# DW Review - Slick Monkey Tarzipan



## Brian1612 (Apr 5, 2015)

*Introduction*

So following on from my review of the Slick Monkey Safari Quick Detailer (Please find the review here http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=375350) I now have the Tarzipan trim & tyre dressing to try out.

For any info on either products, please visit the Slick Monkey website: http://slickmonkey.co.uk/

*The Product*

So again, like the Safari QD, I have a 100ml bottle of Slick Monkey Tarzipan tyre & trim dressing requiring a review. It comes in the same 100ml plastic bottle with spray head and Slick Monkey lighthearted branding.



Looking at the label, this sample again comes with no instructions but having spoke with Mr Slick Monkey, he assures me they now all come with instructions on sample bottles now.

The product is again milky looking in texture and now a thick gel. A big positive for me as I am not a huge fan of tyre gels usually although they are becoming less greasy now going by some I have tried out recently. I can see why it is called Tarzipan, the scent of cherry/marzipan could be picked up even before the spray nozzle was even off. Again another product from Slick Monkey that smells absolutely amazing. Ps. Obviously the tar part comes from the mighty Tarzan 

Again no product description but as stated, Slick Monkey is now printing off labels for the sample products with the relevant information available. I didn't have the information for the review at the time which you will see later but overall doesn't effect the final opinion on the product so it is irrelevant.

A description was taken from the website:

"Tarzipan trim is a blend of polymers that create a skin on the surface it is applied too, it can be layered up to create an extra level of gloss.
If gloss isn't your thing it can be diluted with water to leave a more satin/factory finish. Although this was designed for dash and trim it also makes an excellent tyre coating. And doesn't sling as you drive off.

Perfect glovebox accessory and an essential for show season."

*The Method*

Although there was no description, the packaging clearly labelled it a interior/exterior trim/tyre dressing type product so I decided I would test it on all 3 suggested uses.

Exterior Trim

So the trim on the outside of my Abarth would be the first thing I tackled. As you can see in the photo they were very grubbing looking and in need of a good clean. They were dressed not too long ago but haven't held up very well at all.



All the black plastic at my door pillar/mirrors were cleaned using a 1:1 APC mixture with a soft bristle brush before hosed and dried.



This left them looking much better and ready for the Slick Monkey Tarzipan. I grabbed a sponge applicator, essentially a cut up jumbo sponge and gave it 3-4 sprays of Tarzipan (god that smell is good. This was more than enough to spread over the trim, if a little too much as it spread so well. This was allowed to dry to the plastic for around 30 seconds before being buffed with a clean microfiber cloth.



Finish was nice, it wasn't slimey to the touch and it really darkened the trims back to how they should look. There was a slight sheen to the plastics but not so much so that I didn't like it, more of a satin finish. I continued with the rest of the plastics around the car in the same manner, getting a 50/50 at the mirror base to show the finish provided by Tarzipan.



I was pleased by how easy this was to use and the results achieved by it without leaving any slimey coating on the plastics are a light buff.

Interior trim

I had my reservations using this on the interior after seeing the results on the exterior trim. Unfortunately this turned out to be the case BUT, it was my OWN USER ERROR as the product should, after speaking to Slick Monkey be diluted for the finish I wanted (satin/matte). By no means a fault of the products and really I should have known this being the type of trim dressing it is... but anyway onto the review.

I started off with the lower sections of the car here which you can see were looking a bit dull & grubby.



A couple of squirts onto the plastic sill was more than enough, it was spread along the length of it before the mf cloth was flipped and buffed. The finish I could see right away is what I was expecting but not really wanting. An extremely glossy finish although dry to the touch was the results.



Despite this I decided I may as well continue the review so carried on with the rest of the interior.

Before



After



The door cards were dressed and the gloss increase was clear to see.

Before



After



Before



After



Before



After



The finish did actually subdue a little with regards to the shine but even after 2 days it is still shinier than I would like. Regardless, I believe if I had used it as instructed, possibly 1:1 or 1:2 the finish would have been much more to my liking. I will try it again in the future at the correct mixture and add a little update onto the review.

To add the smell this dressing leaves is superb and it actually lingered in the cabin for a few days after applying it, a nice feature I really liked!

Tyre

Finally it was time to try it out on the tyres and I was expecting good things here having spoken to Slick Monkey with regards to this one. He fancies it as a fairly durable dressing on tyres and even hinted at it becoming somewhat of a bond type product between it and the tyre wall if you apply a little heat to the product via a hair dryer. I will admit I didn't quite go to those extremes here, I do have my limits on how thorough I can be! 

Anyway, the tyres as per usual were the given the typical 1:1 APC clean with tyre scrubbing brush, jet hosed down and then dried completely prior to application, leaving me a clean tyre. I decided as it was a review to be quite liberal with my sample and applied 5-6 sprays onto my applicator.



This spread so easily across the whole tyre with very little worked needed to get a nice, even coat that covered all the lettering/crevices of the side wall.



All four tyres were coated in about 20 seconds each it is that easy to use. This was allowed to dry into the tyre before being very light buffed/dabbed with an old mf to remove any excess product. This left me with the following finish.





I am sure this would have been more than enough for most but I usually always apply two coats of tyre dressing for a wetter looking tyre and more a more even coat so again, the tyres were dressed in the same fashion, allowed to dry for 10 minutes then the excess was again lightly buffed away.





This was much more the type of finish I liked and it looked terrific. It wasn't dripping wet but there was a nice bright sheen/gloss to the tyre which looked really black.

*Price*

Prices as per the Slick Monkey website previously mentioned http://slickmonkey.co.uk/shop/tarzipan-trim-dash-dressing/ 250ml/500ml can be picked up for £8.99 & £12.50 respectively and will be available by next week as they are currently waiting on the bottles. Like the Safari quick detailer, this price point for a 500ml bottle is spot on. I was very generous with my application and still only used about 25ml for 2x coats on all tyres, plus the full interior and my exterior plastics dressed, representing excellent value.



Again this products spread effortlessly and I have no doubt I could have used a lot less of the sample.

*Would I use it again?*

Depending on durability, which I am monitoring and will update on I would use it again definitely due to the ease of use, smell and finish!

*Conclusion*

Like the Safari, I can't really fault the Tarzipan trim and tyre dressing. It does exactly what you would expect from it, does it very well with minimal effort and a leaves a cracking finish on plastic and rubber. Bar the hiccup with the interior being too shiney WHICH WAS MY OWN FAULT it performed brilliantly and although I have a lot of dressings to get through, I would seriously consider this as a go to plastic and tyre dressing (Mainly tyre and interior).

I also have a little to add on the durability of the product. It was applied on Saturday. The car has been driven roughly 15 miles per day since then. I decided after catching a glimpse of the tyre on the Tuesday (3rd day) as it looked so good, I would get a photo each day and see how it holds up.

So up until Tuesday it had no rain to contend with and looked like this.



The gloss was going a little but the tyre still looked fantastic.

On Wednesday the heavens opened and the car was driven in the rain to and from work, yet still held up well although the gloss again dropped off a bit.



On Thursday the car was driven in nothing but heavy rain but once again the tyre still looked superb. After two days of rain I was impressed to see how little it had deteriorated.



So far so good for Tarzipan! I will continue to photo each day and see how long it lasts before I feel it needs another clean and re-dress. This review shall be updated periodically.


_DW has followed the Manufacturer's Instructions and accepts no responsibility to any circumstances arising from any member using these products or following this test._


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## Brian1612 (Apr 5, 2015)

*Update on durability*

So as promised an update on how the Tarzipan dressing performed on the tyre side walls. Although I missed a few days I managed to grab a photo most days so here we go.

Day 6 - Covered about 100 miles since application. Car has driven in 3 days of rain to and from work but is still looking dark and well dressed.



Day 7 - Another day of driving in the rain here but still it holds up. That is it hit the week mark and the tyre still looks dark with a slight wetness to the tyres.



Day 10 - The following 3 days included 2 more days of damp to wet driving with 1 dry day and there is a drop off on gloss evident here. The darkness of the photo makes the tyre look worse than it actually was though and at this point still looked good.



Day 11 - With better lighting you can see exactly what I was talking about with regards to the low light making the tyre look worse. Looks better than yesterday here, tyre is dark and a slight sheen to it. You can see just how bad the weather has been with the amount of crud building up on the car now.



Day 12 - This photo was taken just before my maintenance wash so at this stage I can say the dressing gets full pass marks from me on durability. Tyre still looks excellent and although the gloss is gone, the tyre side wall is still clearly dressed with a nice dark finish to it. For the sake of the test I decided to car on until the 14 day mark, even after a wash just to see how it fared over the full 2 weeks.



Day 14 - So finally we have it after 2 weeks, roughly 230 miles and a maintenance wash. The wheels were cleaned with diluted 1:1 with wonder wheels and the side walls were blasted directly with the pressure washer. Even with this the tyres still have a slightly darkened finish to them although it is now getting patchy and I would look into re-dressing it at this point.


It should be noted though that the maintenance wash will have had a big effect on the dressing so for the tyre to still look this good after roughly 60/40 of wet driving and a maintenance wash with the alloys cleaned with something as strong as wonder wheels... Impressive durability shown here and if heat is applied to the tyres during application of this, apparently it creates a bond to the tyre which lasts even longer.

Top product this!


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