citizen arcane
New member
LS1 Eddie said:
:har: :har: :har: :har:
Dealer paint protection
- Thread starter m_i_k_i_e
- Start date
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Saintlysins
New member
The gas stations are now selling air for your tires ... the dealers next move will start to charge you extra for the keys. 
The Space Pope
New member
The Space Pope said:
I finally found a detailer who will get rid of the paint protection on my paint and prep/polish and wax the paint the way I want it. He preps show cars and has 30 years experience.
He simply uses white spirit...apparently gets rid of the crap without injuring the clearcoat. Meguiars also said that simple paint cleaner should be able to shift the protectant but said white spirit is also fine and safe for use in this application.
So bottom line is, if you hate your paint protection, it's not the end of the world and is easily removed regardless of what the manufacturer claims.
Accumulator
Well-known member
I'll be a little contrary here and say that in some cases the dealer-applied "lifetime sealants" are OK. Of course it depends on who applies them and which product it is.
A friend of ours has serious physical limitations. She leases a new SUV every two years or so and negotiates the protection package as a final bargaining chip to seal (no pun intended
) the deal; it doesn't cost her anything for the initial application or the refreshers. She has them redo it when it's in for service so the whole thing is utterly transparent to her; the SUV always looks OK with zero effort/expense on her part. The people at the dealership like her and as best I can tell they do the best they can to make the SUV look nice. No, *I* wouldn't want any of *my* vehicles in that condition, but she's happy and her SUV is always one of the better looking vehicles in any parking lot. Works for her :nixweiss
The Space Pope- Welcome to Autopia! Yeah, those products usually clean off pretty easily. Hope you end up with something you're happy with.
A friend of ours has serious physical limitations. She leases a new SUV every two years or so and negotiates the protection package as a final bargaining chip to seal (no pun intended
) the deal; it doesn't cost her anything for the initial application or the refreshers. She has them redo it when it's in for service so the whole thing is utterly transparent to her; the SUV always looks OK with zero effort/expense on her part. The people at the dealership like her and as best I can tell they do the best they can to make the SUV look nice. No, *I* wouldn't want any of *my* vehicles in that condition, but she's happy and her SUV is always one of the better looking vehicles in any parking lot. Works for her :nixweissThe Space Pope- Welcome to Autopia! Yeah, those products usually clean off pretty easily. Hope you end up with something you're happy with.
imported_dazzerjp
New member
My wifes car had the Honda Polymer. It was really good. Lasted about 1.5 years. Had to buy top up foam - like shaving foam - and reapply every 6 months. total cost 400usd.
This was pre-Autopian days and I have since learned that its just repackaged Soft99 sealant.
There is a different process, maybe the heat one mentioned before, that does last a good 2 - 3 years. A colleague of mine had it done. He didnt know the process, but the effect is much like having a new clearcoat.
This was pre-Autopian days and I have since learned that its just repackaged Soft99 sealant.
There is a different process, maybe the heat one mentioned before, that does last a good 2 - 3 years. A colleague of mine had it done. He didnt know the process, but the effect is much like having a new clearcoat.
cctxdetailer
New member
I used to apply the enviromental packages at a dealership. I applied the paint sealant, fabric guard, rustproof, and vinyl and leather protection. Sometimes undercoating. The chemicals came from a company called Perma Plate. They've got a website and have been in buisness a long tme. I liked the paint sealant cause it worked great and it wouldn't chaulk up on exterior trim. I used a paint gun to apply the fabric guard and the vinyl and leather guard. The package came with a small box of chemicals and an outstanding warranty but there were certain things a customer had to do to not void it. Most customers picking up thier vehicle loved the work done and would bring it back to me twice a year to get it detailed and the sealant reapplied. I did my personal vehicles in 2002. My wifes truck got the complete package and mine got the sealant and fabric guard. Six years later, my truck is starting to rust, and hers is fine. We both own ram 1500's.
Accumulator said:I'll be a little contrary here and say that in some cases the dealer-applied "lifetime sealants" are OK. Of course it depends on who applies them and which product it is.
A friend of ours has serious physical limitations. She leases a new SUV every two years or so and negotiates the protection package as a final bargaining chip to seal (no pun intended
Same story as my uncle. He has terrible arthritus in his hands. Polishing, waxing and claying are out of the question. Just washing his Vette is painful. He has a friend who is a Zxilon rep who applied it for his B-day. That was four years ago. If he hired a detailer his Vette would look better but I have to give him credit, it still looks better than 95% of the 4 year old cars on the road.
David Fermani
Forza Auto Salon
s16 said:
I'd throughly decontaminate it (clay/ABC wash) and then seal with your favorite LSP. Remember, you're only sealing in the existing finish and if the contaminants aren't removed, you'll be sealing them in too, thus drastically reducing the life of your protection.
Unless your vehicle gets parked on the ocean and you're planning on keeping it for several decades, I wouldn't undercoat it. The factory e-coat/corrosion protection these days are all you'll need. Even if there's a bare spot on your vehicle, it's pretty unlikely that undercoating will reach that section unless you do some major evasive drilling.
Accumulator
Well-known member
David Fermani said:
With a possible polishing job before the LSP, especially if you don't remove the transitwrap yourself.
Up here in the rustbelt, I go both ways on the undercoating.
Some vehicles are so well built/protected that yeah, you can simply skip it even with winter use/salt exposure. Trouble is, it can be hard to tell which vehicles are well built until they do/don't start to rust.
Examples that need it:
1) Our MPV has done pretty well without undercoating (but then I wash the undercarriage/etc. all the time), but there's a manufacturing issue with the front passenger door; they rust out unless you undercoat the lower leading corner by the drain hole. I hear that the US-built Mazda 6 has a similar issue in its doors (that's doors plural too).
2) On the Denali XL, I found a lot of areas that weren't really painted/etc. properly, so I treated everyplace where I could foresee trouble. When shopping for it, I had to search high and low (including all over the south) before I found one that didn't have at least a *tiny bit* of rust starting in certain places. I found rust on *every* other "rust-free" Suburban/Yukon/Escalade I looked at (the salesmen thought I was nuts, the way I was inspecting them, but hey...I might keep it for a while). Seems that GM simply doesn't build 'em all that well; just well enough that they won't get warranty claims (at least that's what I suspect).
If you do it youself, do plenty of planning and use pro-grade stuff (I like AutoInt and Eastwood). This isn't something you want to rush through in an hour or two, but rather something you want to do *right* the first time. I used three separate rustproofers on the Denali XL, and I spent a *long* time doing it.
David Fermani
Forza Auto Salon
You have a very valid point Accumulator. You can never bo too safe these days; especially in the salt belt. It's ashame that even a vehicle that gets dipped in a vat of zinc still rusts! Do you know anything about electronic rust protection?
AutoInt sells a warranty system for cars called CleanSeal which I used for a while. It retailed for around $189 and was a great up-sell on new cars. I really liked the system, very easy to work with except the air canister they sell to apply the fabric guard sucked, broke like 3 times. I still use their ABC system frequently.
salty
Active member
David Fermani said:
Having worked at a used lot and the owner starting to buy cars from eastern Canada, the advanced rusting was incredible compared to western Canada. Trailblazers and Envoys would came in and i would have to spend a couple hours painting or removing rust, these were 3 or 4 years old.
As Accu said if i lived in a salt belt i would think about undercoating or rustproofing or both.
David i asked about electronic rust control last year and was directed to a site that said it would not work well without being grounded. So maybe with a static strip ( those things you see hanging from the frame) they might work better.
Accumulator
Well-known member
AutoNova said:
That's a good example of OK dealer-preotection-package stuff :xyxthumbs Only as good as the people who apply it though...shame everybody using it doesn't get sent through the AutoInt training course.
David Fermani said:
It was all the rage here for a while..until the vehicles equipped with it rusted out just like every other vehicle. Big thumbs-down IME, no matter what the ad-copy test results say.
Guess that dipping is only good when it reaches all the trouble-prone areas (as I hear it, there are some issues where panels are crimped and welded and that sounds reasonable as it's just the area where my winter vehicles sometimes have issues). And if the zinc isn't then coated with good old-fashioned *paint* there seems to be a limit to what it can withstand; the number of improperly painted areas on my Denali XL are utterly
