- What's up, friends and family?
Thanks so much for joining us for another episode
of Chemical Guys Detail Garage.
Today we have a quick,
must have tip on how to restore
and protect your exterior trim and plastic.
Queue the intro.
So today,
obviously we're outside of the detail garage
and I'm going to apologize for any kind
of ambient noise already.
But we've brought in this 2010 Dodge Challenger
because as a lot of you guys have,
or similar cars to this,
they have this exterior plastic and trim
which tends to get chalky
or faded over years of UV rays,
washing and waxing,
or anything else that can damage the finish.
So, I'm gonna show you how to apply a coating
that's gonna restore it and protect it
and bring back that factory finish.
But before we begin,
we're gonna wipe it down using one
of my favorite quick detail sprays, P40.
You can use your favorite waterless wash
or quick detail spray.
Or if you're gonna do this on the entire vehicle,
you can also just simply wash the car.
And using a soft microfiber towel,
we're just gonna wipe off any excess.
You can also spray a little bit on the towel,
if you're afraid of scratching the surface.
I know that these headlight lenses tend
to scratch pretty easily.
I'm just gonna wipe off anything that's on the trim,
we're also rolling the towel and also on the paintwork.
And I'm just gonna do half just to give you guys
a little comparison.
Buff up any of the excess here.
So now, I'm just gonna tape off a little section here
to give you guys more of a comparison.
Using some two-inch painter's tape,
a lot of guys ask what kind of paint tape we use,
or what kind of tape in general.
You wanna use something that doesn't have
a whole lot of tack
because obviously that's gonna leave a residue
or it can pull and peel paint.
So, something nice and soft like a painter's tape
is the best way to go.
I'm simply gonna put it right here, starting on the trim.
Oh, Jesus.
Alrighty guys,
so we just finished taping off the area around the trim.
I had to grab a one-inch tape for the smaller areas,
where the bigger tapes not gonna really contour.
This is because we don't wanna get any
of the Carbon Flex Trim on the actual paint.
So, now we're gonna move onto the next step
where I'm gonna put my gloves on,
just some regular rubber gloves.
And we're going to use some Trim Clean,
like I mentioned earlier,
to remove any kind of grease
or anything that can be on the surface
so that we're getting a sure bond.
Because any kind of coating,
whether it's going on your paint, glass, trim,
you wanna make sure that it's going to bond correctly
to the surface so it can last as long as it can.
So now trim cleaner,
we're just gonna spray directly on the surface,
or we can spray it onto a microfiber towel.
And just wipe of any of the excess.
And that's just gonna be your surface prep spray.
Use a nice, clean, soft microfiber towel.
And this removes any kind of oils,
or old dressings,
anything else that's gonna inhibit a long-lasting bond.
Make sure you get it all off before you put the coating on
because it needs to be fairly dry.
Just buff off any of the excess.
Okay, great.
Now we can move on to the actual coating process.
So, we wanna grab our applicator block
and a micro-suede applicator towel.
And the reason we use micro-suede is
because this is going to spread a very even,
fine coat without leaving any high spots or lifting.
Make sure it's nice and tightly wrapped around the block.
And then using the Carbon Flex C9 Trim Coating,
now this is going to repel any UV rays,
water spots,
anything that's gonna stain and damage the finish.
And it'll last a few years.
So now you're gonna have a nice protected deep gloss
that's gonna last through washes,
it's gonna last through being out in extreme temperatures
like hot weather in the desert
or cold weather up in the mountains.
And all you have to do is simply apply it
to the applicator pad,
inverting it so you don't spill it all over the place.
And just work it into the micro-suede towelette.
That should be enough.
And we'll start down here on the lower valance
and spread it out nice and even,
working it into the actual plastic piece itself
just like you're putting on a dressing.
Luckily, putting on a trim coating is
a lot more forgiving than a paint coating,
so you don't really need to worry about covering up
your last pass or missing any high spots
because it'll absorb into the plastic
and then you just buff off any excess.
As you can see,
a little bit goes a long way.
You don't need to constantly reapply
but also we're just working on a small area.
But when you're working on the paint again,
when you're putting any kind of coating on there,
you have to constantly reapply it to your applicator
because one,
you're working on a larger surface area,
but also the paint kind of absorbs the coating more
than say your trim would.
And already this is starting to look a lot better,
it bonds almost immediately so we can move onto
the rest of the vehicle.
And in the meantime,
if you guys wanna learn more about this product,
you can head over to our website chemicalguys.com.
If you have a car like this,
or you just wanna learn more about this,
drop a comment down below,
we'll try to answer you guys' questions
and be sure to like this video
and as always, we'll see you guys next time
right here in the Detail Garage.