Looking great, Tim! I was thinking that, instead of the front hood 1/3 section being covered, why don't they just spray the whole hood? From my experience, rocks and other things do bounce beyond the protected area. Also, could I wax and polish over it like regular painted surface?
Anyone know if there is an installer for Armour coat in the SF Bay Area? Looks very intruiging, although I must say the Llumar film I have installed on my Modena is much clearer than 3M, say about half as visible. It's expensive, too, though, so for any new car I would consider the spray. Gary
I asked Steve about the same thing. He didn't recommend it because the larger the area of spray, the larger the chance of making an application mistake. I imagine after they continue to get experience with it that they'll be willing to spray the entire hood. Ah, maybe on my F430 some day...
I don't believe you've answered this question, but can wax/polymers still be applied over the new film? Also, I don't think that throwing rocks at a sample piece is proof it can hold up to rock chips. You're probably throwing the rocks about about 20mph vs. driving at 80mph and hitting a rock. I'm curious to see how this will hold up after several thousand highway miles.
You can polish and wax right over it with no problem. Also at Barrier porsche they have a bumper we sprayed the coating on and they hit it so hard with the back of a staple gun that it put a sharp deep dent in the bumper and it didn't even make a mark on the coating it just bent in with the dent. They have tested the product with a machine that shoot's out gravel at high speed and it holds up better than plastic film.
... here: http://www.armorauto.com/product/view/?PRODUCT_TYPE=extension_eurothane hth... No SF/Bay Area installation sites?!?
Haven't put any protection on my CS yet. Hate the 3M film application on my Spider.........its been two years and you can tell. This process sounds very interesting.
Here is one more on just the front bumper. Let me know how you like Cassini Image Unavailable, Please Login
I think someone is ready for a long road trip! Eric please let me know how it holds out. I would like to see it when you return. Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login Image Unavailable, Please Login
WOW!! Pics look great, Steve. Thanks for taking such good care of my beast. We pick it up on Weds, and will proceed to put maybe 8000 miles on it in the next month. It'll get a for real work-over. We'll drop it by when we get back so you can look it over.
Eric: I saw your car at FoS yesterday and inspected the Armor Coat. It looks great. You'll definitely be the acid test will all your hard miles. Can't wait to see the results. - Tim
This is quite interesting. Does anyone have video footage showing these scratch tests. I like pics, but I think it would be more convincing if the tests were caught on video.
Eric, did you take your cross country trip? Tim360, still happy? Really interested, and wondering how this stuff will look on a black finish... J
Yeah, sorry I didnt get back on this earlier. We put just about 9K miles on the car and coating in 5 weeks. Went to Florida and back, mostly on back country highways. Some snow, quite a bit of rain, and tons of fair weather high speed country highways. Excellent trip, by the way. Ive been thinking Id write it up, but other stuff keeps getting in the way. Such is life, eh? Check link below for a really brief version of a trip report. The Armor Coat did really well. Up until maybe the last day or so, when we got hit by something really big. It took out a couple of decent sized chunks of the bumper (dime sized maybe). No way any paint protection coating could have held up under that, it ripped into the bumper material underneath the paint and all. But aside from the really huge hits, the smaller hits were very nicely dealt with by the Armor Coat. I could see spots in the finish where clearly a rock or something had hit, but the paint was still red underneath. You had to look carefully to see the dent in the armor coat. In comparison, my first 3K miles on the car wore the paint so badly; I had the front re-sprayed prior to the trip to Florida. While there was clearly some damage even with the Armor Coat, the amount was so far less than without, it was clear the stuff was doing the job. My biggest complaint with it was that theres apparently no way to feather the line between coating and non-coating. So there is an obvious line across the hood/fenders of the car where the finish left off. I felt it was more pronounced than the line Ive seen with 3M products. The plus side is even with the line, a chunk of paint taken out could be easily repaired, since it is a painted-on product. Smaller repairs to the finish could be far easier to effect than if it were one of the traditional films. Steve has the car right now to do some repair to the damage I managed to inflict (in addition to the road rash bits, I managed to graze a concrete post in a parking garage: no way this stuff could help me there), and at the same time is going to try to make the line disappear by applying a clear coat up to the armor coat line, hopefully mellowing out the sharpness of the line at least. Im planning to pick up the car in a couple days and put another 3K miles on it so well continue the test. If Steve can manage to mitigate the line, I'll be thrilled with the product and will recomemnd it unconditionally. Were it not for the fact that Im going to put tons of miles on the car, I might have opted to just put the Armor Coat finish on parts of the car that were discretely separated by seam lines. Maybe just the bumper assy, for instance. I dont think the Armor Coat solves my biggest complaint with any paint protectant regarding the seam line. But it does appear to do a great job of protecting the paint, and makes repairs of damages to the coating a lot easier to deal with. From even five feet away, its invisible. Its only from up close it really shows up, but then, thats how all these products have appeared to me. Overall, Im very pleased and would recommend the product. For a few pics of the car, and the trip, go to http://brokenpoint.net/FloridaTrip/index.htm.
GREAT post and pics. Welcome back. I think the 308/328 have more natural seams up front, but will be interested in hearing whether Steve can blend the line a bit better. Jon
Eric, Great pictures. I especially like the mirror image of the white bird (Egret?) in the swamp. Beautiful shot. Another favorite is the "Rocket Garden". I think the commentary helped set the mood as well. Makes me want to do a road trip but NOT in a 308! I think I would be a cripple after that.
