little finicky to apply like many coatings.

 

[MarkD51]

I know Setec chimed in for me with advice, etc when I tried GTechniq C4 on my Tahoe's Step Bumper Pad some years back. Don't know what had happened, but it looked beautiful the day of application, then went a chaulky white 1-1/2 to 2 weeks later.

Might've been bad product, but might've been insufficient, or improper prep, and a part that was probably 15-16 years old, and had certainly seen better days with weathering and time. And maybe too, such lesser products such as Armor All doing their bad thing on such parts for a few years when I didn't know any better?

I had to replace those parts from LMC Truck, new Step Pads. I then used CP DLX, and got perfect, long lasting results on those new parts, which now at almost two years later still look great.

I reckon the moral of my story is to use the best products right off the bat to preserve them.

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I know Setec chimed in for me with advice, etc when I tried GTechniq C4 on my Tahoe's Step Bumper Pad some years back. Don't know what had happened, but it looked beautiful the day of application, then went a chaulky white 1-1/2 to 2 weeks later.

Rob from GTechniq explained that is what happens when you put C4 on too thick. It's basically like a coating high spot and Rob said it could take months to occur; it took maybe 6 months when I used it but I guess in the NM desert it only takes a couple of weeks. Mine was on a difficult cowling that had a lot of slots, etc. and I had to keep going over it to get in all the corners and nooks and crannies. I had better success with it on some other pieces. That's why I didn't want to go too heavy with the DLux.

I reckon the moral of my story is to use the best products right off the bat to preserve them.

Yeah, I think a regular application of one of the trim sealants like WETS, UTTG, or BTTTS would do the trick, if you did it right from the beginning.