Pitting in Coating

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Saibot

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I have an Opti-Coat Pro Plus coating on my car, and had some wicked water spotting on it. I tried to chemically remove it, but to no avail, so on to the mechanical removal. Starting with the less aggressive option, I used a DA with Optimum Hyper Polish and a Rupes yellow pad. I was pleased that they came off without too much effort, or having to move to MF pads/cutting compound.
But upon inspection, I see a lot of pitting in the coating that wasn't there before polishing. They are pretty small, but they're all over the areas that were polished. I've never seen pitting in a coating and wasn't sure if this was typical, or I have something "special" happening, so I thought I'd ask the experts here. Any ideas what's happening?

Thanks!
 
My guess is that you have almost polished through the ceramic coating. A ceramic coating often filling the valleys in the paint. So you get a flat surface and the gloss comes up from that. So when you polishing and gets almost through and maybe through on the higher spots in the paint. It can be looking almost like you have wet sanded the paint. Just a guess though. A more simple answer can be that the water spots has etched through deeper in the coating and caused the pitting look.

How long since did you get the coating applyied?
 
Could also be little chips in the paint. Lots of flying debris out there
 
Coatings don't pit so I would lean that it is on the painted surface. Do you have any photos that could help us see what you see?

Also you should have taken it to your opti-coat installer. Polishing has compromised the coating so you are going to have to re-coat.
 
Thanks for all of the replies!
I had it coated about 5 months ago, so still pretty fresh. As far as level of polishing I performed, I went super light. The lighter swirls came out in the process, but the deeper scratches are still there, so I really don't think I took much off at all. I also don't think it's road damage since the adjacent panels don't have the same pitting. If removal of the OCPP is required, any idea how difficult that is going to be? Anyone removed it before?
Thank you guys very much for the guidance!
 
Let me get this straight. You are polishing a 5 moth old Pro level coating to remove swirls? If that is correct then what you are trying to do is impossible. The only thing I know that will help clear up marring and scratches is something like Essence Plus with NO abrasives.

Some pro coatings say they have to be sanded off. You can try a heavy compound like Menzerma 300 or 400 if your current polish is not working. If it was me I would contact the installer.
 
rlmccarty2000 said:
Let me get this straight. You are polishing a 5 moth old Pro level coating to remove swirls? If that is correct then what you are trying to do is impossible. The only thing I know that will help clear up marring and scratches is something like Essence Plus with NO abrasives.

Some pro coatings say they have to be sanded off. You can try a heavy compound like Menzerma 300 or 400 if your current polish is not working. If it was me I would contact the installer.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply, rimccarty2000!
Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to get rid of the swirls, just using that as a reference for the amount I had polished out. I was trying to get rid of the water spotting. The amount of swirls in the paint is ridiculous. I've taken great pains to treat my black paint gently, and the body shop that had it "washed" it for me. Not sure with what, perhaps gravel?
I'm going to take it back over to where it was originally coated (great guys, amazing work) since they have to recoat the panels that were repaired. I sure hope the old coating doesn't have to be removed. I can't imagine that level of grinding on my car.
Appreciate the help!
 
Here are a couple of pictures of the car.
This is a section that hasn't been polished yet:
View attachment 68450

And here is an are that is polished, with all of the pitting. It almost looks like I used a linty towel.
View attachment 68449

It's kind of tough to really see it in these pictures, but it's kind of a mess.
 
How were all of those awful swirls introduced to the coated surface?
 
Saibot said:
Thanks for all of the replies!
I had it coated about 5 months ago, so still pretty fresh. As far as level of polishing I performed, I went super light. The lighter swirls came out in the process, but the deeper scratches are still there, so I really don't think I took much off at all. I also don't think it's road damage since the adjacent panels don't have the same pitting. If removal of the OCPP is required, any idea how difficult that is going to be? Anyone removed it before?
Thank you guys very much for the guidance!
Click to expand...

An abrasive polish will remove about 90% of the coatings whether its consumer or authorized installer. Opti-Coat is no different. Don't want to be a downer but you have impacted the integrity of the coating by doing so and your warranty is out the window with Pro Plus.
 
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