Essence under Opti-lens?

spazzz

spazzz

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I have to do a little polishing on my aftermarket headlights.
I am hoping I can tear the crap coating off with compound and a grey 3.5 Thin-pro.

Has anyone tried Essence as the last polish before Opti-lens?
It works under Gloss Coat right, so I was thinking why not.
 
Will do.
They aren't yellowing yet.
The passenger side decided to shed. Must have been the cold, then warmer garage over winter.
I park in the shade at work and car is in the garage otherwise.
 
Have you checked to see if they make an xpel kit for the 04+. That would be the way to go. You can opti-lens or gloss coat over the film.
 
I did a couple years ago after reading about yours.
They do or it was another company, I can't remember.
The problem was it didn't cover the top, which is the peeling part.
Either way there was something incomplete about the film.
 
Xpel does make film pieces that can be cut to size. Could go with that option as well. Or get the kit and just coat the top with opti-lens.
 
I'm guessing it will work but you likely won't get the advertised longevity from Opti lens by using Essence. I'm seeing a common trend amongst various coating users who apply over top of Essence (CQuartz excluded obviously). But you can always just reapply once it wears off.
 
spazzz said:
Has anyone tried Essence as the last polish before Opti-lens?
It works under Gloss Coat right, so I was thinking why not.
Click to expand...

I know I'm not keeping track of the Essence experiments (which I'd like to be since I recently bought a bottle of both Essence and Essence+ but haven't used them yet), but Optimum has said that Essence is incompatible with the Optimum chemistry (I believe that would be SiO2 v. SiC). So my point here is that while Gloss-Coat has been described by Dr. G as a "hybrid" coating (which may make it compatible with Essence), Opti-Lens was supposed to be Opti-Coat with UV inhibitors added, which would definitely put it in the "incompatible" category based on what Optimum has stated.

I'm not making any judgement on the validity of the Optimum claims one way or another, I'm just providing you with some more data points on the topic.
 
boomdone said:
I'm guessing it will work but you likely won't get the advertised longevity from Opti lens by using Essence.
Click to expand...

Well, then there's hardly any point in doing it--because Opti-Lens really doesn't last very long anyway, at least on lenses where you've sanded off the factory coating. 1.5 years is about all I get before noticeable yellowing, even using 3 coats.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I know I'm not keeping track of the Essence experiments (which I'd like to be since I recently bought a bottle of both Essence and Essence+ but haven't used them yet), but Optimum has said that Essence is incompatible with the Optimum chemistry (I believe that would be SiO2 v. SiC). So my point here is that while Gloss-Coat has been described by Dr. G as a "hybrid" coating (which may make it compatible with Essence), Opti-Lens was supposed to be Opti-Coat with UV inhibitors added, which would definitely put it in the "incompatible" category based on what Optimum has stated.

I'm not making any judgement on the validity of the Optimum claims one way or another, I'm just providing you with some more data points on the topic.
Click to expand...

The answer I was (yes/no) looking for.
Thanks for mentioning this.
Not worth it then to fiddle. Hyper-polish is a gem and a guarantee.

How long do you wait between coats? I don't recall seeing that anywhere.
Optimum is all--'one coat is all you need'
 
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