[SierraHarley]

I got the Cerakote Trim Coat from Amazon for about $17 and applied it on my rear bumper plastic, plastic tailgate handle and the front valance and bumper plastic this morning.
I'll do the plastic wheel well trim, mud flaps and around the fog lights (that I forgot about) later.

The package came with 10 towelette packs and it took 3 towelette packs to do what I did today. Probably use 1 or 2 more to do the rest later.
Anyways, I washed the parts with Dawn dish soap, rinsed then dried it and let it sit almost an hour in the sun to dry up the rest of the way. I then applied the trim coat and it went on easy.
I taped around the tailgate handle and on the rearview camera lens just to be safe. Came out looking excellent. The pictures don't do it justice. The tailgate handle looks a little splotchy in the pics but it is not at all splotchy, must be a reflection or something. All the after pics were taken at least an hour after application and it takes an hour to dry.
The front pic has shadows so kinda hard to tell much of a difference. The front wasn't too bad to begin with though.
Here is before

And after

side by side

The rear bumper looked much worse since it catches more of the sun

Before

After

Side by side

I did end up getting some of the trim coat on the chrome front and rear bumper in a couple of spots. I didn't notice till an hour or so later (after it dried). It looked like a cloudy spot on the chrome. I just took some invisible glass and a microfiber towel, applied it then scratched with my fingernail on it and it chipped away. Easy to get off the chrome but I am not sure how easy it would be to get off the paint. Luckily I didn't have to find out.

Very happy with the results and I'll see how long it lasts.

 

[shakenfake]

Damn that looks good
I've heard it is the best plastic coater you can get

 

[SierraHarley]

I don't know why I can't get a good shot of it but it looks amazing

 

[steelgreenz71]

Looks pretty good. I never heard of it before. I just looked it up on Amazon. I think I’ll give it a shot. Chemical Guys just released some sort of ceramic coating for trim but it’s probably a lot more expensive.

 

[FrankP]

I've used it on my plastic over a year ago and it still looks very nice. Good product

 

[jake2250]

A lot of one star feedback on Amazon about how bad that stuff is! The test of time will tell! I wait for more feed back about this!

 

[FoxProDenali]

Looks great! UVA/B and heat will ultimately be the killer but the chemical resistance should last a few years.

I've tried "everything" to restore hammered trim (molded ABS plastics) and the only thing that works well enough is real, hard-cure quartz/ceramic. I chose something other than Cerakote for my truck, but it will definitely do the trick since it's a Si02 based epoxy.

 

[SierraHarley]

Allot of one star feedback on Amazon about how bad that stuff is! The test of time will tell! I wait for more feed back about this!

Looks like 3% of 9,211 reviews gave it 1 star on Amazon. I've seen more bad reviews on GM trucks 😁

I would venture to guess a lot of the problems are user error, like making sure the plastic is really clean first and has no other protectants on it.

For example this genius gave it 1 star and said

When curing, the substance becomes very gummy and will latch on to any fingerprints or fibers from a microfiber cloth, so beware.

Umm you are not supposed to touch it, wipe it off or anything while it is curing. Wipe it on, let it cure for at least an hour, that's it.

A lot of the 1 star reviews say it looks like crap, streaky and blotchy. Don't see that in my case at all.
From the youtube reviews I've seen I only found 1 that said they didn't like it on their jeep's fenders, looked streaky.

If I can remember I will update this thread with my longevity findings.

 

[FoxProDenali]

I would venture to guess a lot of the problems are user error, like making sure the plastic is really clean first and has no other protectants on it.

Bingo. It's going to try to bond to whatever is on the surface. If it says in the instructions to wipe with rubbing alcohol, then use rubbing alcohol! I do that to my paint every time I add anything to it to get all the residue off since isn't nice to look at residue.

Cerakote is a gun protectant that's been around for like 30 years. They might know a few things.

 

[SierraHarley]

Update: It's been almost 5 weeks now since it was applied and the truck is parked outside 24/7. It has seen many rains and some light snow since then and it still looks like the day I put it on. No streaks, just nice dark plastic. Everything else I've ever used on exterior plastic would have been gone by now, or at least you wouldn't be able to tell if anything was on there.

I'll try and get a pic at the 10 week mark.
Happy as hell with it so far.

 

[tsuintx]

You did buy the Pro Kit, right? I bought just the $16.88 Chevy kit, so maybe that isn't as good. Haven't tried it yet.

 

[SierraHarley]

I did not buy the pro kit.
That is actually meant for pro detailers not for pro grade trucks.

You should love the way your plastic will look after applying cerakote.

 

[SierraHarley]

It's been almost 6 weeks and here's just a shot of the water beading up on the rear bumper and tailgate handle after a good rain today. Haven't washed the truck since application and as always it is outside 24/7.

 

[Leveled17yeti]

Have you tried it on your interior trim 🤫

 

[Stringer]

View attachment 944886

what's the friggen difference? 🧐 🤷‍♂️

 

[Leveled17yeti]

Not all plastics are the same 😂💩

 

[shakenfake]

You're blind if you don't see the difference...

 

[SierraHarley]

While the difference isn't as dramatic in the pics, like shakenfake said, you've got to be blind to not see the difference. The side by side pics are just the larger pics put side by side and it is smaller . If you can't see a difference look at the larger pics (can't believe I have to explain this )

No I have not tried it on the interior and don't plan to. In my case my interior plastic is just fine.

Here is another pic of the edge of the front valance where I missed a spot coating it. You can see the difference from the coated vs uncoated.
This was taken a few hours after application so the coating was dry and yes the uncoated side was clean, just faded.

Today makes it 10 weeks since application and it still looks great.

 

[shakenfake]

I need to get this so bad

 

[tsuintx]

I still haven’t used rhe wipes on my truck, but they worked great on my bike and after several weeks and one wash, the parts still look the same as right after wiping them.