We’ve all seen the commercial.  We’ve all shaken our head and said “no way it’s that easy”.  Well, I set out to find out if this stuff really works.  This article will focus on the general Wipe New kit that contains a bottle of the liquid and a few small microfiber towels.

For those who have not seen the commercial and are wondering what in the world is this product, please check it out at the Wipe New site.

The product is made to sound as simple as one can imagine,  wipe it on and look in awe at your amazing new headlights or trim.  You can find detailed instructions on the website, but here’s my short version:

1. Clean area/surface to be treated
2. Wipe on the surface and let dry (dry to touch in 1 hour, keep dry for 24 hours for full cure)

So what is it all about?  Well here are a few photos I took:

The kit is nicely packaged and includes a bottle of the product (as I’m really not sure what to call it… liquid, coating, restoration juice, etc. 🙂 ), let’s just stick with product or Wipe New), 3 small microfiber towels, a brush for tight areas, a small piece of 2000 grit sandpaper, a pair of gloves and the instructions.

After reading through the instructions, I found everything extremely simple and straightforward so I set out to do a little work immediately.  First, I used Wipe New on the grille of my Toyota Matrix.  This was meant as a durability test, which I will update once a few months goes by.  The trim isn’t faded much at all, so I simply applied it to the driver side to see how long it lasts, how it reacts with water, etc.

The application was fairly straightforward.  I applied some product to the microfiber towel (a mask is a must and a large and/or well ventilated area is definitely recommended, it’s very STRONG)…

Wipe onto the surface, which I did fairly liberally…

And then simply leave it to dry.  I intentionally missed some of the edges so as to see how it wears and how the treated vs untreated areas look after a while…

In addition to the grille, I decided to apply it to a small compartment from our rolling work chairs.  These chairs are over 2 years old and these little plastic bins have gone through a lot of use and abuse…

This was thoroughly cleaned (as I’ll explain in a bit more detail at the end of the article) and Wipe New was applied in the same fashion…

Here I immediately saw the improvement in color and gloss.  It wasn’t the greatest look, but it went from a dirty and faded plastic to clean, glossy and dark.

After about 1 hour, I of course went against the instructions and wanted to see how it would react with water…

It was definitely protecting the surface pretty well and quickly sheeting water as compared to the untreated section where water would sit longer and even leave a few streaks that would take a few minutes to dry.  I also recorded a little video to show a bit better what the photos above display.  In the video it’s clear how the water just goes right off the treated surface whereas it tends to stick a bit longer on the untreated half.

Warning: The background noise in the video is a Flex 3401 and a bit loud, so turn your volume down or off.

So what did I get from all this?  Does it really work?  If I had to give a straight yes or no, I have to say yes.  It does exactly what it sets out to do…renews the surface to which it’s applied, protects it and should last a good few months if not more I believe.  As I said above, I will definitely test the durability of it and report back with my findings.

However, if I had to give a long answer as to whether it works or not, it has to be yes and no, albeit a very small “no”.  The reason I say no is because it’s not as simple as they make it sound.  You need to wash the surface thoroughly and they also recommend using a degreaser of sorts to make sure anything previously applied or simple dirt is fully removed.  I would imagine the durability and look (possibly uneven) would suffer if the surface is not correctly prepped.

Overall, I’m actually fairly impressed with the product and for something so cheap, I can see it being a good thing for surfaces that don’t need to be too aesthetically pleasing, such as cheap winter vehicles, work vehicles or the bed liner of a work truck.  I’m not a fan of how it looks as it’s just way too glossy for my taste and even looks a bit greasy, but at the same time it depends a bit on the surface to which it’s applied.  Bottom line, I have to say that it does really work and can only hope the durability is as advertised.  This is also advertised to restore dull and faded headlights, but for that we played around with their headlight restore kit, which is covered in the Wipe New Headlight Restore article!

Thanks for reading and as promised here’s a link to the full instructions from Wipe New.