Another opticoat 2.0 question/issue

Ryry11

Ryry11

New member
Joined
Oct 4, 2012
Messages
369
Reaction score
0
Well I completed polishing and opti coating a car last weekend, and today was the first day I was able to pull the hose out and check the beading/sheeting. Mind you the car has a weeks worth of dirt on it, as it has seen rain and everything else outside where it's parked constantly.

I first ran the hose over it, wanting to see how it would react with it being dirty. The water either sheeted like it was completely unprotected, or it sheeted and left beading behind. Now I didn't over react because I just figured its dirty, so until the layer of dirt is washed away, it's not going to behave as it should. This isn't my first dealing with a coating type product, so I was a little concerned.

I decided to wash just the horizontal surface of the deck lid to see what would happen. When I rinsed, the water would sheet, but would leave behind beads everywhere the water touched. It WILL NOT sheet the surface dry like it should. This is a pic of how it looked after it was rinsed:
View attachment 18038

Now my question: did I screw up oc somehow? The directions were followed to a tee. Please help!
 
Do you mean even after flooding it left the beads? Because if so, I am having the same problem. I applied 3 (Yes 3) coats of it and Dr. G said I may not have the surface smooth enough so recommended going over with finish polish to smooth it out. I have not tried it yet. Not many passes or pressure I guess so I don't take off the coating. I am not sure if this is the problem so I would need to do more research before polishing the Opti-Coat.
 
I had an issue with Opticoat in the past. Way I see it, there are 3 possibilities here:

1. Something is left over from your shampoo on the surface affecting the beading ( gloss enhancing shampoo?)

2. The surface was not 100% oil free and the OC has degraded

3. The OC was put on too lightly (or "buffed" too heavily) and it has degraded.

Not enough time has passed for it to be contaminated, and its now clean. Any other possibilities out there?
 
Yes, after flooding, as the water sheets off it leaves beads everywhere the water has been. The only thing I can think of that I have have done was rubbed too much during the application process.

I would do about an 8"x8" section then immediately LIGHTLY buff with a microfiber. The only reason I did this is because even though most would melt into the surface and self level, in the right light there were what seemed to be very faint areas of product that wouldn't flash or self level, hard to explain, so this causede to lightly run a microfiber over each section after application.
 
The water sheets off the surface incredibly fast, it's just it won't sheet "cleanly", it leaves beading behind each time, which is weird because that's telling me that there is protection on the surface. Idk oc just kind of seems finicky to me. Although a great product if it works properly, there too much to go wrong and it takes a lot of time to get it to the point of applying it. Just my opinion thus far.
 
What was your prep? I'm sure you followed the steps but is it possible some oils or some sort of sealant or wax was left that could have caused the OC to coat poorly?
 
af90 said:
What was your prep? I'm sure you followed the steps but is it possible some oils or some sort of sealant or wax was left that could have caused the OC to coat poorly?
Click to expand...

I don't believe so. I say that because my prep was no different than how I always prep my cars, and I have coatings on 2 other cars currently with no issues.

I clayed using a combo of nanoskin pads and clay, polished, cleaned the surface using multiple passes and towels with a 17.5%(roughly) ipa wipe down, and then coated with oc. I used a generous amount of oc I'd say, thus with me wiping a little I find it hard to believe I wiped the product off, but idk.
 
It sounds like it didn't bond or was wiped away during application. Opti-Coat 2.0 takes a few minutes to flash to clear so with the short dry time and small sections you may have wiped too much or too soon. I see you've mentioned other coatings, but Opti Coat application is not typical. It actually IS a wipe on clear coat so two things need to be addressed for a proper bind to form. First, the surface must be perfectly clean and bare because Opti Coat bonded to something on the surface will come off with that substance. Only when the surface is bare can the proper bond form. Second, you'll be wiping it ON not IN. It's also not necessary to "work" the product, you are only wiping enough to cover the surface...don't go over the area again unnecessarily. As Opti Coat drys/flashes, you will see a rainbow effect/colors. Do not wipe away the excess product until 90% of the panel has flashed to clear. At that point it is safe to assume the necessary layer has taken and anything remaining is excess. Still, you only need to lightly buff visible over application and not touch it unnecessarily...just like you wouldn't touch paint as it dries.

One other thing that trips many installers up is how much to use. You want to prime the pad pretty well with an X. Enough so that you can wipe it across the middle of the panel and spread it outward quickly enough to spread it over, say, a fender. If you can't cover an area this size, you need to ad more product. You won't need to add that much again...just when you prime. Also, by the time you finish half the car there will be some build up that may cause high spots. I recommend flipping the applicator over or switching to a new one.

If the amount ive described seems to wet the panel too much, don't worry it will still be fine and high spots are easy to fix. It's actually better to leave one if you find it difficult to wipe away with just a towel so that you don't accidentally remove the application since its fresh. I like to apply it a little heavy and use an air compressor to expedite the flashing process. That will help dry the solvent and level the resin without touching.

I'm always around if you need further explainations.
 
Chris@Optimum said:
It sounds like it didn't bond or was wiped away during application. Opti-Coat 2.0 takes a few minutes to flash to clear so with the short dry time and small sections you may have wiped too much or too soon. I see you've mentioned other coatings, but Opti Coat application is not typical. It actually IS a wipe on clear coat so two things need to be addressed for a proper bind to form. First, the surface must be perfectly clean and bare because Opti Coat bonded to something on the surface will come off with that substance. Only when the surface is bare can the proper bond form. Second, you'll be wiping it ON not IN. It's also not necessary to "work" the product, you are only wiping enough to cover the surface...don't go over the area again unnecessarily. As Opti Coat drys/flashes, you will see a rainbow effect/colors. Do not wipe away the excess product until 90% of the panel has flashed to clear. At that point it is safe to assume the necessary layer has taken and anything remaining is excess. Still, you only need to lightly buff visible over application and not touch it unnecessarily...just like you wouldn't touch paint as it dries.

One other thing that trips many installers up is how much to use. You want to prime the pad pretty well with an X. Enough so that you can wipe it across the middle of the panel and spread it outward quickly enough to spread it over, say, a fender. If you can't cover an area this size, you need to ad more product. You won't need to add that much again...just when you prime. Also, by the time you finish half the car there will be some build up that may cause high spots. I recommend flipping the applicator over or switching to a new one.

If the amount ive described seems to wet the panel too much, don't worry it will still be fine and high spots are easy to fix. It's actually better to leave one if you find it difficult to wipe away with just a towel so that you don't accidentally remove the application since its fresh. I like to apply it a little heavy and use an air compressor to expedite the flashing process. That will help dry the solvent and level the resin without touching.

I'm always around if you need further explainations.
Click to expand...

So I guess my next question would be how do I fix this? What if I tried just reapplying oc? I really don't want to go back over the whole car with a polisher to be honest, but I want this fixed.
 
Is it bad if I used a 70% ipa wipedown before opti-coating? Why dilute it so much?
 
I haven't gotten a chance to see if my opti-coat job worked. Didn't want to put water on it right after I did it and I had to hand it back over to my gf right after I finished it. It was tacky feeling though even a couple hours later. Not sticky, just not slick and slippery like wax. I applied two coats and lightly wiped high spots down with almost no pressure about 1 min after applying.
 
Is OC even supposed to sheet off all of the water leaving a perfectly dry panel?

I applied OC 2.0 with two coats on my hood, front fenders and front doors, 1 coat on all the rest of the vehicle and did the prep about as well as you possibly can with optimum polishes and IPA. The water will sheet like crazy but will still leave very small beads behind.
 
jlax2485 said:
Is OC even supposed to sheet off all of the water leaving a perfectly dry panel?

I applied OC 2.0 with two coats on my hood, front fenders and front doors, 1 coat on all the rest of the vehicle and did the prep about as well as you possibly can with optimum polishes and IPA. The water will sheet like crazy but will still leave very small beads behind.
Click to expand...

Completely dry, no. However, using the water sheeting method you should be able to dry 95% of the panel simply by sheeting the water. In my case, I'm actually covering the whole panel in beads instead of drying the panel.
 
I'll have to experiment with the sheeting method of drying to see what happens.

For what it's worth I didnt take any chances during prep and used optimum finish polish as I had a brand new car in good shape. I did a thick application and lightly wiped with a microfiber cloth after a few minutes on each panel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top