arsie

I am being 'sold' this by a car salesman.
No doubt he is on a hefty sales commission ...

But does anyone know if SupaGuard is worth doing or not? Pros and cons?

(Hoping Lee/Xd, the artiste formerly known as Tango, will speak )

Kelk

I have armourfend on the Elsie and it works very well. You usually end up with a line at the edge but a bit of careful detailing can get round that problem

It has saved a load of stone chips from occuring on the elise's fibre glass body

CB

Was talked into it on the Evora and was rather disappointed and have gone back to having the car detailed and polished every 6 months or so. Maybe it was the colour but to me looks a lot better properly detailed, perhaps worth it if doing a lot of mileage?

mikey k

Supagard is a polymer/resin based protection.

http://www.supagard.co.uk/

It seems to get mixed reviews, those that like to detail and polish their cars hate it as it prevents their products working properly.
Those that just want a clean looking car seem happy with it, but I guess their expectations are lower

I have some thing similar to Kelk on the Aston (which is a vinyl film system)

http://www.armourfend.com/

I used to hate the idea of them but it came with the car. I'm actually very happy with it, it recent took a 2k mile battering round the Highlands, Not a single chip where this stuff is (got a few where it wasn't though )

Of the two I would rather have the vinyl stuff.

Welshman

I use venture shield on my bikes and find it very effective at preventing stone chips on the fairing and any CF bits:

http://www.venture-shield.co.uk/

Xd

Issue I have with it is that most companies do not prepare the car thoroughly enough prior to applying it so any swirls or contaminants get applied over.

I have used it now on five cars where the customer has requested it working on the basis of doing my decontamination and polishing beforehand. The results have been good and it is really easy to apply. But at the end of the day though it is still only a polymer sealant and will wear off with time if not maintained.
Arsie, if you want me to polish your car I strongly recommend you do not get this applied first, any claybaring will strip off the product. I can apply this for you as a last stage polish, I usually charge £30 for the product.

arsie

Right, Xd. I hear and obey As I am for the first time looking to look after a car properly (!) I thought it would be useful for other people to air this in public rather than having a private conversation.

The trouble is, most of us simply don't have the experience to assess the when and at what stage to apply such a product. And very often there is no choice, as for example in Mikey_K's lovely machine (and also my dog wagon IIRC. Must see if I can find the kit I was given over two years ago. Probably binned it long ago). Although that was a good testimonial for a vinyl product, not SupaGuard as such.

Xd

edit: I might have to kip the night if any of that beer's at drinking

soulcrew

i use it.

but i get it for free.

and the supaguard.

Xd

Supaguard or any similar product can be applied any time, just best to get a good canvas (as it were) before you apply.
Vinyl has a couple of problems; it can stain, the blood and shellac from insects gets absorbed by this stuff. Secondly you will get a build up of dirt and wax at the seams. I think there is a thread somewhere when I detailed an LP670 which was a bugger because of the range of dead bugs impregnated into the vinyl.

"Then it was time to start polishing the paintwork, but before I could do that I had some issues with the paintshield protection, although it had been thoroughly cleaned and claybared the Ventureshield had actually absorbed some of the bugs, the only way we could deal with this was to slow cut machine polish off the top layer of the film and then ease it back into place using a heat gun. This stuff is a bugger and although it is self healing sometimes it needs to be coaxed into doing so, the only way to do this is to heat it up then allow it to rest. A very slow and extremely careful process that has to be monitored every second. Not my favorite material for detailing."

I know of a white Fezza owner who has a constant problem with having to bleach out the insect stains in it. Dark coloured cars you will get away with but light, well an occasional respray of the front might be an easier option.

mikey k

The cost of a decent front end respray on mine is ~£4k. I expect it is similar on Fezza's etc. Thats 4 times what it cost to apply the film, plus you will always have to explain why it had a front end respray.
The film on mine is 2 years old and still in good condition. There is some pitting around the rear wheel from stones, that's easliy resolved by replacing the film, not something you could do with Supagard or bare paint BTW

If the insect remains are attacking the film what would they do to lacquer?
Surely anyone with an ounce of common would clean it off sooner rather than later
Reading Detailing World the films should not be claybarred for exactly the reasons you found and it seems to polish up as you found with gentle use of a DA.

I'm very impressed with it on mine (can you tell )
I will renew it late next year and prep the paint work underneath properly this time