Review: CarPro DLux vrs Wolf's Trim Coat Nano Dressing

[swanicyouth]

I've been using CarPro's DLux for a short time now with some great success. I was able to get some Wolf's Chemicals Trim Coat Nano Dressing (WCTCND) to compare it to. WTCND is basically Wolf's trim coating, their "version" of DLux. This is going to be an ongoing review that will be updated as I coat different trim pieces with each product and post my thoughts and how they are holding up. Today I'm starting off only with some small pieces, but in reality its enough to tell me what I need to know about both these products.

First, I've coated several areas previously with DLux. Its been working out very well. The product beads water like crazy, darkens, and adds a nice gloss to trim. It's been 2 or 3 wels since I coated my first trim piece with DLux and since then the car has seen multiple washes and almost a week of strait rain. That product is still looking as good as the day it was applied:

DLux beading on wiper arms and cowl:



Today's products:



First thing you will notice is the difference in the size of the bottles. DLux comes in a 1 oz bottle for $39.99, WCTCND comes in a 5oz bottle for $29.99 from Autopia Car Care (AG's sister site). My WCTCND came all to way to me from Wolfs in Budapest, not from a retailer, that's why there is no label. To compare costs oz per oz: DLux $40 / WCTCND $6 per ounce. Costs wise, the edge clearly goes to Wolfs. That means DLux costs over 6 times the amount of WCTCND. Is is worth it?

Today's application was going to be on plastic window trim pieces. I decided to coat these piece removed from the car. This was for 2 reasons:

1. The pieces were slatted and going to be hard to clean and coat correctly. I previously applied Prima Infinity to the pieces on a regular basis, so all that product was going to have to be removed 100% before applying these coatings.

2. It was literally 100 degrees out today. After 5 minutes outside I was completely soaked with sweat. Doing anything outside was miserable. Removing these pieces from the car meant I could work on them inside in the AC.

First I had to figure out how to get these pieces off without breaking or damaging anything. I started by taping up a pry bar as to not scratch anything:





Success. After removing them, I cleaned up the area behind the trim with Pinnacle Waterless Wash.





After that, I brought the trim pieces inside to clean them with several products:



This sounds relatively easy. But it wasn't too easy. Cleaning old dressing off the pieces involved getting it out of all the corners with Q-Tips. I kept getting more and more dirt and old dressing off corners and tight edges.

This is patience:



Pieces cleaned up:



Close up of the condition. The dark areas are just water:





The idea was to split the pieces in half with a thin tape line (control area) and coat one half with DLux and the other half with WCTCND.



First I applied DLux to half the trim. It only takes two drops of DLux to coat this area. DLux applies fairly easy. However, it has a tendency to leave streaks on smooth plastic like this. I've found buffing the area after a minute or two with a blue shop towel pretty much eliminates this issue, not 100%, but almost.

Half DLux, half uncoated:



Next I was to apply WCTCND. Right away I noticed this product is a little thinner than DLux. Its almost like the consistency of water. But it's similar to DLux in the fact it takes very little product to coat an area. It spreads out almost like you were spreading a solvent type dressing - long and far.

Wolf's mentions in a video that you can apply multiple coats, as the first coat can get sucked in. So, I applied 2 coats of WCTCND, but its likely the first coat was all that was needed here. My experience with DLux told me that it only needs a single coat, so it just got one coat.

This was my first experience with WCTCND and I wasn't sure what to expect. I was pleased pretty quickly. Right away I began to notice it starts to try just a little faster than DLux. This isn't a bad thing, as it doesn't dry to fast. I also noticed it took less "fiddling" to get it smooth and not streaky on the smooth plastic areas. It seems to have a bit more "self leveling" to it than DLux on smooth plastic, this may have to do with the product being thinner. Application it fairly easy with both products, but if have to give the edge to Wolf's here. Its a bit easier.

Here are the coated pieces. Its Wolf's Left / DLux right. There was some bleed through were I put the tape, a little more on the Wolfs side (makes sense because its a little thinner).





WCTCND's area:





(The different color area on the ends in the pic above is some anomaly in the plastic piece. Its always been there)

DLux's area:





Back on the vehicle:



DLux:



WCTCND:



Pictures can only show so much and by the time I was done the sun was going down. In person, DLux looks a little more glossy. WCTCND has more of a nice satin new look, its not matte but satin. I think that can be seen somewhat in the last two pictures. However, both have a substantial darkening affect. I like the look of both products.

Both products look good. Upon close inspection WCTCND seems to look a bit better, as it seems to dry more even. But this is only noticeable upon very close inspection. The DLux area looks more like it has a dressing on it, WCTCND more just like dark new plastic.

The real test is going to be how long they last. CarPro mentions DLux should last 6 months to a year, Wolf's I'm not sure if they make a claim. However, you get so much of the Wolfs product for you money even if it didn't last quit as long I'd still be pleased.

So, initially I'm very impressed with both products. I know DLux beads like crazy, I'll have to see how WCTCND handles water next time the vehicle is washed. I've liked DLux for a bit now, but I really like WCTCND, maybe a little more than DLux. But this is only based on the application. If the product holds up, the bottle should last forever.

I'll update durability and more trim pieces soon.

[Bunky]

Nice review! I look forward to the durability report.

[Dr_Pain]

Great review. Thanks!

Sub'd!

[Setec Astronomy]

You're going to drive around for 6 months with that ugly tape line on your trim of that otherwise beautiful Pathfinder?

[02xtreme07SS]

Subscribed! I can't wait to see how this holds up.

[swanicyouth]

You're going to drive around for 6 months with that ugly tape line on your trim of that otherwise beautiful Pathfinder?

I may fill it in with one of the products if there is a clear winner. More tape lines below...

[swanicyouth]

I had a chance to apply both DLux and Wolf's Chemicals Trim Coat Nano Dressing (WCTCND) to the window trim and door handles. Window trim is split between 2 products (top WCTRND bottom DLux) with a small clean area in between and each door handle on drivers side has a different product. Then I went and did all those same parts on the passenger's side with WCTCND only.

All taped off, clean, and ready:



I did this in 100 degree heat - but not in direct sun. Both products worked fine in the heat. It doesn't look like too much work, but getting all the old dressing out of the pieces wasn't as easy as it seems. I ended up scrubbing them with a pad cleaning brush using Tuff Shine Tire Cleaner and 1Z Deep Plastic Cleaner. I had to be very cautious, as not to scrub the paint as well with the bristles. After that, I wiped them down multiple times with 70% IPA and clean towels.

I was soaking wet with sweat. After I gathered up all my bottles from around the garage for recycling I was pretty amazed how much I drank during this session:



2 Cokes (12oz x 2) = 24oz
1 Birch Beer (20oz x 1) = 20oz
7 Perriers (16.9oz x 7) = 118.3oz
+ --------------
162.3oz = 1.27 gallons !!!

Clean:



DLux:



Clean:



DLux:



Wolfs top / DLux bottom:





DLux Closeup:



WCTCND Closeup:



DLux:



WCTCND:



DLux:



WCTCND:



WCTCND top, clean control area in middle strip, DLux bottom:







WCTCND is a bit thinner, do it tends to want to bleed through the tape line. You can see that in the pick above (WCTCND top). If you look very close, you can also see WCTCND applies to smooth plastic and rubber a bit more evened out than DLux. As it's a bit hard to get DLux perfectly flat on smooth trim. This is only noticeable upon very close inspection though, but, WCTCND has the edge here.

Here are some pics of the passenger side. These are all WCTCND (ignore my red shirt tinting the pics - guess its not the best color to wear when your doing this):









So far I'm really liking WCTCND a lot. I think I like it even a bit more than DLux due to it seems to have a greater ability to "self level" on smooth trim. One small compliant I have about the product is the lid. It's just a cheap plastic flip top, where DLux comes with this little built in dropper dispenser in the top of the bottle. I keep having to clean the WCTCND bottle off, as a drop or two always seems to somehow escape from the lid when putting it on an applicator and flipping the bottle back over. But this is only a small complaint, since you get over 6x the amount of WCTCND for even less money than a bottle of DLux.

I also found layering WCTCND boosts the gloss quite a bit, as the last set of pics (passenger side with the red shirt reflecting) all where multiple layers of WCTCND, I just used 2 layers on the driver's side.

Now its going to come down to how they hold up. Its pretty well known that DLux holds up pretty well. How will WCTCND do?

[Colinpd137]

Hands down, A+ review & comparison my friend. Thanks for sharing

[Bunky]

Nice review. I do look forward to the results.

[swanicyouth]

The Wolfs product is looking top notch, as long as the durability is there. One thing I notice is DLux gets this crusty residue around the bottle threads from the silica crystalizing. Also, it makes the suede towels hard unless you rinse it out right away. Have t noticed this with Wolfs.

I'll keep you all posted and post pics on how they are holding up.

Here is a pic from before that is from one of the front windows I only did with DLux prior to this test. Its not the best pic, but you can see DLux vrs control holding up good.



Here DLux was about 2 weeks old and had been through 2 washes and several rains. One thing I like about both these products is they add some gloss as well as darken.