Kamikaze Stance Rim Coat

[BudgetPlan1]

...and I venture a bit further down the Kamikaze rabbit hole.

Having used the other Kamikaze products with great results (Miyabi, ISM, Infinity Wax, Overcoat), I was looking forward to trying Stance Rim Coat and the opportunity recently presented itself with a set of wheels on a new car. While Stance Rim Coat initially appears to be at the upper-end with regards to cost compared to some other choices, if performance, ease of application and less product usage per application were as advertised (i.e. up to Kamikaze standards), it more than levels the playing field for someone like myself.


In my non-professional, want to keep vehicle clean and looking good with least amount of on-going effort world, Rim/Wheel Coatings are an extraordinary convenience, on par with paint coatings as far as making vehicle maintenance as quick, easy and effective as possible. With well-coated wheels, usually nothing more than a strong rinse with a hose, followed by a quick wipe-down replaces the whole dedicated ‘wheel cleaning’ portion of a maintenance wash, eliminating the need for wheel cleaning chemicals, brushes, dedicated towels and wash mitts…all of which usually end up nasty, dirty and needing separate and intensive cleaning…not to mention the time involved in cleaning uncoated wheels. Additionally, nobody in the household is ever thrilled when I ran a load of nasty, chemically laden, blackened ‘wheel cleaning materials’ thru the washing machine.


Towards those ends, I snatched up the Stance, prepped the ‘only had 350 miles on since new’ wheels with wheel cleaner (Sonax), tar remover (Gyeon Tar) and prepped/wiped down with Gyeon Prep. The Stance bottle is a solid pewter color which makes it hard to judge the contents so I scraped off one edge with a razor blade to get a better idea of the amount left inside as I coated the wheels. I tend to sometimes get a bit overzealous with product usage, even though more is not necessarily better in these situations, so it was handy to see the product level in the bottle as I applied it to help control the amount of product used.


The Stance bottle has the ‘drip top’ like many coatings so it was easily controlled while loading the applicator. While I began using the ‘standard’ foam block and micro suede applicator cloth, I had also picked up some of the round, red Esoteric foam applicators (as seen in the Learning Center video regarding Stance Rim Coating); cut into quarters these provided an excellent carrier for the product, insuring quick and easy coverage to the intricate areas of the wheel, as well as all other areas except for the barrels where I continued to use the block/micro suede method. The applicators made the job much, much easier as the density of them seems to slow the product absorption into the applicator, allowing more product to be applied to the wheel surface in a quicker, more even fashion.


The product applies quite nicely, never really getting to that sticky/tacky state even after the 12 minute dwell time that seemed to work best on this mid-70 degree, low humidity day. After 12 minutes (and sometimes a minute or two more; easily distracted am I) the product wipes off very, very smoothly and evenly, leaving a very slick and glossy surface on the gloss-black painted areas of the wheels. These particular wheels were a combination of gloss-black (clear coated) paint in some areas and clear-coated ?brushed aluminum? in others. Stance left these unpainted areas with a nice shine, also providing a bit of a ‘prism-like’ effect if you managed to catch the wheel in just the right angle/light. Taken as a whole after application, the wheels looked great; not overly glossy and kind of a ‘really, really, REALLY clean’ look with a bit of added pop/gloss…very nice.


In areas where I did apply to much, Stance seemed to seek out its own ‘level’ of sorts, with the excess remaining on the surface, easily wiped away after the 15 or so minute dwell time with nary a streak or high spot to be found. The stuff just flat out works…no sticky/tacky feel, no high spots and a ‘slick as all get out’ finish. I waited an hour or so and applied another coat which went on even smoother than the first. I’d guess that overall I used about 10ml of the 30ml bottle, definitely over application as I learned just how far a loaded applicator would go (pretty far, as it turns out) but this proved to be a non-issue as far as the finished wheels went…the forgiveness and ease of use of Stance is tremendous.


So now we just wait and see how it performs over the long haul; being a Kamikaze product, I expect nothing short of great longevity, self cleaning ability and looks. Time will tell but for me the application and appearance characteristics, as well as the economical product usage (once I got a handle on it) make it worth the price of admission. Find a good tire coating (I use Tuff Shine) to use in conjunction with this and the messy, time-consuming chore of keeping your wheels/tires clean is lessened dramatically.

I have achieved some pretty nice results in the last year with Gyeon Rim, does everything a Rim coating should with expected longevity of a year from what I`m told. The Stance Rim Coat is much, much easier to apply and if I get 2 years outta it, definitely worth the premium ($90 vs around $45 for Gyeon Rim) over Gyeon Rim...*for me*. I hate doing wheels as I`m usually doing 1 axle at a time in the garage so when I do work up the motivation to do them, I want it to be the easiest, most durable chore it can be. That`s worth a certain amount of $$ to me.

[atgonzales]

Great review, Budget nicely done

[Mike lambert]

Our only rim coating now, been on mine washed with everything and after 6 months still going strong!

[BudgetPlan1]

Our only rim coating now, been on mine washed with everything and after 6 months still going strong!

Not sure what I like better...the Stance Rim Coat or those dense, red foam applicator pads. Those things are great for applying coatings to wheels and trim. Very little product gets absorbed into the applicators.

[HCF]

After being so impressed with ISM and how easy it was to work with, I would try stance rim coat, like you mentioned it may cost little more but if it has better longevity that`s even better for me. Now I just need nice set of wheels for the car...

[BudgetPlan1]

Got about 850 miles since Stance application, probably 65% freeway, rest stop and go city.

Got a chance to wash car today, sprayed wheels and tires with hose during initial soaking of car, washed wheels at end of wash with soap remaining in bucket and this white microfiber towel; not much dirt left on wheels after hosing off:

Wheel surfaces at slick as can be, more so than Gyeon Rim at this stage. Tires done with Tuff Shine, wiped them with same towel after hosing off.

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