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Hello everyone
Have the day off today, so decided to get out this morning to do some more product testing before the weather starts to pour down again.
Today it was time to test Auto Finesse's Satin tyre gel and the new Dressle all-purpose dressing.
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Up first was Satin. I had a good test subject for this - my high profile Uniroyal winter tyres. They've been on the car for two weeks and have done about 700 miles. Even after a quick cleanup they are pretty bland and dull.
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Satin is a very different product from my usual tyre dressing of choice (Meguiar's Endurance Tyre Gel). Satin is a very runny light purple (almost pink) liquid that separates when left to stand for a while (it is supposed to), so ensure you give it a good shake before use to blend everything back together. I applied with thick cheap Chinese sponge applicator, and found that you can be very sparing with the solution. Only a few drops was enough to do half a wheel, as you can see from these half and half pics:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
The finished result was a really nice, deep black look to the tyre, with no runoff (and again, with very little product used). I really enjoyed using this, it delivered the result I was looking for and was substantially less mucky than my usually tyre dressing, and it goes a long way.
Here's the finished tyre:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
On next to Dressle, the new all-purpose plastic and vinyl dressing. I plan to revisit this a few times in the coming weeks, trying it in different parts of the car, but for this initial review, I wanted to give it a real challenge, my engine bay:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
This is the bay before cleaning. It's not very dirty, but before I apply Dressle I will give it a wipe over with a strong degreasing APC in order to move any engine grime that might compromise the Dressle finish.
Some close-ups of the before engine bay:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
After giving the engine a wipe over, it was time for the application of Dressle - a very thin runny white liquid, very watery. It is designed to be sprayed onto the target area, so I decanted the sample bottle into a small spray bottle:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
In the case of the engine bay, there are two ways you can apply it.
1) spray a small amount onto the target area and spread it with a cloth to form an even coating
2) apply liberally and leave to dry
I tried option 1, didn't really make any impact, so I've opted for option 2:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
This approach delivered a far better result. Having liberally coated all the plastics with Dressle, I left it to dry for an hour and returned to dab away any run-off (there was very little). The result for a stain-free, very consistent dark, almost glossy finish.
I will report back on longevity, but the initial results are very encouraging and it was again a very easy product to work with. Being water-based, I was a lot more confident spraying it around the engine bay, knowing that any run-off was unlikely to do any damage to other engine parts (though I did cover my alternator and fuse box as an extra precaution.
The one downside, I needed to use a lot of product to have an impact - this is not going to be an economic one to use, at least not on engine bay plastics.
Have the day off today, so decided to get out this morning to do some more product testing before the weather starts to pour down again.
Today it was time to test Auto Finesse's Satin tyre gel and the new Dressle all-purpose dressing.
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Up first was Satin. I had a good test subject for this - my high profile Uniroyal winter tyres. They've been on the car for two weeks and have done about 700 miles. Even after a quick cleanup they are pretty bland and dull.
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Satin is a very different product from my usual tyre dressing of choice (Meguiar's Endurance Tyre Gel). Satin is a very runny light purple (almost pink) liquid that separates when left to stand for a while (it is supposed to), so ensure you give it a good shake before use to blend everything back together. I applied with thick cheap Chinese sponge applicator, and found that you can be very sparing with the solution. Only a few drops was enough to do half a wheel, as you can see from these half and half pics:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
The finished result was a really nice, deep black look to the tyre, with no runoff (and again, with very little product used). I really enjoyed using this, it delivered the result I was looking for and was substantially less mucky than my usually tyre dressing, and it goes a long way.
Here's the finished tyre:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
On next to Dressle, the new all-purpose plastic and vinyl dressing. I plan to revisit this a few times in the coming weeks, trying it in different parts of the car, but for this initial review, I wanted to give it a real challenge, my engine bay:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
This is the bay before cleaning. It's not very dirty, but before I apply Dressle I will give it a wipe over with a strong degreasing APC in order to move any engine grime that might compromise the Dressle finish.
Some close-ups of the before engine bay:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
After giving the engine a wipe over, it was time for the application of Dressle - a very thin runny white liquid, very watery. It is designed to be sprayed onto the target area, so I decanted the sample bottle into a small spray bottle:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
In the case of the engine bay, there are two ways you can apply it.
1) spray a small amount onto the target area and spread it with a cloth to form an even coating
2) apply liberally and leave to dry
I tried option 1, didn't really make any impact, so I've opted for option 2:
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
Untitled by Chris Green, on Flickr
This approach delivered a far better result. Having liberally coated all the plastics with Dressle, I left it to dry for an hour and returned to dab away any run-off (there was very little). The result for a stain-free, very consistent dark, almost glossy finish.
I will report back on longevity, but the initial results are very encouraging and it was again a very easy product to work with. Being water-based, I was a lot more confident spraying it around the engine bay, knowing that any run-off was unlikely to do any damage to other engine parts (though I did cover my alternator and fuse box as an extra precaution.
The one downside, I needed to use a lot of product to have an impact - this is not going to be an economic one to use, at least not on engine bay plastics.
I'll keep an eye on your Dressle trials.
