# Detailingworld™ Review - Autoglym Plastic and Trim Conditioner



## Pittsy (Jun 14, 2014)

*Detailingworld™ Review - Autoglym Plastic and Trim Conditioner*

Obviously 1st up I would like to say thanks to the guys at Autoglym for sending out a new product to try.

Autoglym have been around for Donkeys years in fact since 1965 according to the website which is longer than I have been around. They have been producing a range of car cleaning products right here in the UK since then so thats something we and they should be really proud of. For more information on the brand have a look here: https://www.autoglym.com/

I am sure that most of us have used an Autoglym product at one time or another and no doubt have a bottle of SRP stored away in the cupboard so know how good the products are.

This is my 1st Autoglym review for DW so am looking forward to seeing what the modern Autoglm products are all about.

Trim dressings or conditioners or whatever you want to call them are a great product for finishing the job, you can have gleaming perfect paintwork but if your trims look faded and tired it kind of ruins the whole look to this kind of product is an essential part of the armoury.

*The Product:*

The product supplied arrived in a large 1ltr coloured PET bottle which is pretty hard to hold due to its thickness but the white colour matches the rest of the ranges branding nicely.

The label contains all the pertinent information required and looks like a updated version of the Autoglm branding which I personally like.

The actual Trim dressing is a clear gel type product and smells like mixed berries which is really pleasant.

*Autoglym say: *

*FEATURES
-NEW Concentrated, streak free formulation imparts deep even finish
-Restores and protects external trim 
-Water repellent
-NEW Pleasant cherry fragrance 
-CUSTOMER BENEFITS
-Protects trim and prevents dirt build up to make future cleaning easier
-Improved value for money, up to 5 times more cost effective in use
-Ensures a clean, flawless finish to increase customer satisfaction
-Easier & quicker to apply enabling more vehicles to be valeted in a day*

I just need to add that this product is part of the 'Professional' range of products so is not available in Halfords.

*The Method:*

An ideal test for any trim product is a Mini and luckily enough I have one to hand in the guise of Mrs P's Cooper. Lashings of really horrible ABS trim which does not readily accept trim dressings is the perfect place to start.

So 1st part of the prep was to make sure that the trims were really clean so using some strong APC and a soft detailing brush the trims were treated to a real deep clean.



The car was then given a snow foam prewash (without rinsing the trims) and the obligatory 2 bucket wash to leave it looking alot better.



The car was then dried using a drying towel and special attention was paid to making sure that the trims were dried prior to application of any product.



A small amount of product (well I say a small amount of product because using this bottle it was very hard to dose out a small amount) was squeezed onto one of the rather excellent Autoglym applicators, if you are looking for an applicator to apply trim dressings etc which are really exact then give these a whirl.



The drssing was then applied to the plastic arches 1st, you could really see the difference in the finish, the trim conditioner brought the arches to life and made them look alot sharper and wetter as you can see from this 50/50 (well almost).



The thing that struck me whilst applying was that the gel didnt readily soak into the the trim and left alot of high spots as you can see by the picture of the side skirt but I continued on round the entire car. The trim Gel was left for a few minutes, well enough time to sup a cuppa anyway, before buffing off using a short pile MF cloth which got rid of the high spots.



I was pretty impressed with the finish standing back and looking at it but was a bit worried about how the trims felt because I could feel a certain amount of greasyness on my fingers.

Running my fingers on the arches they felt really smooth but there was a definite very slight residue left even after buffing.



Normally I would have been a bit perturbed by this but as this was a new product for me I continued doing other bits and pieces around the car i.e. waxing and glass and returned to feel the same place again only to find that the residue was gone and had soaked into the plastic nicely.

This is one of the downsides with a gel type dressing, it can take a little while to settle but when it does its fine.

So all in all pretty good :thumb:

*Price: *£19.99 for 1ltr and is availble from here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Autoglym-P...136&sr=8-3&keywords=autoglym+plastic+and+trim

I selected this link because I had trouble finding it in the more usual shops but obviously a quick Google search you might be able to do better price wise.

Value wise 1tr does present really good value for money but bear in mind you might end up spilling alot of it but more on that later.

*Would I use it again?:*

In all honesty probably not for a couple of reasons....

1) The bottle is too big and unweildy to carry round the car, I realise that this product is aimed at pro's who will need alot of it so need a bigger bottle but instead of a soft sided square bottle which meant that dosing the product was really difficult a better bet might be a taller thinner bottle which would be easier to handle. Honestly my driveway has never been so well dressed :lol:

2) Although the finish was great and it certainly made mincemeat of the trims I didn't like the waiting time before the trims were dry and they car was ready to drive, now yet again this might be ok for pro use where the car can afford to sit there for an hour or so but when your Mrs wants to go to the shops and is nagging you to hurry up its not much kop.

*Conclusion:*

Autoglym Plastic and Trim conditioner is a really effective trim dressing product and represents good value for money, its easy to apply and leaves great results.

The only let downs are the design of the bottle which means as you are carrying it around and trying to dose it onto the applicator you end up with it going everywhere and they elongated cure time after application and buffing but if you can live with those issues the results speak for them selves.



*Thanks for reading :wave:*

"DW has followed the Manufacturers Instructions and accepts no responsibility to any circumstances arising from any member using these products or following this test "


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