Spray on Armour coat
 

Hello everyone,

Just thought everybody would want to know there is a new product out to aid in rock chipping.It's called Armour coat and it's awesome!! you spray it on so you don't have the unsightly lines around the lights and bumper and it looks much better than the plastic film and the edges won't peel up.
If anyone is intrested give me a call or email me (425) 883-3300 Steve

Steve
 

Is it just a spray on?? Doesn't dull the look of the car. Mine is black and I was thinking about getting ther clear bra. Does it come off with a wash and then you re-apply??

Armour coat
 

no it's a permanent product. It does not wash off and it's crystal clear.looks way better than the film.

where do you get it????
 

how is it applied and how much is it?

We do it here @ queen city auto rebuild it is sprayed on in a heated booth and price can vary depending on how much needs to be done it's $475.00 for a bumper and $1200. to $ 1600. for a full kit

I talked with FoS about this, and one concern I had was that it's "permanent." If you ever have to redo it because of a problem, such as during application, or reapplication, you need to repaint the whole panel. Correct?

Steve: Do you have a product brochure or URL which talks about it? FoS also said that you only have sprayed a small number of cars to date. Any f-cars?

I'll wait on getting the clear bra stuff for my new Spider until I get the details of this. But, it seems like it's twice the clear bra price, and has severe downsides if mangled. I grant that it looks better, but I'm not yet convinced given the risk. What am I missing?

More info please - thx - Tim

No you don't have to repaint the whole panel just the area where the film is and say if you scuff up against somthing you can just spot it in without doing the whole panel. If your removing the film then you would need to paint the whole panel.we have done about fifteen cars to date and we have four Ferrari's sched.We have been working with this product for several months now, manipulating it just to make sure it is what they claim. and it is and as long as your very carful putting it on there is no problem.

Anyone wanna try this and test it out? Do you have any brochures? Website or link? What is the warranty on this product? You mentioned it's a "film"?, but how does film come out of a can? Are there any guarantees of the paint not chipping? Sorry for all the questions, but I'm a little concerned about whether this really works bc I've never heard of it.

My 612 will be going in for this treatment soon (it's in the shop now to get some other work done and then off to QC for the treatment). After 3000 miles the car has a good number of dings in the nose to fix already, and some particularly vulnerable spots along the sides where gravel kicked up from the front tires is really ripping into the paint. I really liked how the sample panel Steve did for FofS turned out. It's a lot better looking than the 3M film approach, which I just can't stand. I put a lot of miles on my cars, and if this gives me even just another 20K miles between re-sprays, it'll be great.

I'll definitely give it a workout in the next few months, and report back how it fares under heavy use. If Steve and gang can get it done and ready to abuse by mid-January, I should have another 10K miles on the car by end of February. Gotta road trip planned. :)

steve - you can have my cars to put the new stuff on. let me know how the schedule looks and you can go to the shop and get whatever car you want to take first.

Maybe we should take the sample panel at FoS and put it outside and tell the neighborhood kids to throw rocks at it for an afternoon! I'd love to find out how chip resistant this new stuff is compared to the clear bra... ;-}

By all means, have at it. We have been doing that ourselves.I would be the last person telling you about this if I thought in anyway it didn't work. I do have information comming for everyone, in test results it resist rock chipping better than the film.

Going to FoS later today. I'll throw some rocks at the sample and let you know the result. :)

Just got back from FoS. Below are some pictures of Tino trying to do damage to the scrap F50 carbon fiber bumper.

Picture 1. The section on the right was sprayed with the Armour Coat The section left of the line is covered with the protection film. As you can see, the sprayed section looked infinitely better and the surface is quite smooth.

Picture 2. Front of the bumper with all the curves is not a problem. It looked quite glossy and optically clear.

Picture 3. I was joking about throwing rocks at it. But Tino took the idea further and brought a hole punching tool and a hammer to do some damage.

Picture 4. That's the tool Tino used on the bumper. He basically chucked it like a spear repeatedly while we all stepped clear. It was performed on various spots on the bumper.

Picture 5. Pointing out a worked over section. The surface remained smooth overall with no discernable pitting under the lighting condition. However, Tino did manage a couple of gouges on the lower bumper lip when the tool made contact at an angle. I believe the spots could be touched up.

Initial impression and the impromptu demonstration showed that it's a very good product. I'd like to see a car with the "seasoned" product before making final judgement. For now, I like it.

Man you guys are tough on testing! good job

Merry Christmas to all

Willis: Did Tino do the same (testing) to the clear bra side? Results? Seems like each side needs the same testing to gauge apples-to-apples results. Thx - Tim

I don't recall if Tino chucked the hole-punching tool into the clear film section. But that section did look rough (scratches, bumps, bubbles,etc). He did use the tool on the wheelwell edge of the scrap bumper but I don't know if that was covered by the film. That part got a nice toolmark after the test.

Maybe we should do another test. :)

Went down to Queen City and talked to Steve about this new process. Like Eric, looks like I'll be bold and give it a shot. Steve had all the right answers and puts quality as the #1 priority. And, he said he'll make anything right if there are any boo boos in the application. I hope to get the car back by Friday. More to come... - Tim :-)

Armour coat
 

Here is one in progress.
As you can see the line is very minimal very clear and has a good shine,but you can also see that we need to take the car apart to do it right.
Some vehicles don't require the need for disassemble so price will be cheaper on those vehicles.

This may be a silly question, but why don't you spray the whole car? Scratches can appear in other areas than the bumper. You can get scratches along the doors from bicycles brushing up against a car in a garage, for example.

It's not really for scratches it's more to keep the vehilce from getting rock chips.

Wow! It looks great! Steve: With having to disassemble the bumper, too bad you don't also install SRX radar detectors at the same time. I could have killed two birds with one stone (or disassembly as the case may be)!

Can't wait to get the car back and try it out on the freeway without being "too" paranoid about rock chips. ;-}

Any update?

ARMOR COAT
 

Here is some info hope it's big enough to read if not I will post again.And as for the update Tim got his car back and we will have to here from him hopfully soon.

I picked my car up from Queen City (Steve) on Thursday. My impressions of the new Armor Coat:

* Overall: Application: A, Clarity: A, Durability: Don't know yet.
* This stuff is incredible. Because it's a spray on, there are no wrinkles or lines. It's optically very clear. Almost looks like a nice clear coat.
* Too bad the whole car couldn't be coated with this stuff at the factory while it's being built.
* Steve's guys did an absolutely great job at minimizing the line across the hood.
* I was a little gun shy about paying almost twice the StonGard price, but no more. If it holds up to rock chips, it'll be absolutely worth it.
* I bet Armor Coat will replace StonGard for high end cars (that can justify the higher price).
* Armor Coat couldn't go on the lights, so I took the car down to StonGard and had them do it. You should have heard/seen the guys inspect the new coating. :-)
* The lights with StonGard, uncured, look horrible compared to the Armor Coat. I know it takes a few weeks for all the StonGard wrinkles/lines to flatten out, but I just can't imagine the whole front end of the car looking like that until it cured. I was in a Safeway parking lot the same day and 3 teenagers came up to inspect the car. They immediately told me my lights were bad. I told them it was a protective coating and that it needed to cure. I told them the other coating (Armor Coat) didn't have to cure. They said "what coating?" I had to point out the thin line across the hood to them.
* Armor Coat is so optically clear that it was hard for me to verify that they actually put it on all the places they said they did. Steve taught me the trick of touching it to feel the difference. Armor Coat feels almost pliable whereas the normal paint/coating is very rigid and hard to the touch.

Pictures:
1. The mirrors are coated. Can you see the line? No, you can't, because there isn't one. The mirror is coated, but the short arm from the car to the hinge is not. You can't see the difference in the photos, or looking at the car. Again, I had to touch the two pieces to know what was coated and what was not.
2. The rocker panels are coated. Doesn't that look better than the factory stuff around the intake?
3. Shows the line across the fender. Look closely and you can see it running through the middle of the photo.
4. The coating across the hood. You need higher resolution pictures to be able to see it. :-)
5. Front bumper. Cool.

I'll report back on the durability. However, my preliminary report is that this stuff rocks!

Tim

Looking great, Tim!

I was thinking that, instead of the front hood 1/3 section being covered, why don't they just spray the whole hood? From my experience, rocks and other things do bounce beyond the protected area.

Also, could I wax and polish over it like regular painted surface?

Anyone know if there is an installer for Armour coat in the SF Bay Area? Looks very intruiging, although I must say the Llumar film I have installed on my Modena is much clearer than 3M, say about half as visible. It's expensive, too, though, so for any new car I would consider the spray.

Gary

I asked Steve about the same thing. He didn't recommend it because the larger the area of spray, the larger the chance of making an application mistake. I imagine after they continue to get experience with it that they'll be willing to spray the entire hood. Ah, maybe on my F430 some day...

I don't believe you've answered this question, but can wax/polymers still be applied over the new film?

Also, I don't think that throwing rocks at a sample piece is proof it can hold up to rock chips. You're probably throwing the rocks about about 20mph vs. driving at 80mph and hitting a rock. I'm curious to see how this will hold up after several thousand highway miles. :)

You can polish and wax right over it with no problem.
Also at Barrier porsche they have a bumper we sprayed the coating on and they hit it so hard with the back of a staple gun that it put a sharp deep dent in the bumper and it didn't even make a mark on the coating it just bent in with the dent. They have tested the product with a machine that shoot's out gravel at high speed and it holds up better than plastic film.

More info...
 

... here:

http://www.armorauto.com/product/vie...sion_eurothane

hth...

No SF/Bay Area installation sites?!?

Tim360.........I sent you a PM. :)

Haven't put any protection on my CS yet. Hate the 3M film application on my Spider.........its been two years and you can tell. This process sounds very interesting.

Armour coat
 

Here is one more on just the front bumper.
Let me know how you like Cassini

The car looks great! Thanks for bringing the car up to the bat cave!

Armour coat 612
 

I think someone is ready for a long road trip!
Eric please let me know how it holds out. I would like to see it when you return.

omg, why is tino hacking at my car like that!?

WOW!! Pics look great, Steve. Thanks for taking such good care of my beast.

We pick it up on Weds, and will proceed to put maybe 8000 miles on it in the next month. It'll get a for real work-over. We'll drop it by when we get back so you can look it over.

Eric: I saw your car at FoS yesterday and inspected the Armor Coat. It looks great. You'll definitely be the acid test will all your hard miles. Can't wait to see the results. - Tim

This is quite interesting. Does anyone have video footage showing these scratch tests. I like pics, but I think it would be more convincing if the tests were caught on video.

update?
 

Eric, did you take your cross country trip? Tim360, still happy?

Really interested, and wondering how this stuff will look on a black finish...

J

Yeah, sorry I didn’t get back on this earlier. We put just about 9K miles on the car and coating in 5 weeks. Went to Florida and back, mostly on back country highways. Some snow, quite a bit of rain, and tons of fair weather high speed country highways. Excellent trip, by the way. I’ve been thinking I’d write it up, but other stuff keeps getting in the way. Such is life, eh? Check link below for a really brief version of a trip report.

The Armor Coat did really well. Up until maybe the last day or so, when we got hit by something really big. It took out a couple of decent sized chunks of the bumper (dime sized maybe). No way any paint protection coating could have held up under that, it ripped into the bumper material underneath the paint and all. But aside from the really huge hits, the smaller hits were very nicely dealt with by the Armor Coat. I could see spots in the finish where clearly a rock or something had hit, but the paint was still red underneath. You had to look carefully to see the dent in the armor coat.

In comparison, my first 3K miles on the car wore the paint so badly; I had the front re-sprayed prior to the trip to Florida. While there was clearly some damage even with the Armor Coat, the amount was so far less than without, it was clear the stuff was doing the job.

My biggest complaint with it was that there’s apparently no way to feather the line between coating and non-coating. So there is an obvious line across the hood/fenders of the car where the finish left off. I felt it was more pronounced than the line I’ve seen with 3M products. The plus side is even with the line, a chunk of paint taken out could be easily repaired, since it is a painted-on product. Smaller repairs to the finish could be far easier to effect than if it were one of the traditional films.

Steve has the car right now to do some repair to the damage I managed to inflict (in addition to the road rash bits, I managed to graze a concrete post in a parking garage: no way this stuff could help me there), and at the same time is going to try to make the line disappear by applying a clear coat up to the armor coat line, hopefully mellowing out the sharpness of the line at least. I’m planning to pick up the car in a couple days and put another 3K miles on it so we’ll continue the test. If Steve can manage to mitigate the line, I'll be thrilled with the product and will recomemnd it unconditionally.

Were it not for the fact that I’m going to put tons of miles on the car, I might have opted to just put the Armor Coat finish on parts of the car that were discretely separated by seam lines. Maybe just the bumper assy, for instance. I don’t think the Armor Coat solves my biggest complaint with any paint protectant regarding the seam line. But it does appear to do a great job of protecting the paint, and makes repairs of damages to the coating a lot easier to deal with. From even five feet away, it’s invisible. It’s only from up close it really shows up, but then, that’s how all these products have appeared to me.

Overall, I’m very pleased and would recommend the product.

For a few pics of the car, and the trip, go to http://brokenpoint.net/FloridaTrip/index.htm.

good writeup eric ..looks like a fun trip

excellent post - and test
 

GREAT post and pics. Welcome back. I think the 308/328 have more natural seams up front, but will be interested in hearing whether Steve can blend the line a bit better.

Jon

Awesome Pics Eric
 

It took real creativity to pick the journey you took. I enjoyed it alot.

Eric,
Great pictures. I especially like the mirror image of the white bird (Egret?) in the swamp. Beautiful shot.

Another favorite is the "Rocket Garden".

I think the commentary helped set the mood as well. Makes me want to do a road trip but NOT in a 308! I think I would be a cripple after that.

Quite an adventure, Eric!

Might result in a big pile of Cap Hill crack pipes...

Eric,
Great photos! You have a knack for picture taking and write ups, good job!
;)

Eric,

Wow! Great photos and captions! Thanks for sharing - Tim

Loved the one with the car "sliding" through the puddle at White Sands.

Thanks Guys.

We love road trips, especially when we don't have any tight deadlines and can go where our whims dictate. You find the darndest things that way. Hardest part for me is I love driving so much, but love taking photos too. It's so hard when on a nice new, twisty road to just stop to take a picture instead of hitting another apex.

Need another road trip to practice stopping to smell the flowers, etc. Hah!

12K miles on the odo and we're headed to CA. WoohaH!!!

Has anyone done this on their 355 and have photos online?

My 355 just had the front bumper resprayed so I'm considering this or Stongard while it's fresh. I like Stongard since it's removable and I never had any problems after 6 years with my last 911. However, it hasn't worked out well on the GT3. Mainly due to the number of curves and the installer in Ohio did a poor job. Most folks appear to be happy w/ Stongard though.

I'm on my 3rd application of the Stongard stuff on my 360 lights done by the local Stongard dealer/installer (since Steve didn't want to put the Armor Coat on the lights). The bubbles and creases just never went away. If it doesn't cure properly this round, the stuff comes off and doesn't go back on - ever.

The Armor coat is still looking great and you can see where it's taking hits.

Tim

It's been 3 years since the last post. How has this product held up over time? Any hazing or yellowing with age and UV?

Also, can someone please help me find a distributor or shop near Vancouver Canada that sells or installs this product? My car is almost done getting painted and I'm really hoping my painter can do my bumper while it is off the car. Thanks!

This thread is HILARIOUS! Reviving from the deeeeep reveals:

RumorDude no longer has the F50

TimF40 wasn't called TimF40 ... but now does have an F40

Eric no longer has the 612 ... and has gone all "English" (poor fellow) and is "rolling large" Bentley styleeee.

and, best of all, Cassini is enjoying an extended vacation, taxpayer financed, at "Club Fed"...

Seems like a lifetime ago.

LOL nice avatar pic Kuzi! That's awesome!

I talked to my clear bra installer, and he said that he's seen the product, and there are a few problems with it. One is that it tends to leave dimples from rocks hitting it, and can look very bad after only a short time. The second problem is that it is not a VOC compliant product. Once Washington becomes VOC compliant just like California, anyone who has this product is screwed. If they get in an accident, then it can't be resprayed. What good is a warranty if it can't be sprayed on anymore? I have Venture Shield on 5 of my cars, 4 of them have the full hood and full fender treatments, no visible seams anywhere, and the texture is spot on to the rest of the paint job. I think I'll just stick with Venture Shield.


Ming