Nick@Autogeek

My car is eleven years old and I've owned it for almost four years now. With exception to couple nights it has spent in a bay at my local shop for repairs, it has never been garaged. Judging by the shape it was in when I bought it nearly four years ago, I'll go ahead and assume the previous owners didn't keep it in a garage either.

I've always taken really good care of the car since I got it, but I've never payed too much attention to the exterior trim. The weekend before last I decided to try out one of the more well known trim care products out there - Mothers Back to Black.

Most trim care products instruct you to apply the product thin, thin, thin! Mothers Back to Black differs from the rest because they instruct you to; "Apply Liberally to surface. Massage product thoroughly into surface".

The piece of rubber trim I applied Back to Black to has a texture to it and it's not hard. Most trim care products are designed to be used on rubber/plastic surfaces that have a grain/texture to them.

Products used:

-Mothers Back to Black Bumper and Trim Care
-Foam Wax Applicator
-Mango Breeze Microfiber Towel
-Black Nitrile Gloves
-3M Automotive Masking Tape

As you can see, the Florida sun has really taken a toll on this particular piece of trim.





I went ahead and taped off the surrounding area with 3M Automotive Masking Tape to ensure that no extra product would accidentally get on my freshly waxed car.







To do the entire length of the trim I applied about a nickel sized amount. I did this twice on the first application before allowing the product to dry.







Here is what the applicator looked like after the first application.





I allowed the product to dry for about 20 minutes before moving on. Then it was time to buff off any extra using a microfiber towel.





Here are the results after the first application...







There is a noticeable improvement, but it's not where I wanted it to be for the first application. I went ahead and followed Mothers' instructions on the back of the bottle that states; "Heavy stained or soiled areas may require an additional application". The piece of trim I was working on was so neglected that it required an additional application, per the instructions on the bottle.

This time I applied noticeably more product than the first application. I applied about a 2" long strip to the applicator twice and worked it in to the trim, with no drying or buffing time in between.




I thoroughly massed the product in to the trim this time around.





Applicator after working the product in to the trim for several minutes.





I let it sit for about 25 minutes before buffing off any extra.





Microfiber towel is still clean after buffing the 2nd time. The trim absorbed all the product I put on it.





Time to pull off the tape and inspect my newly restored trim...







It's definitely a huge improvement over how it looked before. I will take some pictures this weekend and report my findings on how well it is holding up so far.





Mothers Back to Black Bumper and Trim Care

Nick@Autogeek

Here is how the trim is holding up 8 days after application. I took the first two pictures Monday morning, and the last picture Sunday night.

It's interesting to see how differently water beads on driver's side trim that was NOT treated with Mothers Back to Black compared to the passenger side that was treated.

Driver's Side (No Back to Black applied)





Passenger's Side (8 days after initial Back to Black application)





Here is how it looks a week after being applied.





Holding up pretty well.

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iTrader: (17)

Nice work. Can you use it for stuff like the rubber molding around the sunroof?

Nick@Autogeek

If it has a texture to it, then yes.

97-SC300

iTrader: (17)

So is this a good Black Wow alternative? Black Wow, although getting good reviews, seems extremely expensive for how little product you get.

Nick@Autogeek

Black Wow is much more concentrated than Back to Black and requires a lot less product. I've never done a side to side comparison, but the Back to Black I applied a couple weeks ago on my car is still holding strong.