Thread: After Market Paint Protection

Rod if your talking such as Ming then don't if you cherish your vehicle

reasons to do it

less chance of surface scratches light stone chips

safer from bird droppings and cat paw prints which can eat away at paint work and tree sap

reasons not to

impossible to match when repairs are done

as it ages it becomes opaque foggy looking especially on other than white and yellow

it can craze in excessive heat

Any of the so called "finishes' are really a waste of money. The finishes put on vehicles today are hard wearing Acrylic baked enamels which should be repaired with 2 part Acrylic urethane Enamels. Both of these finishes are extremely stong and hard and the paint companies only recommend that you apply a suitable wax or polish to help protect them. Such materials leave a thin coating over the paint surface this then gets wet, dirty or the bird poo not the paint. It can easily be removed and replaced keeping the paint in top shape. Normally even poorly looked after paint will be good up to 10 years, Some imported cars are worse due to them being produced for a market which does not have a harsh climate as Australia but the same applies they will still fail, not because they wern't done but because the paint quality is bad.

The systems that dealers try to sell are no more than a good wash,polish or wax that you could apply yourself for a lot less than they try to hit you for. They won't give you any better result and may cause problems for a spray painter if you are unlucky enough to have to have repairs done to the vehicle. Any wax or polish only has a short life the better the protection the harder it is to apply, so a simple polish will be easy to wipe on and off but will not last long so has th be done often. a good wax will last longer between applications but will require a lot more elbow grease.

"Ming" that Wheelinround talks about was such a system. what they actually did was compound/buff the usually orange peel finish found on new cars till it was perfectly flat and then apply a silicone wax. The finish was a marked improvement and easy to see the difference from the factory product, but it removed most of the paint thickness. On metallic finishes it actually often resulted in the metallic layers being cut through which had the same effect that you get if you sanded a piece of plywood.

It ruined the colour and made a lot of extra bucks for painters as the cars needed to be resprayed. ( made lots of money from Ming in those days respraying cars especially Valiants)

Same goes with the rustproofing scams, lots of money for offen whats no more than a spray of fish oil inside your doors etc and offen done so badly it makes the car rust quicker than it would if left untouched.( or if you did a good job yourself) same goes for the leather dresssing deals.

Save your money wash and polish your new vehicle regularly with a good car wax or polish. not only will you probably do a better job but you will be keeping an eye out for any marks on the paint which you would probably not generally see.

Usually buyers shop for the best price, dealers give you a good trade in deal and then try to gain some extra dollars by selling you these "improvements " to get back some extra profit.