UV Protection

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CAMMIN HEMI

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What is the best thing I can do to protect the edge of blended clear coat on a sail panel from UV degradation? The car is parked outside at work and garaged at home. Keep it covered with Optimum car wax? Thank you for any recommendations!
 
Put a coating on it--if you want the best UV protection I guess that would be Opti-Lens, although I don't know if anyone has used it on paint.
 
Which coating would you recommend? Cquartz, Opti-coat, DP paint coat???? Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 
erichaley said:
For, IMO, the best protection, Opti-Coat.
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Yeah, that or as I said, Opti-Lens because it has more UV protection. I've been wanting to try Opti-Lens on trim, maybe I will do a paint test spot to see what happens.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Yeah, that or as I said, Opti-Lens because it has more UV protection. I've been wanting to try Opti-Lens on trim, maybe I will do a paint test spot to see what happens.
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That would be interesting to see!

I am considering attempting to coat my trim, which has already been coated with CQuartz Dlux, with OC, but maybe OL will be a better option. I do have doubts as to whether it will last though, but hey, you never know until you try... :)
 
Id' have to check with Dr. David Ghodoussi to know which of his paint products offer the most UV protection but believe it or not, I think it's Optimum Car Wax and not one of the coatings.

The coatings last the longest but I'm not sure is a material that last the longest due to how it bonds to the paint automatically means it also provides the most UV inhibitors?

I know I've asked him this in the past and my memory could be lacking on this topic but I seem to think I remember him saying OCW. See page 2 of my article here,


Beginning Clearcoat Failure


:xyxthumbs:
 
Ive always been confused as to how sunlight plays into paint degradation if there is wax or coating present. Dosent the paint need to be exposed to the atmosphere in order to oxidate? If there is a coating there, how can the chemical reaction take place, where would the free electrons go?

While I am blabbing here, how does the wax or coating protect if paint can oxidize underneath it? Does it just offer up something that will sit on top that will oxidize before the UV ray gets to the paint?
 
erichaley said:
I am considering attempting to coat my trim, which has already been coated with CQuartz Dlux, with OC, but maybe OL will be a better option. I do have doubts as to whether it will last though, but hey, you never know until you try... :)
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Chris@Optimum said that Opti-Lens was a great trim restorer, but I couldn't get much more detail than that out of him, and no one else seems to have tried that, either. I'm not sure we're going to be hearing too much more from Chris, as his relationship with Optimum seems to have changed.
 
Setec Astronomy said:
Chris@Optimum said that Opti-Lens was a great trim restorer, but I couldn't get much more detail than that out of him, and no one else seems to have tried that, either. I'm not sure we're going to be hearing too much more from Chris, as his relationship with Optimum seems to have changed.
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I don't understand. There is two Optimum stores now?
 
swanicyouth said:
I don't understand. There is two Optimum stores now?
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Optimum always (or for a long time) has had their own store, at their own website. The Optimum forum was started by Anthony Orosco, who used to be the "online voice" of Optimum. Of course Anthony lives in TX and Optimum is in TN, which must have made it tough for Anthony to interact with Dr. G (Anthony used to do a lot of testing for Dr. G and is, according to his account, the conceptual father of Opti-Seal and Opti-Coat). Chris took over the Optimum forum and I believe started the forum store.

According to his remarks on the forum, he is "no longer being paid for online support" and has moved the forum store to another URL, and Optimum is taking over the administration of the forum.

Some of what I have mentioned above is my own understanding of the history and may not be "the whole story".
 
As I recall, Anthony did start the store as well through the forum.

I remember because, of the hype of Opti-Seal at the time during it's development, it was first released through the store and I bought it. Opti seal / OC were his ideas conceptually.

I was already using Zaino Clear Seal at the time so wanted to see what OS was about.

He had some cool foam buffing pads as well, can't remember what they were called.
 
KneeDragr said:
Ive always been confused as to how sunlight plays into paint degradation if there is wax or coating present. Dosent the paint need to be exposed to the atmosphere in order to oxidate? If there is a coating there, how can the chemical reaction take place, where would the free electrons go?

While I am blabbing here, how does the wax or coating protect if paint can oxidize underneath it? Does it just offer up something that will sit on top that will oxidize before the UV ray gets to the paint?
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We are talking about radiation damage, not straight oxidation. A big simplification but think about your microwave - the microwaves basically make the water in your food vibrate very fast which is seen as heat. With the paint, we have UV photons which come in and basically ionize your paint. They dump large amounts of energy into very localised areas and this means, quite literally, that your paint breaks down at the molecular level.

To protect from UV, the protectant must either reflect or absorb the UV radiation. The latter is probably the norm but you have to remember that it must not only absorb but it must not be damaged by the UV.

UV protection is a bit of a minefield in detailing. From a chemist's perspective, most products struggle to be UV stable (ie not themselves damaged by the UV). Knowing that most of the products out there are sold by brands with zero chemical knowledge of their own, I fear that it is possible that many of those marketing the products don't know the distinction between a product which is UV stable and one which protects from UV.
 
I checked the post Mike referred to about OCW. Unless someone out there has another product to recommend, I'm going to use OCW after every wash and see what happens. Thanks for the input!!!
 
I think a lot of the problem with waxes is that they contain Petrollium Distillates, and when this is mixed with UV rays it does more harm than good. I'm pretty sure Opti-Coat does not have any. Correct me if I'm wrong, maybe a pro can chime in here
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but just the fact that any wax will leave a thin film on paint will offer some UV protection in its own right, as long as that wax film is replenished as needed.

Just the act of keeping your paint clean and waxed (with any wax) should offer a decent amount if protection.


PiPUK said:
Knowing that most of the products out there are sold by brands with zero chemical knowledge of their own, I fear that it is possible that many of those marketing the products don't know the distinction between a product which is UV stable and one which protects from UV.
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Don't know how you arrived at this conclusion.
 
swanicyouth said:
Correct me if I'm wrong, but just the fact that any wax will leave a thin film on paint will offer some UV protection in its own right, as long as that wax film is replenished as needed.

Just the act of keeping your paint clean and waxed (with any wax) should offer a decent amount if protection.


Don't know how you arrived at this conclusion.
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Unfortunately not. The film has to either absorb some of the UV or reflect more of it than the paint itself. In some cases, materials/films will do this, in many cases they will not. It is not at all difficult to have a material absorb UV but keep in mind that UV is highly energetic (known as ionising) radiation - it actually removes electrons from atoms. This sort of radiation is rather destructive and it can be used to do things like sterilise because it will do so much damage to materials as to kill bugs. We know well that automotive materials are damaged, lights are yellowed, clearcoat fails (etc). The chemicals we use for cleaning and care are typically just as sensitive. For care products, the first challenge is to ensure that the product does not 'die' when UV light hits it and this is where UV stable comes in. I encounter a lot of the raw materials which go into care products (as a formulator, I get samples to encourage us to buy) and the majority sell themselves as UV stable. The few which actually market themselves as providing UV protection tend to make a bit of a song and dance, and rightly so, because they are rather more specialised and most products cannot make this boast.

Most importantly in my opinion is that almost no one provides any evidence of the UV blocking capacity of their products, even though this is a really straight forward test to do. Why not?
 
Kind of back to the original question by the OP...

After all the talk and discussion, which is all good, at the end of the day there's really only so much a person can do to protect the paint on their car.


1. Keeping the surface clean is the first pro-active step a person can take.


2. Keeping the surface smooth, that is not filled with swirls, scratches, water spots and oxidation. A clean smooth surface will hold up over time better than a rough, scratched surface.


3. Keeping the surface coated with "something" from a reputable company is better than nothing, so find a car wax, synthetic paint sealant or paint coating that you like and use it often. At least as often as needed according to the type of wear-n-tear the vehicle is subjected to.


4. Keeping the car out of the sun. If you have a garage or a carport, then park your car in or under one of these when not in use. If you don't.... well you can't.


5. At work, park in a shaded area if possible. If not possible then there's not much you can do about exposure to the sun.


6. Consider getting a quality car cover and learn how to become an expert on putting it on and taking it off and then storing it in a way that it doesn't get dirty.


7. If have a garage at home but no place where you work to park out of direct exposure to the sun, then consider getting a second car that's not important to you for your work car and keep your dream car in the garage.​




Some of the above anyone can do but not everyone. For example, most of us can do the first three things in the list. So do what you can do.


:)
 
Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
Ki
3. Keeping the surface coated with "something" from a reputable company is better than nothing, so find a car wax, synthetic paint sealant or paint coating that you like and use it often. At least as often as needed according to the type of wear-n-tear the vehicle is subjected to.
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This is what I think, but the scientist says no. It has to absorb UV light or it doesn't do anything. Don't know.
 
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