Attn 2-toners: Faded cladding, anyone?

[ColonelPanic]

I've noticed quite a bit of fading has occurred on my cladding, the main problem area being the upper area of rear bumper where it wraps around. I do have a similar problem on the front bumper, although it is not as pronounced. Haven't really found any damage on the sides, but that cladding was replaced last year, except for the front fender cladding. The way the plastic has faded on my car is quite interesting... The plastic has become discolored in waves, which on my car repeats in a consistent pattern.To me the fading looks just like a piece of plastic that you have put too much pressure on and as a result, it develops a faded appearance from all the stress. Could the bumper warping over time have caused this damage?And surprisingly, it's not just my car either. I brought this up to Kari and sure enough, her car has the same thing going on. The damage is identical - the same discoloration in the same places, and even following the same wavy patterns as my car. For the record, neither one of us have ever used any sort of Armor All or equivalent on the cladding.I've attached a pic, sorry about the size but if I scaled it down too far, that would hide the damage. Check your cladding out and let's see if anyone else is having this same issue!

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[jeffgtx]

are you sure its fading and not just collecting whitish crud?our VUE had the plastic turning white, but i put some Z16 on there and it comes back to normal.

[Mr. Poopypants]

I have the same thing CP. It's not really bad....yet. But I will need to put something on it.

[joatmon]

I had a hard time seeing the discoloration in your photo, so I tweaked it to show the pattern better.

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[Kari]

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »Might be fading because of the UV rays or harsh chemicals/soaps from car washes, but eh.... After 3 years what do ya expect.... One might "expect" that the cladding, being on the exterior of the car, would be designed to withstand the fact that it's curved plastic and going to be in the sun...expecting that the plastic will already be warped is like expecting that all of your paint will already be peeling off.

[tnpartsguy]

http://www.armor-dillo.netThis is the product that GM has in a service bulletin for Aztek and Avalance for the problem you are describing; chalky appearance on cladding. Let me know if you had trouble getting it, I might have a better source. PS, it's not cheap or very easy to use, from reading the instructions, plus it's very flammable.

[Kari]

Man, it isn't cheap, is it? At $200 for the "GM Warranty Pack" it might be cheaper to convert to monotone...LOLUnless they come out with a TSB for this within, oh, the next three months before my factory warranty expires!

[ColonelPanic]

Thanks for the enhanced pic, that really does make the damage stand out. Rob - yes, the car is getting some age on it and I do expect some damage due to the elements... But I feel this is a bit too soon to be seeing this happening. Five years - definitely I could see that. But my car won't even be 3 until November... It's just MHO, but I think it's too early to be seeing damage like this...Anywho, I was just wanting to see how widespread of a problem this is... You never know, if it is a big enough issue it could end up in a TSB as our sandblasted cladding did last year. It could very well help both present future owners keeping their Vibes looking nice...

[Toasted7]

You could put some Mother's "Back to Black" on it and see what that does. When I had my two-tone I had the same issue and I just kept putting mother's on it over and over again and it kept it looking good for nearly 3 years. The cladding is just not the highest quality and fades easily (another reason why I went with monotone on my second Vibe).

[jwalcik]

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »Also try this product: http://www.303products.com/mai...ctanti'll second the endorsement for 303 aerospace protectant. i use it on my interior plastic, my roommate uses it on his motorcycle, a friend of mine uses it on the soft tonneau on his truck. to quote the person who originally recommended it to me, "it's like sun screen for your stuff."

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »Do they use salt in the winters down by you James? If so, that would do it also.Yes, but only a few times a year do they ever use it... It really doesn't get that bad this far south. And usually it's warm enough a few days later to wash the car so the salt does not remain on it long.And Kari, living even further south, has to deal with salt far less than I, yet the plastic on her car has similar damage.

[ColonelPanic]

damage=fading

[Kari]

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »Thought someone hit it, as it in actual damage.Damage doesn't have to be from a hit, it can be from anything...hence the term, "sun damage"... Damage is basically anything that takes something out of like new condition and is not the the realm of normal wear and tear, IMHO.

[ColonelPanic]

I'm really not looking to get this fixed... Like I said, I just wanted to see if anyone else has had the problem and if it was very common, maybe someone higher up could take notice...I have bigger fish to fry, so faded cladding is at the bottom of my list. Besides, it only is visible when the car is clean, which is very rare these days.

[ColonelPanic]

Gotcha.

[jeffgtx]

since everybody kinda ignored me, i'll say it again.a bottle of Z16 may clean it right up as it may not be fading so much as collecting gunk that dries up and turns white.z16 is a zaino brothers product. if you have every owned an F body, you already know

[ColonelPanic]

That's cool... I may look into that someday. Wasn't sure if anything short from replacing the bumpers would really fix this though...

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by jeffgtx »since everybody kinda ignored me, i'll say it again.a bottle of Z16 may clean it right up as it may not be fading so much as collecting gunk that dries up and turns white.Mine has the same with a nearly identical pattern, although much fainter. I seriously doubt it is gunk, it looks like stretch marks

[Kari]

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »Mine has the same with a nearly identical pattern, although much fainter. I seriously doubt it is gunk, it looks like stretch marks LOL...it does kinda look like stretch marks now that you say that... When I first saw it, I thought it was wax or something, but it just refuses to come off so I don't think it's gunk, either, unfortunately.

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by Kari »LOL...it does kinda look like stretch marks now that you say that... Yeah, that's a good way to put it! I believe you hit the nail right on the head, joatmon.

[Mr. Poopypants]

Quote, originally posted by jeffgtx »since everybody kinda ignored me, i'll say it again.a bottle of Z16 may clean it right up as it may not be fading so much as collecting gunk that dries up and turns white.z16 is a zaino brothers product. if you have every owned an F body, you already know We didn't ignore you......much.. Anyway, what is Z16? Cleaner? Protectant? Both?

[Namron]

I did some searching and this is what I came up with. But I've never seen it at local stores. Has anyone else?http://www.sjzaino.com/Zaino/Z16.html

[jeffgtx]

z16 is the zaino brothers tire gloss/protectant. very different from armor all in that it has a lot fewer harsher ingredients.Zaino is a polishing "system" i guess you would call it. it is a pain in teh rear to apply the first time, but after that, its great and easy to use. in fact their car wash formula has a little polish in it so when you dry the car, it gets some shine back everytime.its an amazing product. i have used it since my first car.you cannot buy it in stores. he only sells through individual distributors nationwide. usually car enthusiasts you already know.thats why i made the comment about the F body crowd. theres is always one zaino nut at every meet here is the Zaino Home Pageanyhoo... i had used the z16 on my TA on teh ram air box where it had gotten faded and gunky, and it turned it back to normal. thought it might be worth a shot, but no, i doubt it removes stretch marks

[Reynoma]

My problem does not lie so much in the lower cladding as in the door handles. Mine are starting to look like crap. I think it was from a detailing I got several months ago - the wax got on the door handles and they now have a similar "white" residue on them.

[drunkenmaxx]

Quote, originally posted by Reynoma » they now have a similar "white" residue on them.better the door handles than the corners of your mouth!! ok, that was unneccesary.

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by Reynoma »My problem does not lie so much in the lower cladding as in the door handles. Mine are starting to look like crap. I think it was from a detailing I got several months ago - the wax got on the door handles and they now have a similar "white" residue on them.Maybe you try Fishman's Peanut Butter. oh wait, looking at http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=4768 that didn't actually work.

[ColonelPanic]

Wow, we have more folks with fading than we do who don't, according to the poll!Interesting...Discovered a neat pattern with my front bumper yesterday, I'm going to try to get a pic of that, looks rather interesting.

[SCTM]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »Wow, we have more folks with fading than we do who don't, according to the poll!...it could end up in a TSB as our sandblasted cladding did last year.You bet it could... but don't talk about this to GM, they "never heard about it and you'll be the only one with this problem" - again ! (yes I'm still angry...)I also observed the same way on my rear bumper.

[JohnC]

No fading at all. The vibe has spent all it's 2 year life out in the AZ sun, the cladding and clearcoat paint are still looking new. I wash it once a week and wax/Armorall it once/month. Just a few rock chips on the hood, a broken fog light and 3 windshields, all of which had nothing to do with the quality of the car.

[ColonelPanic]

Bumpity bump bump! When I was taking pics of someting unrelated, I found the bizarre wavy stripes effect (for lack of a better term) on the front bumper cladding appeared nicely...I've noticed this phenomenon certainly isn't confined to the Vibe. I've seen many vehicles exhibit the same fading patterns on bumpers or bumper trim made from similar material - so far I've spotted it on the bumper trim on an Impala, the bumpers on a RAV4, Cavalier, Windstar, and some others that I can't recall... Hmm, is the plastic the auto manufacturers using not holding up as it should to the sun's damage? Or, soap from car washes eating away at this crap? I have kicked around a couple theories similar to that, but I dunno. Interesting though - and it seems to be happening quite a bit on a large number of vehicles, around here at least....It looks like crap on mine, but so does the rest of the front end. What paint is there is all chipped up, and the cladding is either sandblasted or faded, so it really doesn't matter anyway. Anybody else seeing this on your 2-tone?

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[ColonelPanic]

And another...

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[ColonelPanic]

And #3...

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[ColonelPanic]

Finally, #4.I'm interested to see what your thoughts are on the issue.

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[mcgusto82]

i'm lucky, mine hasn't done this yet. maybe a couple coats of clear coat would help slow down the process.

[NascarXprt]

my door handles are doin the same thing.

[joatmon]

Quote, originally posted by ColonelPanic »I'm interested to see what your thoughts are on the issue. since you asked, I'll tell you ....Looks like your foglights are full of (removed) where I am seeing the worst discoloration is the little rubber strip that keeps the plastic cladding from rubbing on the metal fender

[ColonelPanic]

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »since you asked, I'll tell you ....Looks like your foglights are full of (removed) Well of course they are, for my car definitely looks like a big mess of bodily waste products when compared to everyone else's around here. lmaoI have similar issues with that rubber you mentioned as well. Mine varies from grey, to a rust color.

[Kari]

Quote, originally posted by joatmon »Looks like your foglights are full of (removed) yeah thats what i said and he laughed at me...