Well, I received my bottle of "Pimp my Grill" yesterday and gave it a try this afternoon. I got similar results as Jon. For minor fading, I would say it does a good job but it is not permanent as Jon states. Just how long lasting it would be, I don't know, but after spraying some simple green on it and scrubbing with a clean microfiber will bring back some of the fade.
I did try it on a lid with an area of bad fade and it didn't do near enough to mike me happy. BUt on the medium to slight fade, it had good results. It has a solid petroleum smell to it. I am guessing a light coating of motor oil would do similar but probably would not be as durable or long lasting.
I wish it was a magic bullet, but it is not. What it will do is make a slightly faded look lid look really good and I think barring any HD scrubbing will stay that way for an extended period of time. Just know that you probably don't want to treat the lid with this stuff and then break out the cleaning chemicals and start scrubbing the lid or you will undo much of the benefits. I have no idea what heat will do to the treatment, but I assume that if it is petroleum based, it likely will handle it pretty well.
I plan to keep it with my grill stuff and use it very judiciously on the marginal lids. I would think with a small bottle you could do dozens of lids. Maybe 100. It goes a long way.
Semi faded Clean lid before treatment:
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I taped off one side of the lid:
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After treatment on the left side:
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With the tape removed:
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After scrubbing with simple green and a micro fiber towel:
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A different black lid with a bad faded area. I stuck a stencil letter M on it in the middle of the faded area before treating it.
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After treating and removing the stencil. Notice the area around the stencil still shows significant remnants of the fade.
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