If you are in any way involved or interested in the detailing scene and have a social media account, either on Instagram or Facebook, you have no doubt at some point been bombarded with advertisements and videos related to Shine Armor products. I remember a time where I could not go a day without something about Shine Armor popping up on my feed.

This used to bug me just a little, that is until I watched one of the videos, and that’s when I got really annoyed. Never in my life have I seen such bullsh*t marketing, which included some absolutely outrageous claims about the product.

If you have never seen a Shine Armor commercial, below is a little taster of what to expect.

 

There is so much wrong with this video that I don’t even know where to start. Besides some of the ridiculously faked before and afters, they downright make false claims about the product. For example, if you are dumb enough to pour nails and screws on the hood of your car, that it won’t scratch. Or if you put a fried egg on it, it will slide off…..why would you be putting an egg on your car in the first place?!

When I watch this video, I can’t help but think that it is a pure scam product designed to part gullible people who don’t know anything about car detailing with their money.

Anyone who knows even the slightest amount about detailing will hopefully spot this crap a mile off.

I must admit that before I watched their video’s, I didn’t have a clue what Shine Armor was – as these products are not available locally to me. I decided to do a bit more research about the company and some of their products, in particular their ‘Quick Coat’, which seems to be the most heavily marketed product they offer as far as I can tell by my social media feed.

Who Are Shine Armor?

According to the Shine Armor website, they are “The world’s leading home detailing company“.

“Shine Armor was created by a group of guys who are absolutely auto obsessed. You know, the kind of obsessed where your jaw drops every time you see a sick whip, and you have to stop and take a picture of it… Yep, that’s us! “

Judging by the address on the site, it looks as though they are operating out of Jacksonville, Florida.

You can buy Shine Armor directly from their site or the likes of Amazon.

Some of the other products they sell include:

• Revive Car Scratch Remover
• Pristine Tire Shine Gel
• Car Upholstery and Interior Cleaner
• Performance Booster Oil Additive ( more snake oil I imagine)
• Shine Armor Graphene Ceramic Spray
• Armor Suds Graphene Shampoo

This is only a shortlist of some of their products. One thing that immediately stands out to me is the prices, which are extortionately high, even compared to some of the expensive brands in the detailing world.

The Quick coat bottle is a mere 8oz in size ( just over 230ml ) – tiny.

Out of interest, I decided to pick up a bottle of their quick coat just to see what the product was really like. I knew it wasn’t going to be a good product, but I wanted to see what the experience would be like nonetheless.

It cost me 35 euros ( just over $40 ) to get the bottle to my door, which might be the most expensive spray product ( given the size) I have ever bought.

What is Shine Armor Quick Coat?

According to the Shine Armor website :

“Our FORTIFY formulation team developed the ONLY DIY, at-home detailing product that uses ceramic waterless cleaning technology and wetting agents to gently, safely and effectively cut through dirt, grease and grime on-contact – leaving you with a clean, sealed and protected surface each and every time.”

“In one simple application Fortify Quick Coat does the work of over 3 products. It drastically cuts down on the amount of time and hassle required to fully detail your vehicle professionally. It’s time to ditch the buckets of water and bottles of soap!”

Before I started researching the product I had assumed it was some type of sealant product that should be used as a protective layer which would be applied after a vehicle has been safely washed.

To find out that this is marketed as a “Waterless Wash” type product which you should “ditch the buckets of water and bottles of soap!” makes this product even more outrageous in my opinion.

Let me remind you this is an 8oz bottle!

The exact ingredients of this product are unclear but they claim an advanced nanotechnology formula in which your vehicle will be layered with a protective coating that can last for months on end.

The fact that this is being sold as a wash product I assume that the amount of protection this product provides is minimal and the Si02 content of the formula must be extremely low, otherwise it would be difficult to work with as a waterless wash.

How to Use Shine Armor Quick Coat

As I mentioned above, this product is intended to be used as a replacement for washing your car! According to Shine Armor, all you need is a bottle of quick coat and some microfiber clothes and you are ready to start using it.

In my opinion, and I’m sure a lot of my readers would agree – is that this is a very dangerous way to clean your car and you are almost guaranteed to inflict swirls and scratches as your drag dirt and debris across your paintwork.

I always advocate for a non-contact pre-wash (Using a foam cannon ideally) before ever coming in contact with your paintwork, as this minimizes the risks. 

Their directions are as follows :

1. Spray onto a clean microfiber cloth and onto the surface, you are about to clean ( Approx 3″ X 3 ” )
2. Gently wipe the surface first with the pre-wetted microfiber cloth.
3. Quickly switch to a clean,pre-folded microfiber cloth and buff off before it dries.
4. Repeat the process until the entire vehicle is clean

As my car is Ceramic Coated and treated to a lot of other great detailing products, I didn’t think it was a fair test to use it on my own car and decided to test it out on another car that had no previous protection applied to the paintwork.

Another point to note is that regardless of the instructions for use, there was no way I was going to apply it directly to the car without prior washing.

The first thing I did was a two bucket wash on the car and dry it with a microfiber towel

The car was then ready for the application of quick coat

I proceeded to follow the other instructions and sprayed onto 3″ X 3 ” areas of the surface and onto the microfiber cloth that I was applying it with. I then switched to a clean microfiber as a final buff.

To be honest I couldn’t really see much of the product left on the surface to buff after the first microfiber wipe but did so anyway.

As there was no “real” buffing required, it was pretty much as simple as just spray and wipe and as a result I was able to complete the car in a very short space of time.

It states on the bottle that shine armor quick coat can be used on glass, but in this instance, I only applied it to the paintwork as I don’t really like applying products that are not specifically intended to be used on the glass due to issues with smearing or juddery wipers with some products.

Shine Armor Quick Coat Review – After Results

Below are some pictures of the car after the application of the quick coat product. As you can see there was an ever so slight shine added to the appearance of the paintwork.

I was expecting at least some slickness feel to be added also, but I didn’t experience much change to how the paint felt. 

Admittedly, It wouldn’t be hard to add some shine to this paint, as I mentioned previously this car never had any other product applied to its paintwork. 

In my opinion, the results were mediocre compared to most other detailing spray products that are available at a fraction of the price. As I described previously, I applied this to a car that was cleaned before application, which meant that I was able to apply this product sparingly and still managed to use about 1/3 of the bottle.

It is beyond belief that this is intended to be used as a waterless wash at almost $40 it cost me for the bottle. If used as intended you would probably only see 1 or 2 uses from the entire bottle of product – which is just mad! This has to be one (if not the) least bang for buck products available.

Shine Armor Quick Coat – How Long Does it Last?

Shine Armor claim 2-3 months of protection from a single application of this product, but I have my doubts. Admittedly, after the first rain shower ( and we get many of them here in Ireland!) I did notice some beading on the paintwork, so there was definitely some initial protection laid down.

As the days passed, this beading effect decreased fairly quickly.

Length of protection is better measured in weeks and not months with this product.

Shine Armor Quick Coat Summary – Worth It?

In short, it is safe to say Shine Armor quick coat is not worth the money that they are charging for this product. If this product was at a different price point or didn’t make some outrageous claims and statements in the advertisement, you may be able to argue that this is not the worst product out there, however, this is not the case.

There are just too many issues with this product to be able to recommend to anybody to buy it, these include :

Pricepoint

I don’t know how the company can justify the exceptionally high price tag for an 8oz bottle of waterless wash in which you can “ditch the buckets of water and bottles of soap”. It doesn’t take a mathematician to work out how much product you are going to end up using if you are trying to clean a whole car with it.

Ridiculous Claims

The fact that they claim that this product will protect your car from scratches and is highly heat resistant, even to fire – is just absurd. This is 100% false advertising.

Protection 

This product will provide very little protection for your paintwork compared to other spray products that are available at a fraction of the cost. Your money is much better spent elsewhere.

I’m sure that regular readers of my blog would be able to spot a product like this a mile off, but hopefully, this post will highlight some of the issues with this product for others who may have lesser experience and looking for some guidance in the big bad world of detailing products. 

Have you had any experience with any Shine Armor products? Please let me know in the comments below.

Until Next Time,

Happy Detailing

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About the Author – Darren O Hara

Darren is the founder of the DriveDetailed blog and is a keen detailing enthusiast living in the rainy south of Ireland. When he is not cleaning his car he is always researching ways he can improve his techniques and enjoys testing out new products.

Darren currently drives an Audi TTRS and is a big fan of performance cars.

You can follow Darren on Instagram @darrenoharacork