VentureShield Paint Protection Film – care advice

VentureShield Paint Protection Film – care advice

See also: VentureShield® Paint Protection Film

See also: Cleaning Your Bike (Motorcycle) :-0

Advice on maintaining and caring for VentureShield Paint Protection Film

New 06Jan2011 – thanks to Steve L for emailing me with the warning below of a potential (alleged) issue with using some auto / motorcycle polish products on 3M VentureShield protective film. I’ll have to do some research on the care of VentureShield paint protection film and will add advice here.

A quick Google search didn’t come up with anything but I did find this interesting article in the results:
A warning – Venture Shield Measles – thinking of having protective film? Be careful about what you get and who you get to fit it.

Meantime I have emailed 3M Europe and 3M USA inviting their comments. I’ve also emailed AutoGlym to see if they wish to comment (as I’m a long time fan of AutoGlym products having used their polishes and motorcycle cleaners for many years!)

If anyone has specific advice or tips on VentureShield care or experience of ‘yellowing’ or other issues, please contact me [AndyW]

[Steve L] ……..While I was looking at it I glanced through your other recommendations, and thought I’d give you a heads up on Ventureshield;

Talking to the 3M bloke at the NEC, he said that on the rare occasions that they have had people complain about yellowing, it has always been down to polish. People who polish their motorcycles / vehicles a lot (so the kind of blokes who would be bothered to fit ventureshield then! ) can build up a layer of dust which is trapped in the microscopic indentations of the film and, as the polish discolours with age, it causes a yellowing effect.

He wouldn’t be drawn into telling which products had caused the issues, but he said to look carefully at any old residue on the cap of cream based polish to see if it is discoloured.

If it is, then it has the potential to cause a problem and needs to be washed off with a fairly strong solution of fairy liquid and the bike re-waxed with an alternative that doesn’t have the same problem (such as 3M’s own quickwax which is a clear, almost watery, spray).

I found that my autoglym (polish of choice) is one of those that can be a problem, so I had to wash it all off (bloody annoying as I had only polished the bike a few days earlier).

He told me to ignore the instructions about spraying it on to the bike (as it just runs off before you can do much with it) and spray it onto a cloth instead.

This seemed to work fine, and was really fast and easy to apply.

I wasn’t convinced about the protective properties (as it is so thin) so I treated the bike twice.

This was still faster than doing an autoglym polish once, and seems to have provided a decent shine.

Only time will tell if it last as well, but even if it doesn’t it won’t matter too much as it is so fast to redo you could almost make it part of your regular cleaning regime.

Cheers
Steve

As I wasn’t present at the discussion and more especially as I’m a natural born skeptic I did raise the question with Steve as to the possibility of there being an element of self promotion (3M products) with the advice he was given….

[Steve L] Know what you mean about 3M – and my note does read a bit that way. However, the chap was really, really reluctant to get drawn on which polishes were OK and which were not – and he wasn’t selling from the stand either. So nothing much for him to gain TBH.

If you think about it it makes sense – normally any polish “dust” would just get blown off the surface of the paint, or rinsed away at the next wash. But if the ventureshield pores trap it in place and it eventually changes colour, you could see how the problem might occur.

Like I said, he point blank refused to say whether Autoglym was one of those with a problem, but I didn’t really see the point in taking the risk (especially as the dry polish on my bottle at home is definitely an off white colour).

If anyone has specific advice or tips on VentureShield care or experience of ‘yellowing’ or other issues, please contact me [AndyW]

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