Gonna pick up some supplies for the truck..
Looking for opinions on products listed below or alternatives that may be better

Wheels.

Wheel Wax
DP Wheel Glaze

Need something for the rubber trim around the windows and such.
The black around the mirrors, bumper step.

Black Wow
Stoners Trim Shine
Poorboys Trim Restorer


Inside dash/plastic

303 protectant

Also what can I use on the black panels that go between the front and rear doors of a crewcab, they are fading or looking chalky from something.

 

Having used both of those products (wheel wax fairly recently), I'll simply say that I'm not sure that there's a 'go-to' product, in my opinion. The heat generated by our braking systems is pretty high and, as such, most waxes simply won't hold up for long periods of time.

The solution is constant application or the utilization of a good 'booster' wax spray like Optimum Spray Wax inbetween your main applications. DP & WW are good products but, the conditions that they're subjected to -- well, I'm not sure that anything is going to do a stellar job.

Again, no silver bullet here in my opinion but, based upon the list, I'm a big fan of Black Wow. It's my experience that the bottom rubber molding around the window has some sort of 'top coat' on it that is easy to abrade off. I've seen this on a few trucks that I've worked (clients) on and am even starting to notice it on my 2005.


I know that a lot of folks are big fans of 303 on the interior; I'm not one of them. In my opinion, it's still a bit to much 'pop' on the interior as I'm much more of a matte-look guy when it comes to the dash and other plastics/vinyls. For me, I really like Meguiar's Quick Detailer Interior (QDI). QDI offers UV protection and a very light cleaning ability. Used regularly to keep up with dash dust and such, I'm not sure that there's anything better.

If you want to get a bit more gloss, Poorboy's Natural Look Dressing does a great job. Again, it's good on the UV protection side but it offers a bit more 'pop'. The smell from the product is very 'sweet' (not sure if that's your cup of tea) but, I find it to be acceptable (it's not overwhelming by a long shot -- it actually smells quite nice, IMO).

Ford screwed up here, IMO. In 2004, the B-pillar was a glossy black. In 2005, they switched the the flat black look. The flat black is more of an uncoated single-stage paint (although, I think it has something on it as I never get paint if I polish this area on my 05 and other client vehicles). I will tell you that the coating is THIN on this thing.

My suggestion, try a few light-cut products (like SSR 1 or Meg's #9) on a 'spot' and see what you can accomplish. Without seeing it, it's kind of a hard call on what may or may not solve the problem.

The rule of thumb on this item is to not get too aggressive but to treat it like paint -- because it is. I've actually seen a guy or three on here try to coat that part in 303 or Vinylex or something similar... trust me, don't do that.

I hope that helps a tad...

-RP-