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Blackdevil77

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I have Optimum Gloss Coat on it's way to me and I want to coat my car 100% properly. I know prep is the most important part of a coating. My car currently has Collinite 845 on it, which I would have to remove. The paint doesn't have many defects aside from extremely light surface scratches and very light micro marring.

My plan was to polish the car with Meguiars M205 to remove the 845 as well as the light surface defects. I would of liked to use Menzerna SF3500 for this step because it was such a joy to work with, but I was told that the Menzerna polishes tend to hide defects and due to their oily nature, are not ideal to use prior to a coating. If this is wrong, let me know. I don't mind working with M205 at all, I just loved SF3500.
After polishing each panel, I'm gonna do a wipe down with Carpro Eraser. Once the whole car is done with the polishing step, I was gonna go over the whole car again with the optimum paint prep spray. Once that is done, I would assume I am ready to coat.

Am I missing anything? Any recommendations for me or does this sound good? I just want to make sure and get any tips before I start anything.
 
Blackdevil77 said:
I have Optimum Gloss Coat on it's way to me and I want to coat my car 100% properly. I know prep is the most important part of a coating. My car currently has Collinite 845 on it, which I would have to remove. The paint doesn't have many defects aside from extremely light surface scratches and very light micro marring.
205 and if you want to refine use reflect.
My plan was to polish the car with Meguiars M205 to remove the 845 as well as the light surface defects. I would of liked to use Menzerna SF3500 for this step because it was such a joy to work with, but I was told that the Menzerna polishes tend to hide defects and due to their oily nature, are not idea to use prior to a coating. If this is wrong, let me know. I don't mind working with M205 at all, I just loved SF3500.
After polishing each panel, I'm gonna do a wipe down with Carpro Eraser. Once the whole car is done with the polishing step, I was gonna go over the whole car again with the optimum paint prep spray. Once that is done, I would assume I am ready to coat.

Am I missing anything? Any recommendations for me or does this sound good? I just want to make sure and get any tips before I start anything.
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205 and reflect .
 
Sounds good so far.

Stick to M205 would be my opinion. Its just so much easier to work with...
 
Blackdevil77 said:
Isn't reflect on par with 205? Why follow 205 with reflect?
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They are fairly close.

If you really wanted to have product synergy and not worry about incompatibility then Optimum Hyper Polish would be the best way to go.

Here is what I would recommend based on what you have. I have never used SF3500 but I do use M205.

1. Mike's http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/86146-aggressive-approach-washing-car.html method to fully decontaminate the paint.
2. Polish with M205
2a. Rinseless with ONR
3. Optimum Paint Prep
4. Optimum Gloss Coat (2 coats)
5. Opti Seal if you have it to protect gloss coat during that 7 day cure time
6. Maintain with ONR washes. Optional to use Opti-Seal as a drying aid or stand alone.

Follow this and you will be golden.

This is optional and I did it on the cars I gloss coated. On the vette I ONR'ed it to remove all compound and polishing dust as all Optimum products are compatible. On my dad's car and the Camaro I rinselessed with Meguiar's D114 as I did not have ONR at the time. Also D114 leaves nothing behind on the paint. I followed that up with a paint prep wipe down.

I would go over the paint with Optimum paint prep over eraser or even ONR after you polish. That way you follow the manufacturers recommended prep. I would recommend going over the paint at least 2 times with optimum paint prep. Constantly flipping your towel to a clean side and using a new towel when needed.


You can use my threads as a reference

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ck-c5-corvette-coated-optimum-gloss-coat.html

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...cted-rupes-uhs-coated-optimum-gloss-coat.html

Prior to Optimum Paint Prep being released I had used Eraser. I did not have any issues with Eraser and my uncle keeps me updated and the coating is still making it easier for him to wash. But I did use Meguiar's D114 after I compounded and polished the paint so that cleaned the paint as well. If I had to do it over again I would have gone with Optimum Paint Prep if it was available at the time.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...10-camaro-optimum-gloss-coat-new-formula.html
 
The Guz said:
They are fairly close.

If you really wanted to have product synergy and not worry about incompatibility then Optimum Hyper Polish would be the best way to go.

Here is what I would recommend based on what you have. I have never used SF3500 but I do use M205.

1. Mike's http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/how-articles/86146-aggressive-approach-washing-car.html method to fully decontaminate the paint.
2. Polish with M205
2a. Rinseless with ONR
3. Optimum Paint Prep
4. Optimum Gloss Coat (2 coats)
5. Opti Seal if you have it to protect gloss coat during that 7 day cure time
6. Maintain with ONR washes. Optional to use Opti-Seal as a drying aid or stand alone.

Follow this and you will be golden.

This is optional and I did it on the cars I gloss coated. On the vette I ONR'ed it to remove all compound and polishing dust as all Optimum products are compatible. On my dad's car and the Camaro I rinselessed with Meguiar's D114 as I did not have ONR at the time. Also D114 leaves nothing behind on the paint. I followed that up with a paint prep wipe down.

I would go over the paint with Optimum paint prep over eraser or even ONR after you polish. That way you follow the manufacturers recommended prep. I would recommend going over the paint at least 2 times with optimum paint prep. Constantly flipping your towel to a clean side and using a new towel when needed.


You can use my threads as a reference

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...ck-c5-corvette-coated-optimum-gloss-coat.html

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...cted-rupes-uhs-coated-optimum-gloss-coat.html

Prior to Optimum Paint Prep being released I had used Eraser. I did not have any issues with Eraser and my uncle keeps me updated and the coating is still making it easier for him to wash. But I did use Meguiar's D114 after I compounded and polished the paint so that cleaned the paint as well. If I had to do it over again I would have gone with Optimum Paint Prep if it was available at the time.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum...10-camaro-optimum-gloss-coat-new-formula.html
Click to expand...

Thanks for the extremely helpful, information packed response! I'm glad I ordered ONR with gloss coat! I was thinking of using optimum hyper polish but after some research on here, I read that it's not quite as good as M205. I was second guessing using ONR after polishing, before the coating because I thought I read it has some polymers in the formula that also protect the paint. Wouldn't that interfere with the coating bonding? Or is it mild enough that a simple spray and wipe with optimum paint prep would remove all of that?
 
Blackdevil77 said:
Thanks for the extremely helpful, information packed response! I'm glad I ordered ONR with gloss coat! I was thinking of using optimum hyper polish but after some research on here, I read that it's not quite as good as M205. I was second guessing using ONR after polishing, before the coating because I thought I read it has some polymers in the formula that also protect the paint. Wouldn't that interfere with the coating bonding? Or is it mild enough that a simple spray and wipe with optimum paint prep would remove all of that?
Click to expand...

You could use hyper polish on a finishing pad after M205 if you wanted to. I've seen hyper polish work well and other times not. But the paint hardness plays a factor. Give hyper polish a test spot to see how it works.

The polymers in ONR are not enough to affect the bonding of Gloss Coat. Optimum Paint Prep will remove them with ease. Yvan demonstrates that in the youtube video. See around the 3:30 mark of this video.
 
The Guz said:
You could use hyper polish on a finishing pad after M205 if you wanted to. I've seen hyper polish work well and other times not. But the paint hardness plays a factor. Give hyper polish a test spot to see how it works.

The polymers in ONR are not enough to affect the bonding of Gloss Coat. Optimum Paint Prep will remove them with ease. Yvan demonstrates that in the youtube video. See around the 3:30 mark of this video.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking my paint must be pretty soft. I correct my paint to damn near perfection with SF3500, spray each panel with an IPA solution to check my work in addition to wiping the whole car down with eraser before applying 845. No surface scratches. I washed the car twice since correcting the paint a couple of weeks ago, and I'm already seeing very VERY light surface scratches under my inspection lights. And both times I dried the car with a leaf blower, I didn't even go over the finish with a drying towel at all. That's why some on here think I was getting a "false correction" with the SF3500. I just don't get how that could be possible with the IPA and eraser wipe downs I did, especially with a polish that claims to have no fillers or anything.

That's what made me want to go with a coating. I'll give hyper polish a try and see how it works on my paint. If my paint is as soft as I'm guessing it is, I'm thinking it might work.

Okay, I'll do exactly that. Thanks for the videos.
 
You could use SF3500. ONR and paint prep should remove all those oils. If your paint is soft just looking at it will marr it. My brothers black Harley paint is like that. Coating it with PBL V2 helped much more than a sealant.
 
The Guz said:
You could use SF3500. ONR and paint prep should remove all those oils. If your paint is soft just looking at it will marr it. My brothers black Harley paint is like that. Coating it with PBL V2 helped much more than a sealant.
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Yeah it is really soft. I just tried M205 on half the hood and half the trunk. It is removing the light scratches in the paint pretty easily with the white lake country hybrid pads. I don't know if it's me or not, but it seemed to me the SF3500 finished better. They both remove the scratches, but it seemed to me that SF3500 finished with a little more clarity and gloss. Is that possible?
 
Sure. Look at the gloss level of SF3500. I don't know the gloss level of M205. Did you try hyper polish?

menzerna-chart-16.jpg
 
I used 2500 followed by 3500 then I used eraser and coated with Opti-coat 2.0 you will love the results. I was surprised how easy it is to apply. Ivan showed me at Detail fest how easy it was and stressed to apply thin but even.
 
The Guz said:
Sure. Look at the gloss level of SF3500. I don't know the gloss level of M205. Did you try hyper polish?

menzerna-chart-16.jpg
Click to expand...

Not yet, it didn't come yet. I ordered everything on Friday (coating, ONR etc). If worse comes to worse, you think I can get away with using SF3500 and just doing mutliple IPA wipe downs, clean the car with ONR followed by more IPA/optimum paint prep? That's assuming hyper polish finishes similarly to 205. It's not bad, SF3500 is just noticeably better.
 
wing commander said:
I used 2500 followed by 3500 then I used eraser and coated with Opti-coat 2.0 you will love the results. I was surprised how easy it is to apply. Ivan showed me at Detail fest how easy it was and stressed to apply thin but even.
Click to expand...

No problems with the coating bonding after using 3500? Did you find 3500 to hide imperfections at all?
 
Sometimes IPA wipe-down scratches the paint if the paint is really soft.
Eraser is strong stuff, with very little lubrication.
Soft paints are PITA, even leveling the coating will leave marks.
I use Essence for such cases, and I leave it for like an hour before applying coating.
 
RPM_BR said:
Sometimes IPA wipe-down scratches the paint if the paint is really soft.
Eraser is strong stuff, with very little lubrication.
Soft paints are PITA, even leveling the coating will leave marks.
I use Essence for such cases, and I leave it for like an hour before applying coating.
Click to expand...

I just finished going over my whole car with SF3500. Did an IPA wipe down after each panel. After the IPA wipe down, I did another wipe down with eraser. Once I get my coating, ONR and Optimum paint prep, I'll be going over the car again for a 3rd time with optimum paint prep.

One thing I don't quite understand, after polishing a panel, going over it with IPA AND eraser, water still seems to bead up on the panel. Is that normal or am I not getting something off I should be? It happens whether I use M205 or SF3500. Even after an IPA wipe down and Eraser, water still beads up.
 
I believe that the water beading is simply a consequence of a polished surface, instead of any polishing compound leftover.
The funny thing is that I noticed the same thing last week, nice beading after a polished and decontaminated car; I always wash it after polishing and before coating, as long as the car is not soft paint.
Best regards
 
RPM_BR said:
I believe that the water beading is simply a consequence of a polished surface, instead of any polishing compound leftover.
The funny thing is that I noticed the same thing last week, nice beading after a polished and decontaminated car; I always wash it after polishing and before coating, as long as the car is not soft paint.
Best regards
Click to expand...

Okay, thanks. I thought it was something I did wrong. You think I should wash the car with ONR (even though it's gonna be clean) before applying the coating, just to knock off any possible remaining oils, or can I just use the optimum paint prep spray and go straight away to the coating?
 
Depends on how long the car is going to be sitting. More than likely it will have some dust build up so I would say ONR it.
 
The Guz said:
Depends on how long the car is going to be sitting. More than likely it will have some dust build up so I would say ONR it.
Click to expand...

Depends when the coating comes. It will probably have some light dust on it by the time the coating comes. It won't be driven before then so it should be very light.
 
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