Product Review: Auto Finesse Tough Coat Prep + Sealant

[Heisenberg]

Hi all,

I just wanted to offer up my review of some products I got on sale here at AG(and because I want to enter the Griot's BOSS contest in all honesty)

I had this review on another site, and chose not to post it here because Evan J already reviewed these products better than I think I ever could. On to the review!


Going to skip right to after washing/rinsing. Some protection left, but not a whole lot. Beads are flat, there's areas where water 'sticks'. Though not a completely objective way to measure it, I think my LSP is starting to go.



Mostly dried. Now I'm going to apply the Auto Finesse products.


Here's the paint prep bottle. 8oz. It is light blue, smells a bit like menthol, and is very thin. It reminds me a LOT of Duragloss 501, which is also a heavy paint cleaner.


Here's the directions on the back. I figured I might as well use this as well as the sealant because they are meant to be used together and my paint could use a good cleaning.

They say to hand apply it, so I did. I'm positive you could do it by machine as well.


I chose to use a white polishing pad with my Griot's pad holder.


Here's about how much I used on the first panel. I had to use less as I went along because the pad was getting saturated with it.

I cleaned the pad on a towel in between sections since it was "cleaning" the paint. I figured there had to be some dirt/stuff on there.

It's very easy to use. You just rub the product in until it started to disappear then wipe off the residue.


This is what my paint looked like on my trunk lid after cleaning it. I was actually pretty impressed. It felt squeaky to the touch, like it was completely bare.


On to the Tough Coat spray sealant. This is a bit of an interesting product to me. It's not quite a full just spray on, wipe, walk away like Opti-Seal or something similar... you have to spread it like a traditional sealant, let it cure, then buff away the residue.

It smells like straight gasoline.


I love the packaging of this brand. You also NEED to shake this up frequently or it separates.

I also liked the sprayer on this. It puts out a very fine mist, even if it is pretty random.


This was my other bottle from laying on its side for a couple minutes. It's full, so that clear at the top is completely separated from the other chemicals in the product.


This is the product all shook up and looking the right way.


Applied via red finishing pad on the Griot's pad holder again.


This was after like four minutes of curing on my paint. It was not in the sun and about 65 out. I was surprised at how fast it did this. It goes on entirely wet and it looks very oily. But it's also very easy to spread and get even coverage because you can see it.


Here's a shot of it on the windows, which I will primarily be using it for after this initial application on my paint.


Buffing seemed to be easiest with a short nap towel.


The longer I waited for it to cure the more dusty it got. I don't know if this was a problem with my application technique or not. I had to frequently brush off the applicator pad though which was kind of annoying. I suspect I may have been using too much. But it still buffed off clean.

There were also a couple areas that were uneven so I followed the directions and applied a second coat. It evened everything out. Product is also so cheap there's no reason not to.



This is all I used for 2 coats on my paint and glass. And I was very generous with it.


Looks pretty good. Maybe a minor amount of gloss added, but nothing to write home about. That doesn't surprise me because I think most gloss comes from how your paint looks anyway, and as you can see from it after drying, it was already okay. I do like the classic glassy sealant look though.




I sprayed down my car with water to see what kind of reaction I'd get.




Anyway, I'm very happy with the products, especially for the price point. Durability will be the final deciding factor in if I buy them again! But even at only a couple months, I'm really happy with them. Thanks for reading.

[Marc08EX]

Great review!! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

[Bunky]

I really like the Tough Coat Prep for cleaning and complete wipe off. I found some paint cleaners do not wipe completely off so have to use Carpro Eraser. I have not used their sealant.

[Heisenberg]

I am a big fan of the prep product too. I like how easy it is to use. I had a couple of water spots on my window and I'm not sure if it was the abrasiveness of the white pad or the product itself but it definitely took them right off.

[JHL88]

I as well like the tough prep. good product.