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Tuf Shine’s Black Restore Kit: Product Review

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As many of you know, I’ve been super happy with Tuf Shines tire dressing for many of the reasons listed here in my how to video, and here with my review of their tire dressing. Well they have been reworking the black restore product and sent me some to test out, now if you know me I take my time in testing.  I’ve been accused of taking too long but for me its about making sure my opinion is well tested.  I try my best to be creditable for the long haul and not just part of the hype.  I digress, so this newer formulation is much blacker than the first, and works equally as well.  What exactly is black restore?  Its based on the same make up as the tire dressing/coating except it has a UV stable dye mixed in that does not separate.  I’ve used it on my tires to give them a more matte finish, and it really darkens them up and if you wanted to give a sheen to them afterwards, just apply the clear tire dressing.  What I haven’t tested is multi layering of the products on each other, much like an Oreo (black restore, clear, black restore, clear), maybe that can be tested later, but at present the black restore topped with the tire dressing/coating yielded no negative effects after several months of use.  So in hypothetical theory it should be fine, but I’m of the school of thought that reality can trump theory, thus I test.

Since it worked so well for my tires I’ve been looking for other surfaces to test this combo on.  Each year I sponsor detailing sessions for a car that that is given away in a raffle for the largest multi day car show in Utah, The Cache Cruise In.  Well this years car has step-ups on the running boards, I think some of the old timers called them stomp pads.  These have a rubberized material that runs the length of the running board, and in this case wasn’t looking too shabby, but lacked the bright black look they wanted for the car.  Since the rubber was something people might, would and could step on it couldn’t be dressed with a silicone based dressing that would make it very slick and cause a fall.  The first product I thought of was Black Restore by Tuf Shine as it wouldn’t be any more slippery than the un-coated rubberized material yet it needed to be durable as it would be stepped on and they wanted it a deep rich black color.  In this review you will see photo of before, with just the black restore, and black restore coated with tire clear coat.

I’m in the process of trying to test this on cars with lots of black trim, like a Mini Cooper that needs a restoration level project.

Enjoy the photos and shoot away with questions if you have them.  More over I suggest you do some testing of your own and report back.

I just had to throw a photo of the tuf shine tire coating on the car!  That is two coats of product.  Sexy!

Here is the cleaned BUT nothing else, look of the black rubber that was going to get super black.

 

Applying the coating to the area, you can notice that I was a bit sloppy in the application as I got some on the metal stomp area, it removed easily with a damp cloth.  I did have to remove some that I missed after it dried, a finger nail scrape took it off the metal.  You will want to wear gloves, the kits comes with them, if not you will have black dyed fingers and nails until you scrub the bejeebbers out of them!

You can see how much darker the black rubber has become, at this point it just black restore on there……….a non sheen black look.

At this point I wanted the black to pop a bit more so I top coated the black restore with the tire clear-coating (only one application to keep from building up too much sheen)

Cheers,

Greg Nichols

Reflections Detailing of Utah

Greg Nichols Reflections Detailing
Greg Nichols
Reflections Detailing
Logan, Utah
Reflections-Detailing.com

7 comments on Tuf Shine’s Black Restore Kit: Product Review

  1. Keith says:

    Great article. I have this product now, but I haven’t used it yet. Also, I would love to see full photos of this what seems to be a Model A. My boss, is getting ready to restore one, and I would like to show him what one SHOULD look like.

  2. Greg Gellas says:

    Greg, the results are great! I recently got this in, and am loving the results from it.

    GregG 🙂

  3. Bill Bailey says:

    I’m glad to hear they reworked black restore.
    I used it on the trim around the Windows on my 05 GTO (The trim is known to fade quickly)

    It helped but I just wasn’t as impressed as I was hoping to be because it was more dark grey than black…

    I guess that bottle will have to be set aside for dark grey stuff that needs some touching up and ill be buying the new formulation.

    Thanks for the great review!

    • Greg Nichols says:

      Hello Bill,

      What color was the trim? I have used it on some that was greyish and it didn’t turn it midnight black, but did make it blacker. I applied another 2 coats and it became a bit darker. Maybe give it another coat or two and see.

      Cheers,
      GREG

  4. Mike Williamson says:

    Greg since this is a dye , would I be able to use this on raised white letter tires? If not, what product do you prefer for white letter tires?

    • Greg Nichols says:

      Mike,
      That is a concern for sure. White lettering and the use of black restore are a bit more work for sure. Other than working around the lettering the other method is that I apply some tire shine to those areas first, then apply the black restore, if some gets on the white you can wipe it off easy. You can wipe is off pretty well without the first layer, but its a nice base. I’ve also cut one of my foam applicators into small peices and “blot” the product around the lettering with pretty good success. Have a damp towel handy to wipe up as soon as you can if it gets on the lettering.

      Cheers,
      GREG

  5. Jessica says:

    Will this product work on the trim pieces that fade on exteriors? The bumpers etc?

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