Hurricane Dorian caused considerable damage, not only to property, but to the plastic finish on my well-maintained, low-mileage pickup. The day after the storm was clear and warm. I grabbed the keys to the truck, my chain saw and other gear necessary to tackle the mess, and discovered the normally black trim on the truck had turned grey overnight!
The grey on my head took decades to develop. The hurricane did it overnight to my truck!
The following day I broke out the usual product I use on the trim – Mothers Back to Black Trim & Plastic Restorer. It was getting low, so I had purchased Meguiars Ultimate Black Plastic Restorer. I also had on hand an unopened bottle of AutoGlym Bumper & Trim Gel. I had used neither at this point.
The first few swipes with the Back-to-Black emptied the container.
Time for a test!
Back-to-Black
I’ve used this product for years and always had success. For some reason it was not as effective this time. The trim was in worse shape than normal. I keep the truck in a garage and apply Back-to-Black every second or third wash, so the trim is always in pretty good nick.
The truck had been left outside during the storm, and Dorian had done a most effective job of removing any sign of a coating on the plastic trim. A generous application of the Back-to-Black helped but it only started to “restore” the black.
Ultimate Black
The new bottle of Meguiars Ultimate Black was shaken thoroughly, opened and applied. Same disappointing result – a mediocre semi-black, semi-grey finish. It looked as though, like the Back-to-Black, several applications might work.
Bumper & Trim Gel
I grabbed the Auto Glym, poured a little on the same type of applicator used for the others and EUREKA! The difference was instant and amazing! With very little effort all the trim around the truck was fully restored and looked like new.
I used almost the entire bottle! A subsequent visit to Canadian Tire and Walmart failed to find a replacement. CTC had a large display of Auto Glym products, but no Bumper & Trim Gel. Same deal with Amazon – lots of Auto Glym but not this one.
I hope it has not been discontinued! The search goes on.
