Wipe On Clear Coat | Poppy's Patina and VGG

Each of you saw those videos with an unknown substance restoring faded clear coat in one wipe, like it’s some magic.

Honestly, it always looked fishy to me. If you can reapply clear coat for under $100, why would anyone in this world spend thousands on paint protection and restoration?

It turned out that a lot of car owners thought it was a proper way to restore clear coat.

So I decided to dig deeper and make my own investigation of wipe on coatings market!

Hold my beer and let’s talk detailing!

Beginning of investigation

So, where should we start?

A quick Google search for “fishy product from China that transforms burnt paint into factory new” did not bring any results, so I went to the comments section of those videos.

After reading some crucial information, I realized our first suspect is a wipe-on clear coat.

Wipe On clear coat: Poppy’s Patina and Vice Grip garage

Factory clear coat is a mix of acrylic, polyester, and polyurethane resins, which must be sprayed over the base coat and rely on chemical adhesion.

While Wipe-on clear coat is a urethane coating that relies on mechanical adhesion, which allows it to be applied over factory paint, bare metal, rust, etc.

One of the most popular US brands that offer wipe-on clear coats are Poppy’s Patina and Vice Grip Garage.

It’s a two-component coating that has to be premixed before applying on car, which eventually creates a solid clear coat.

Pros of Poppy’s Patina and VGG

They provide Safety (SDS) — Poppy’s Patina;
You can find a lot of reviews and application results that even look trustworthy;
Affordable price;
Ease of application;

Poppy’s Patina Application Steps

Wash the paint with soap and scuff pads.
If applying over peeling clear coat, remove any loose areas and wet sand the edges.
Apply wax and grease remover.
Mix the solution.
Apply it to your car.

And look what amazing results we receive, this really looks magical, like in those videos.

It looks so easy, and you may think that if this could revive such a wrecked paint, then fixing some swirls will be an easy task for this product, right?

Well, nothing is perfect in this world, my friend, there is no magical detailing product that can heal all imperfections especially so easy and for under 100 bucks. At least there are none yet.

The downside of Wipe On clear coat

Wipe On clear coats look great until you have a closer look, and start getting into details.

Even during application, you can see how uneven it levels on the paint, which is something you should expect from hand application. It levels itself, but not as you want it.

Wipe On clear coat is too thick. If you try to level it by wiping like ceramic coating, you will create an even bigger mess, so all you’re left to do is to wait and hope it will fix itself. Spoiler. It won’t.

Such a coating creates a thick layer on top of your paint that dries pretty quick. It takes only 15 seconds to dry enough to be not recommended for re-wipe, so if you make big overlapping passes, you will get huge bumps and strokes.

Many owners who used it recommend a wet sanding and polishing after complete drying of the first layer, some even apply a second layer.

However, even this won’t provide a perfect finish due to the application method drawbacks.

It’s like expecting a professional-level finish after painting your car with a brush.

Keep in mind that all the dust and lint from your applicator might get caked into the wipe-on clear coat if you aren’t careful enough. But this works with most of the hard coatings you will apply outside the paint booth.

Exaggerated example of lint trapped into wipe on clear coat from another brand

I guess what you want to know is how long such wipe on clear coat will last?

This is another problem, as I haven’t found any proper example of it; mostly, people film how they apply it and share their experience, but no 2 or 5-year reviews.

Poppy’s patina claims it can last years, and theoretically it can, as urethane creates a strong mechanical bond, but in my opinion, it really depends on what surface it bonds to. As if you will apply it on rough sanded paint, it will last longer than applied on smooth clear coat.

An example of peeling wipe-on a clear coat
One year after application on a rusted area

Conclusion

Is anything wrong with the product itself? No, it’s just the result of low-quality prep and application. On the other hand, applying it in a paint booth, with sanding and using a spray gun, will make the costs close to a proper repaint of damaged areas.

So I think that brands like Poppy’s Patina had to downgrade the recommended level of prep and application to make it more affordable to everyone and sell it just for old cars with already ruined paint. As you won’t be upset or angry about low finish quality on some rat rod when the only alternative to this is a full repaint for at least a few grand.

Poppy’s Patina is a great option for rat rods or budget restorations, and I appreciate them for selling this product as a specific coating for creating patina on old cars, not as some miracle for fixing paint swirls on modern cars. But such miracles are exactly what we are looking for, so such wipe on clear coats are definitely not our suspect. So it’s time to move on.

The next part of my research is coming soon. If you want to see the full research, you can find it on my YouTube channel.