Carpro Darkside; blotchy, streaky??

[raysaint]

I'm an amateur detailer, as my other posts have indicated, and I thought dressing the new rubber would be simple.
Tires were cleaned with straight Brake Buster, drill brush, Tarminator, then inside to dry.
Applied Darkside to one tire with a foam waffle type tire applicator. Worked it in, ver and over. It seemed blotchy, some spots seemed to dry instantly. Left it sit for 10 minutes, wiped it with a mf cloth. It looked awful. streaky, blotchy, etc.

Left it for an hour, tried a second layer, made it worse. Tried a second tire, applied it a bit heavier for better coverage, then waited and levelled it. Not much better.

1) did I not apply enough and that's why some spots looked dry instantly?

2) not working it in properly?

Reviews on all sites praise this product, so it must be me.

I guess to remedy the 2 tires I did, I'll have to wait until it wears off as I wash the car a few times.

Your experiences please. Thanks.

[Coatingsarecrack]

You should be able to strip with straight BB use drill brush to be safe. Not a fan of DarkSide as I felt it never payed quite even but I would not have called it blotchy. How many passes did you do during cleaning? You Mr suppose to do till tires comes up white and I through in one after for good measure.

What brand of tire?


Don’t need a ton of arm pressure let towel do work. Go around car on all for tires then start second coat from where you started.

My 1st guess was something was still on tire. Either cleaning product or mold release agent. Clean tire with drill brush Al lease 2-3 times. Reapply. If you have an older detail brush or better yet a new/clean make up brush. Go over your tire right after applying DarkSide to level.

If still looks bad could be your tire compounds as some different tires just don’t like DarkSide. No list we just find out by trial and error.

Bad product. Possibly defective.

Your discerning eye. I wanted to love DarkSide but don’t like at all for the amount of work I but in to get it satisfactory I coulda coated it. No matter what I did other people said it looked good but never looked “level” to me couple times I used it…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Rsurfer]

You should be able to strip with straight BB use drill brush to be safe. Not a fan of DarkSide as I felt it never payed quite even but I would not have called it blotchy. How many passes did you do during cleaning? You Mr suppose to do till tires comes up white and I through in one after for good measure.

What brand of tire?


Don’t need a ton of arm pressure let towel do work. Go around car on all for tires then start second coat from where you started.

My 1st guess was something was still on tire. Either cleaning product or mold release agent. Clean tire with drill brush Al lease 2-3 times. Reapply. If you have an older detail brush or better yet a new/clean make up brush. Go over your tire right after applying DarkSide to level.

If still looks bad could be your tire compounds as some different tires just don’t like DarkSide. No list we just find out by trial and error.

Bad product. Possibly defective.

Your discerning eye. I wanted to love DarkSide but don’t like at all for the amount of work I but in to get it satisfactory I coulda coated it. No matter what I did other people said it looked good but never looked “level” to me couple times I used it…


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good post. BTW I love Darkside and I have Michelins.

[BLM]

The dressing was applied to a new set of tires correct? You most likely didn't wait long enough before dressing your new tires. They are still outgassing would be my guess.

[Rsurfer]

The dressing was applied to a new set of tires correct? You most likely didn't wait long enough before dressing your new tires. They are still outgrowing would be my guess.

What do they grow into?

[Optimus Grime]

What do they grow into?

With time and the proper tire nutrition I believe they grow into one of these.

[Karl_in_Chicago]

With time and the proper tire nutrition I believe they grow into one of these.

Conversely if neglected they can grow into dangerous killers . . .

[BLM]

What do they grow into?

Fixed now. Damn autospell.

[raysaint]

The tires are Nokian, brand new but probably are 2 months old since they came out of the factory. When I cleaned them with the drill brush, there was no brown, it was just white suds from the Brake Buster. Then Tarminator wipe.
They are still off the car, inside, so I applied the dressing inside. They are to be installed on the car in 2 days.
I'm gonna try again on the 2 tires I haven't dressed yet. I'll apply a coat of Darkside and wipe/level right away.
Maybe it's because I'm looking at the tires up close, on the car they may not look streaky.
Not sure if a second coat will help, or maybe a top coat of a different gel; I have some old Wolfgang, it's a liquid now but I still used it before winter when the car was new; however, those were the OEM tires, Bridgestones.

[Desertnate]

How thick is DarkSide?

One thing I've noticed now that I've used Optimum Tire Gel and Griots Ceramic Tire Dressing, is its really hard to get a good even look with the thicker products. For me, these thicker products take a lot of repeated spreading to get applied evenly, and even then they may not absorb into the rubber evenly. A good looking application when fresh might turn out a little blotchy after it dries.

Thinner, water based products like PERL and Duragloss 253 have traditionally gone on really fast and easy for me with a very even appearance.