Some additional info from someone who helped develop the product:
My name is Mark Chase and my best friend Jim Axe developed Road Warrior Plus. He has given quart sales to me, as I helped him during the process by doing many spray tests (I'm a custom painter). He says he's in this to make millions, not push quarts
I'm not here to push sales. I followed the traffic on my video plays to this site and thought I'd chime in to a few of the questions. There has been very little marketing of this product and a lot of questions out there. Here are some answers in the order the questions were posed:
RWP will not come off in the rain if it is cured correctly. If applied in the sunshine it cures very quickly - just a few minutes. If it's not applied in the sun it is neccessary to hit it with a blow dryer or heat gun for a couple minutes to ensure an adequate cure that will withstand rain and moisture.
At $40 a quart it is much cheaper to apply than tape since you can get numerous applications from a single quart. Applying 2 coats to the hood, front end and rocker panels takes less than a quarter of a quart bottle. I apply it to my Harley bagger - fairing, front fender, leading edges of the tank, lowers and saddlebag lids and can do this 20+ times with a quart.
It was not designed to enhance the appearance of your paint, but to protect it temporarily. When I'm putting 500 miles on a bike in one day I'm not overly concerned with the look of the bike, as it's typically coated with baked on bugs, etc. But when I get to where I'm going I can remove this stuff in a matter of minutes and save myself an hour or so of soaking and scrubbing with bug sponges and microfiber cloths. That said, it looks pretty good. I have a black bike and from a few feet away you can't tell it's on there. Most people don't notice it unless they get up close or see it in the right light.
I recommend not using masking tape when applying RWP. It is removed most easily when you leave a heavy wet edge when applying. This works best with the roller and no tape. I typically outline the area first, leaning on one edge of the roller to give a thick edge.
We have done ASTM gravelometer testing of this product and with two wet coats it will withstand 3/8" rough gravel at 65 mph. Additional coats = more protection.
The roller that we sell with this actually gives the best appearance in my opinion. I've tried many different rollers, and there are a few that don't work at all. With a little practice you can finesse this product so that it looks pretty darn good. I personally don't worry about it. Again, I'm applying it for protection - not looks, but I have friends who use it and take the effort to lay it down real smooth.
In an effort to see how long the product would stay on the car we coated a daily driver with two coats and went through a Montana winter. We took it through a drive-thu brushless car wash monthly. At 6 months it started looking pretty ratty, so we just pressure washed all of it off. I just left it on my Harley all winter in the garage (6 months) and it came off fine this spring. If it's put on thin it is more difficult to remove with age - but this only applies to taking it off by hand. With a pressure washer it is no problem. I like it to come off in one big piece (and always do it by hand - I have no pressure washer at home) so I always apply two wet coats.
A similar thread went up a few months ago on a Corvette forum and those guys have been eating this stuff up since discovering it.
Here's an email I just got minutes ago (literally while I was typing this!):
Mark,
I use the product to protect the lower part of the rear quarter panels on my drag car. Otherwise, the rubber that accumulates from doing burnouts can be a real bear to clean off. I simply roll on three coats of your product and, when it gets an accumulation of rubber over a few weeks of racing, I peel it off (rubber and all) and re-apply for the next race! The stuff works great and is virtually invisible. You might consider a marketing campaign aimed at bracket racers as this is a great product when used as I use it and I am not aware of any similar products.
Mickey Toombs
Senior Manufacturing Engineer
Keystone Powdered Metal Co.
And a couple others from the last month:
Mark, I had about ten people look at the car scratch their heads and then ask me what was on it. It was on for eleven days and to the car wash about five times. The best testimonial I can give you was when we washed the car Saturday after the race I asked my wife what she thought and she said "I love it." I used the pressure spray and it cleaned all the product off. I just let it spray for a second and get a bubble somewhere and then just took it all off. After we were finished and dried the car, it looked brand new again. The product was on a yellow ZR1 and our tech speed visited often was 168 MPH in the race. We averaged a little ovre 130 MPH. I bought six quarts and one would have been more than enough as I have quite a lot left in the quart bottle after coating the car twice. I would expect that you should have some inquiries after the race.
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Hi Mark!
Maybe you remember me contacting you and purchasing Road Warrior Plus for the Corvette that was going to be raced at Silver State Open Road Race in Nevada?
I just wanted to send you back my thoughts on your product and to let you know how well it worked for the Corvette!
The car was waxed and washed of course before application and then applied and allowed to cure in the sun the day before the race. Ran the race and the bugs weren't terribly awful but only tested the Road Warrior plus on the very front and around the sides of the new ZR1. The rest of the hood etc was not protected by your product. As a result it took a little bit of effort and more to remove the bugs a little more than a week after the race on the rest of the car but just a little bit of water on a cool car and Road Warrior Plus easily took off all of the bugs and no residue was left behind. Our test proves to us how much easier and better the car is protected with your product than without it. From now on we will apply it before every race and even on the trailer to keep off the bugs and dirt that accumulates on a long and sometimes very dirty drive.
We gave out a bunch of your cards and told everyone and showed as many people as we could talk to about your product, so hopefully you will be receiving calls from our contacts.
We will of course be purchasing more Road Warrior Plus for our future use too!
Thanks for all your answers and polite replies to all my questions in the past. I hope to hear back from you again soon!
Deanna Fairbairn
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I recently bought a bottle of the road warrier from Madshadow Custom Paint and just used it for two weekends in a row of HPDE. I want to say that I am very happy with the product. I applied two coats to the front end, headlights, half doors, and half the hood. Did it at night in the garage (78 degF humid) and cured it with a 1800 watt hair dryer. It looks and smells like Elmers glue going on, and dries nearly clear with a firm rubber like feel and orange peel texture when dried. Easy and quick to apply, but takes a little time to cure if doing it with a hair dryer (I'd say about 7-8 minutes of blow drying for one coat over half the hood). I did it last thursday, then did two track days Sat and Sunday. Drove thru about 5 min of rain coming home. Then the car sat that way all week, then I did another track day yesterday, and hosed off the product last night. I hosed the car down, then just used the hose gun stream to blast off the coating, which came off in large sheets. You can peel it off by hand just as easy like the video. The paint underneath is clean and smooth, with no residue left behind. You will probably want to rewash/rewax sections you coated, but does not look necessary. I did use blue painters tape on the very front nose/vertical sections of the bumper just in case extra protection was needed for a large high speed impacts, but I think a 3rd coat of road warrier would serve the same purpose. BTW, the road warrier can be applied over the tape, which I did to act as extra protection, and to also seal all the edges down to keep them from peeling in the wind. Madshadow recommends not doing the headlights, but I found it cures clear enough that I did it and would recommend it highly. In all, I had about 700 miles of high speed track and travel, and have not found one chip thru this coating. Top speed of about 120 mph on track. Adding up the high speed forays on the track, I calculate that I hit or exceeded 110 mph about 1000 times in 250 racing laps. Road warrier was still intact and protecting well. Alot of black rubber marks on it from race rubber flying. This is what I will use for track days from now on. Very good product, and I would recommend for track days and long occasional road trips. For a daily driver, it would not be practical.
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Thanks for your interest
Mark Chase
MadshadowCustomPaint dot-com
