2021 Trim Test

The Guz

The Guz

Mike
I had a spare plastic panel that I decided to use for a test involving different coatings and sealants. This panel was formerly an interior panel.

I will be leaving this piece of trim outside 24/7 and occasionally provide updates to see how the products are doing. Will note when each product has faded to the point where it is no longer providing any noticeable appearance.

Products are as follows

1. Pinnacle Black Label Ceramic Trim Restorer
2. CarPro DLUX
3. Cquartz UK 3.0
4. Adams Graphene Ceramic Coating
5. Adams UV Ceramic Paint Coating
6. SPS Graphene
7. Adams Graphene Ceramic Spray Coating
8. Adams UV Ceramic Spray Coating
9. CarPro Perl
10. McKee`s 37 Plastic Trim Restorer
11. Wolfgang Exterior Trim Sealant
12. Solution Finish

Some things to note:

Prep: Cleaned with N914 and prep wiped with Ethos Detox.

The trim coatings will likely perform longer than the trim sealants.

Solution Finish is a trim restorer that offers no protection. Don`t expect it to be hydrophobic like a trim sealant or coating. Which is why it is often topped. Aesthetically this looks the best.

Pinnacle Black Label Ceramic Trim Restorer has a greenish hue to it and it can be seen under certain lighting conditions. This is more noticeable on lighter trim.

Cquartz UK 3.0 looked surprisingly nice. DLUX still looked better in person as it adds more darkening to the trim. But for new trim or trim in good shape, CQUK 3.0 appears to be a good option.

SPS Graphene had the least darkening effect on the true coating side.

Adams often boasts about how rich the spray coatings make the trim look. Well both don`t look as good as the trim sealants. The Adams Graphene Ceramic Coating does a better job as does the UV Paint Ceramic Coating.

CarPro Perl looks good. I suspect it will be the first to go as durability is not its strong point.

McKee`s 37 Plastic Trim Restorer and Wolfgang Exterior Trim Sealant look identical and the products are rather identical in consistency.

Trim_1a.jpg


Trim_2a.jpg


Feel free to watch the video on the application of each product.

 
Guz:
Great test on plastic trim restorers/sealants/coatings. Your brief explanation about each one tells me which products fall into which trim "restorer" type.
Funny, but not funny, how McKee`s 37 and Wolfgang "seem" identical since the founder and product developer of both companies is the same person, Robert McKee.

Is the "Prep: Cleaned with McKee`s 37 N914 and prep wiped with Ethos Detox" your preferred way of cleaning and prepping plastic/vinyl trim??
 
Nice! I will be watching this test. This spring I will be looking for a product to use on the exterior black trim on my 2005 Mini Cooper "S" and was thinking about using Gyeon Trim or possibly PolishAngel Black Bond but before I purchase any products I will wait to see the results from your test.
 
The Guz- I too will be watching this one...I haven`t tried any of the products under discussion so maybe something will wow me enough to stray from my usual UTTG+
 
Lonnie said:
Guz:
Great test on plastic trim restorers/sealants/coatings. Your brief explanation about each one tells me which products fall into which trim "restorer" type.
Funny, but not funny, how McKee`s 37 and Wolfgang "seem" identical since the founder and product developer of both companies is the same person, Robert McKee.

Is the "Prep: Cleaned with McKee`s 37 N914 and prep wiped with Ethos Detox" your preferred way of cleaning and prepping plastic/vinyl trim??
Click to expand...

The panel was sitting in the garage and had a lot of dust. I used N914 to waterless wash it and then used Detox for final prep.

FYI Nick recently made an update to the McKee`s trim restorer as it is now ceramic infused.

bob m said:
Nice test - thanks. Do you have any updates?
Click to expand...

Only update I have is me putting it outside after it cured in the garage for a couple days.

Fskof said:
Nice! I will be watching this test. This spring I will be looking for a product to use on the exterior black trim on my 2005 Mini Cooper "S" and was thinking about using Gyeon Trim or possibly PolishAngel Black Bond but before I purchase any products I will wait to see the results from your test.
Click to expand...

Gyeon Trim is pretty good. You should see similar results to CarPro DLUX. U have not used any PA products.
 
The Guz said:
The panel was sitting in the garage and had a lot of dust. I used N914 to waterless wash it and then used Detox for final prep.

FYI Nick recently made an update to the McKee`s trim restorer as it is now ceramic infused.



Only update I have is me putting it outside after it cured in the garage for a couple days.



Gyeon Trim is pretty good. You should see similar results to CarPro DLUX. U have not used any PA products.
Click to expand...

Ooops, sorry. For some reason I thought you started your test a while ago.
 
Just a quick update to get an initial performance of each product.

Perl is gone after a week and one wash.

 
The Guz- Ah, the test is already showing something! Interesting that the Perl died so fast, especially with some here liking it. Gee, IME a SprayWax could hold up better than that!
 
I am looking forward to this test.

Back in the day used to use Black wow and then Ultima Trim and trie guard plus. As far as older trim sealants the UTTGP was my favorite and it lasted.

Then came coatings and Solution finish. Early on I liked SF since it was so dark but I never felt it lasted like I thought it should. Then I realized I needed to seal in the SF. SF sealed with a coating or another trim sealant made this a winner.

I had a trim coating applied to one of our vehicles and after about 4+ years it started to “silver”. I was told reps for the company that I must have screwed up the application and that kinda ticked me off since I had applied many other coatings with no issues and I had the trim coating on for the 4+ years with no issues. They couldn’t accept that maybe the coating “failing”was possible at this point. But then the new issue was how to you remove it from textured trim without polishing or abrasives. The answer was you really can’t. Since then I have stuck with SF and a trim sealant that I can reapply more often and not run into future issues.
 
TroyScherer said:
I am looking forward to this test.

Back in the day used to use Black wow and then Ultima Trim and trie guard plus. As far as older trim sealants the UTTGP was my favorite and it lasted.

Then came coatings and Solution finish. Early on I liked SF since it was so dark but I never felt it lasted like I thought it should. Then I realized I needed to seal in the SF. SF sealed with a coating or another trim sealant made this a winner.

I had a trim coating applied to one of our vehicles and after about 4+ years it started to “silver”. I was told reps for the company that I must have screwed up the application and that kinda ticked me off since I had applied many other coatings with no issues and I had the trim coating on for the 4+ years with no issues. They couldn’t accept that maybe the coating “failing”was possible at this point. But then the new issue was how to you remove it from textured trim without polishing or abrasives. The answer was you really can’t. Since then I have stuck with SF and a trim sealant that I can reapply more often and not run into future issues.
Click to expand...

Black Wow seemed to get lost in the mix with SF around. Unfortunately coating a trim does not always yield the best results and will need to be reapplied as it is not a set it and forget it. I find myself re-coating trim with a ceramic coating once a year to maintain the look. I have not seen any issues doing it this way and the trim stays looking good. Now I know someone will say then why put a coating on it in the first place. Well number one I am lazy when it comes to trim and trim sealants need to be reapplied more often.

SF is great but I would not top it with a ceramic coating unless one wants to be locked out from using SF down the road as the coating will not allow the SF to penetrate into the plastic like before. I have seen this on my dads car where I coated the trim. So re-coat it once a year now. SF will be releasing their trim sealant through the rag company something this quarter.

One thing you may want to try on that trim is optimum hyper polish. It won`t stain trim and does a good job at cleaning trim. It may not get into all of the texture but you can at least mask that by re-coating it.
 
TroyScherer- Ah, you hit upon one of my big concerns about Trim Coatings: how to remove `em.

And, heh heh..doesn`t it always seem like "oh, user-error" is the response when something goes sideways? ;)

Does the UTTG+ (which I`m still using) work OK over the SF?
 
Accumulator said:
The Guz- Ah, the test is already showing something! Interesting that the Perl died so fast, especially with some here liking it. Gee, IME a SprayWax could hold up better than that!
Click to expand...

Perl looks great. I use it undiluted. No durability for me, either.
 
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