builthatch
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- May 25, 2008
- 2,352
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- #141
I need 2 liters of coating, not some 30 to 50ml.
2 liters? that's ~200 cars covered in Opti-Coat, haha.
for what it's worth, i've used Gloss-Coat now to coat two flats, the boot on my C, and the bonnet, which is pretty good size. i am very confident that i could do my entire car, meaning all paint, hard trim, full wheels, inner barrels and glass that isn't the windshield and easily have some left in the tube.
the day before i put GC on the hood, i applied OCP. this goes a longer way than Opti-Coat. i know Kyle will twitch at the math possibilities, but that's what i find. i believe others are also coming to the conclusion that Gloss-Coat goes longer that what we are used to as well. particularly if you use a neoprene applicator. i do not know about micro suedes on neoprene blocks yet. i have the new setup from OPT to try but haven't.
They make no sense for garage queens, show cars, or for people that pamper their cars or demand the best look possible. Sealants can now get a year or more of protection. Those who apply a spray wax twice a month don't even need an LSP. Coatings are all about being the best sacrificial barrier possible. Period.
i said some things about this earlier
ultimately it depends on how you use your car, first and foremost. and how you treat it as a whole. but my take on your question is usually a definitive yes. imo the coating will help maintain the substrate and keep it from getting as damaged as easily. and the substrate is finite, so preserving that is obv terribly important. the coating tech is more durable than waxes and sealants, if not because of the chemistry, because of the sheer increase in film build.
if you get bird crap on your car and there is wax or sealant, it will be better than just having the bare clear. but fallout like that can easily defeat those LSPs and get into the clear. same with hard water deposits. with coatings, my experience is they give themselves up much less. i think the Mini Cooper hood example in my first post is a prime example of this.
in my experiences they keep your car looking cleaner for a lot longer than waxes and sealants and are just generally easier to clean.
but, sealants and waxes are traditionally easier to use and some people don't need the sort of protection the coatings give because they have a garage queen or something. i mean, i have a garage queen and i still play with coatings on it but that's because i like how much easier it is to clean and i don't have to refresh the LSP.
but after my time with this new Gloss-Coat, that stuff is almost as easy to install as Opti-Seal, which is pretty damn cool. as i said earlier, i don't have experience with any other brand's coatings but i'm sure there are easier-than-ever to install coatings coming out from other companies too that are fantastic.
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You state that Opti-Coat is "permanent". This is not true and no longer claimed by OPT. You must have cut and pasted the old marketing material
re: OCP, it'll be there forever until you take an abrasive to it and purposely abrade until it's gone. the bond to the clear coat is permanent. no chemicals except paint stripper will remove it. it will chip off if hit hard enough but i don't know if that's because the substrate is weak or not. anyway, if that isn't considered permanent, chemistry bond explanations from Dr. G aside, i don't know what would be considered permanent. having to be media blasted off? chipped off?? would that be permanent in the eyes of non-paint/coating industry laymen like us???
for me, given the in-depth explanation Dr. G gave, i'm more comfortable with saying that the coating is permament since the bond to the clear is permanent but the marketing has changed for many reasons. if i were selling it to a customer, i'd NOT say it's permanent, i would go only as far as the company is willing to go, which now is less than permanent. either way, really, it's irrelevant. permanent or five years. the gap between waxes and sealants and at least some coatings is a large enough gap.