Review: CarPro - PERL

4u2nvinmtl

4u2nvinmtl

New member
Review: CarPro - PERL

CarPro - PERL
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Price: $24.99 for 1L

Product Description from Autopia:

CarPro - PERL is water-based silicon oxide, solvent-free, hydrophobic, and provides great satin shine and revives faded plastic, engine, rubber, and leather surfaces. While it can easily spray, it has great cling to keep it on the surface. It lasts up to 3 months. PERL Coat has no chemical solvents, which can cause damage to tires. PERL Coat contains a high degree of UV protection to keep the surface from yellowing, cracking and fading as a result of sun damage. PERL Coat will stop leather from cracking and prevent dirt and stains from penetrating the surface. Treated surfaces require less cleaning and will remain in like-new condition. PERL Coat restores the original finish to vinyl, rubber, plastic, acrylic, and leather. Plastic, engine, rubber, leather, and vinyl surfaces stay supple, flexible, and retain their color with regular use of PERL Coat. PERL Coat creates a satin shine. It is non greasy, non oily, and has a great smell. PERL Coat's water-based formula provides great durability on all tires, interior and exterior trim, vinyl and dashboards.

On to the review...

Intro:
I purchased 1L CarPro - PERL after getting a sample with one of my orders and liking it. The 1L bottle of PERL did not come with a convenient cap so I changed it out for a flip top squeeze cap to make it more usable. I also noticed the color and consistency of my PERL was very different than the sample I had gotten (the sample was off-white and ticker, where has the 1L was perfectly white and much more runny). The product has a light pleasant coconut smell. PERL was my first water based dressing (I was using oil based before). I figured I'd wait to write a review about this product until I had long term consistent results (which I do now)...

Cleaning/prep:
For the first application of PERL I figured I would fully strip any old dressings, wax's and polish or compound residues prior to application. After a weekly maintenance wash, I proceeded to clean all of the exterior rubbers and plastics (tires, trim, and seals) with Meg's D101 APC diluted at a 4:1 ratio, a few assorted brushes ranging from soft to hard, and some plastic razors. I worked at a slow steady pace cleaning meticulously and passed over everything a second time.

Front wheel (dirty, before):
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Rear wheel (dirty, before)
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Cleaning/prep:
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Application:
I poured some undiluted PERL onto a microfiber applicator and applied it to the trim and rubber weather seals, first. I also applied some PERL to a foam tire applicator and noticed it didn't absorb into the foam (kind of sat on top) so I folded the foam in half pressing the PERL gently into the top layer of foam. I did one pass and quickly found I needed more to get into the deeper groves of the lettering on the sidewall, as it was still dry. For the second application, I didn't fold the foam I simply quickly flipped the foam onto the side wall and swiped around. This did the trick, but I did still get one drip on the wheel.

After the application, I walked around my vehicle to inspect the trim and found it very wet and glossy and decided to buff my rear step with a fresh microfiber. The look was perfect for the rear step, but I liked the rest of my trim glossy and left it as is (I also dry buffed the weather seals).

Note: While I was thoroughly impressed with the look of PERL but found the unbuffed surfaces to remain tacky for up to 12 hours after application.

Before and after (photo taken one day after application):
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Durability/Environmental's:
My SRT is parked outside year around unprotected from the elements in the harsh Montreal climate so I really wanted PERL to last (hence the lengthy prep). I found PERL very durable in dry hot sunny conditions but after every one or two rain storms I noticed the trim starting to turn white. This stated on the trim at first, in a pattern similar to the way it was applied. I figured I must have incorrectly prepped the trim so I re-prepped the trim using Meg's D101 APC, Meg's D108 super degreaser, and IPA, all at full strength and in that order. I reapplied PERL just as before and much to my dismay after a few rain storms the same thing started to happen again (trim turning white)...

Since then I've continued to apply PERL weekly over top previous layers and find it actually improves the durability and restores the look without all the hard work. The problem is I can't get more than about 10 days of durability out of it before it starts to turn white and needs another application! I also noticed this happening to my tires along with some discoloration of the tires.

Front wheel (one day after most recent application and wash):
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Rear wheel (one day after most recent application and wash):
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Mirror (one day after most recent application and wash):
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Roof rail (one day after most recent application and wash):
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Roof rail (one day after a rain storm):
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Rear step (one day after a rain storm):
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Tires (one day after a rain storm):
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Front wheel (two weeks since last application and wash):
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Rear wheel (two weeks since last application and wash):
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Roof rail (two weeks since last application and wash):
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A pillar trim (two weeks since last application and wash):
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Note: never seen it look this bad, really pushed me to write this review for others...
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Mirror (two weeks since last application and wash):
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Note: you can clearly see the product turning white on the paint where I had over applied the product!​

Cowell (two weeks since last application and wash):
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Note: Yes, I applied it to the back of my wiper arm too...​
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Note: Yes, I applied it to the back of my wiper arm too...​


Final thoughts\conclusion:
I think if I had tested PERL in a different environment my results would have been very different as I've seen many other reviews about this product and none have similar findings. This leads me to conclude it could also be the application itself (full strength), my environment (cold, rainy, harsh), or a different revision of the product as my sample differed. It seems PERL is better suited for hot dry climates likely lasting months upon months. I had no issues with PERL until cold weather rainstorms. I'll be moving on to CQuartz Delux next (another CarPro product)...
 
I have never been overly impressed with PERL. I live in a hot/humid environment and it never lasted more than a couple of weeks on trim plastics and tires. There are a lot of people that like it and seem impressed with it. I have never seen what you are experiencing either.
 
Thanks for the review. I will stay away as i want something i don't have to reapply all the time. Let us know how the delux goes on.

Also just for fun as my spelling on the phone is off all the time, but im not real sure why you maliciously cleaned your tires and trim. Did they make you mad? :) thanks again though.
 
Nice review. Nice Ute. Baby needs new shoes, don't envy you having to buy them. Probably on a regular basis too. ;)
 
Thanks for the very detailed, in depth, review with pics !

Im thinking your prep was good and unfortunately the product is - well - not so good...

Of all the zillion tire products out there and I have seen many and tried many, most fall exactly into the category of the one you just reviewed..
Look great, then it rains, then they dont look so great because they are gone..

Thanks for all your hard work - much appreciated..
Dan F
 
GearHead_1 said:
Nice review. Nice Ute. Baby needs new shoes, don't envy you having to buy them. Probably on a regular basis too. ;)
Click to expand...
Yeah the tires are definitely finished with under 2/32nd of tread left, but they still stick like glue at the strip. I got about 19,000 miles out of them from new regardless I'll buy another set of the same because they're that great.
 
Great review.
I was going to post today and ask if anyone else had it turning white, almost like an overspray of wax.
It really does a great job of bringing out a shine in trim that has no life left though.
 
The conditions your vehicle is exposed to make it a perfect candidate for DLUX

While you are doing the trim and cowl...do one wheel well...you will become a convert
 
Great review. Thanks for sharing. My thoughts on PERL were the same as yours. Initially I found it to have a great look on tires. Unfortunately for me durability was about the same that I could get with cheaper dressings.
 
allenk4 said:
The conditions your vehicle is exposed to make it a perfect candidate for DLUX

While you are doing the trim and cowl...do one wheel well...you will become a convert
Click to expand...

Can DLux restore bleached out trim. .or does it just protect well?
PERL wins out of at least 6 products I've tried.
 
ShawnF350 said:
Can DLux restore bleached out trim. .or does it just protect well?
PERL wins out of at least 6 products I've tried.
Click to expand...

I can't speak for DLux yet, but I can give you my 2 cents on what worked for me before I switched to water based dressings (PERL being the first). I actually had no problems with my old oil based dressing. In fact, many non-car guys would ask how come my plastics look so fresh as if they were just replaced, and the oil based dressing never changed color with time (starts clear ends clear) it just fades away to leave a natural look if you stop dressing. It was much drier to the touch than PERL and looked as shiny if not more. Once you put some oil based dressing in a foam applicator your basically good until the foam falls apart or you wash it out. My applicator never went rancid as others warned it could. I simply switched to water based because I kept reading about how oil based dressings are not good. I'm still not sure why other than some sling but this is a non-issue with the oil based dressing I was using. I simply let it set/cure for 20-30mins and it was dry to the touch 0 sling...

What magical oil dressing could this be? Chemical Guys - Liquid Extreme Shine (oil based sprayable dressing)

Here's a picture of my winter tires with the dressing freshly applied after a wash:


Just to prove my point, I went outside as I was in the middle of writing this to check on my winter tires/wheels that were stored outside, exposed, with only a trash bag on top of each wheel, since April. When I had put them away in April I washed, clayed, 845ed and stored them in the back yard.

On to the 5min old pictures of tires that haven't been dressed since April...

Took this one to show how exposed my tire/wheel storage method is:


Garbage bag off (second tire down):






They still look great IMHO other than the spider webs...
 
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