Tried some wipe on automotive clear coat from Vice Grip Garage

[nwjones18]

I enjoy watching Vice Grip Garage's videos on youtube and he recently had a video with a wipe on clear coat that was real 2 part paint. Watched a few videos on it (and Poppy's Patina which is the same stuff and bottles it for VGG) and decided it would be worth a shot on my Mazda with a failed clear coat. Goal was to make it look 'less bad' and I think it actually turned out pretty good. Wish I took some real before pictures, but first ones I took were after I'd pressure washed it/ scuffed it up with a 3M pad. You all know the look though. I only recleared from the body line that goes through the door handles up as the rest of the clear is fine. I'd say where I painted was 15-20% clear remaining with there being close to none on the hood/roof. I did two coats a day a part and followed the instructions. It did a good job of self leveling, but there is no denying it was wiped on and I had some runs in places where I had to much paint on the applicator. Over all I'm pretty pleased. Now time will tell how it holds up...

https://www.vicegripgarage.com/products/gloss-wipe-on-patina-preserver

 

[Rand]

how many hours of labor was that?

 

[atikovi]

Seems like a 2K spray can for $25 would go on smoother than wiping and cost much less.

 

[nwjones18]

how many hours of labor was that?

Maybe 6ish? and that's including the 3x I washed it prior to scuffing. I'd say the scuffing/taping/painting only took a few hours total.

 

[nwjones18]

Seems like a 2K spray can for $25 would go on smoother than wiping and cost much less.

I'd considered that as well. I just didn't know how well it'd stick to my rough old paint and supposedly this "patina preserver" is made for that.. Agree it wasn't cheap, I do have 1/2 a qt left over. I also didn't really want to spray in my un-ventilated garage.

 

[Audiman]

Would it have turned out better if you had sanded off the remaining clear coat on places like the hood and spoiler? Then you wouldn’t have those lines in the paint.

I am sure it looks far better from a distance than what it did before though.

 

[nwjones18]

Would it have turned out better if you had sanded off the remaining clear coat on places like the hood and spoiler? Then you wouldn’t have those lines in the paint.

I am sure it looks far better from a distance than what it did before though.

The remaining blue paint was so thin that I went through it in a couple places just scuffing it with the scotch pad, so sanding off the clear would have ended up going through the surrounding blue and made it worse I think. Overall I'm pretty pleased with the end result for the minimal effort required.. This car doesn't have a panel on it that isn't dented/dinged and for what I do with it I didn't want to head down the slippery slope of 'making it right'.