Why doesn't everyone use Opti Coat?

If you want to protect your clear, you cant approach what a coating does. It is a sacrificial barrier. There are many products to amp up the gloss without degrading the coating. ReLoad, Permanon, G|Techniq 1.5. Aladdin Double Shield, G|Techniq EXO and CarPro Hydro 2 come to mind. These give me the ability to putz around when I feel the need.
 
Blk5.0 said:
Opti coat is great. I only used it on a reprinted hood of mine due to the paint was super soft. Opti coat helped prevent marring and swirls 200%.

I personally enjoy buying products and tying the out on my car.
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Exactly what I did on my car after having the hood re-sprayed and I have had fantastic results at keeping swirls away from the soft paint.

Opticoat is a fantastic product, but for my personal car I just enjoy the hobby of polishing/waxing/etc for me to bother with it. But I definitely recommend it to friends and people who don't have a garage to park in.
 
I feel that the long term look of OC isn't as great as applying wax's/sealants. Maybe even the short term look. Hehe

I also don't like the end stage of the product. If you are not sure if the OC is at its end, then you might have to buff off the product. Who is to tell when you are taking off clear coat or OC.

My original thought was that it would be awesome if every year I was only eating at the OC rather then the clear coat while buffing. Then I could apply more OC. But I guess proper practice is that you get rid of all of the previous OC, which brings us back to how tricky that can be.
 
Don't buy lava. ! I'm sure other can second that
 
Bill220 said:
Are there any downsides to Opti Coat?
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My car is Opti-coated and the rear bumper is coated with C-quartz UK Edition.
So I have some experience with both. I have been impressed with the ability of both coatings to release dirt. They are amazing in that regard. I have been a bit disappointed with the "hardness" of the Opti-coat. Within the first three months you have to be VERY careful with washing techniques. I had to re-polish the entire car b/c the Opti-coat ended up covered with light swirls from 1 wash. I buffed it off and re-applied two coats. It seems to be holding up better now.
The bumper was replaced recently so I applied Cquartz UK to it to see if that would fare better. So far, so good. I have been VERY careful and washing with the most gentle pressure. The Opti-coat looks great and I would recommend it strongly. It is truly the ONLY permanent coating.
The Cquartz is really beautiful. I love the look and it seems to be a bit better at resisting marring, IME. I don't know about the durability of the CQuartz yet. I would recommend this coating as well.
As far as topping goes, I have tried a lot. They tend to add some slickness but don't last even a month. Honestly, I don't mind because I enjoy "testing" products on the Opti-coat.
Hope this info helps.
- Mike
 
When I first installed opti coat 2.0 I expected it to be more resistant from washing marrs..my car paint is soft enough for ONR wash and wipe to marr it. Opti coat 2.0 didn't have enough thickness to give enough cushion to my paint (Toyota Black Mica). So after two months I repolish the car and apply opti-coat 2.0 again and now I use two bucket methods with very light pressure to wash and blow+pat method to dry. This prove to be better at preventing washing marrs, I've washed for a month and no marring washing this way. So in regards to withstand wash-marrs opti-coat is just the same as sealant/wax and so one reason not to opti-coat your car.

Opti-coat can still etch and needs weekly washing..I believe Chris Tomas once said not washing for a month is "neglect" and thus defeated opti coat's performance. Since I have only two hours a day to detail my car, upon my first wash my car hadn't been washed for two weeks (first wash after 1 week is recommended for most coatings). The underpanel took a beating and was quite dirty from rain and mud splatter. Expecting opti-coat to release dirt easily I simply foam up,rinse,and dry..The result is very satisfactory for the upper vertical panels but the underpanels still had dirt films, I tried removing them with qd and onr but to no avail...so I guess the two weeks muds build up has etched and require clay or polish to remove. The hood looked clean after foaming and rinse uder shade but after driving it a day under the sun it was apparent that i didn't clean thoroughly.. I had to repolish and reapply opti coat 2.0. The film in my underpanels hasn't gone away even after repeated washing. Although heavy rains help clean my car and dusts buildup is less, etching still occurs. It's a mixed up feeling so another reason not to opti-coat.

My personal feeling is that it's still a good product, it's a better clearcoat (clearcoat that beads, repels everything better) but not a supershield. Opti coat pro version should give you better result, being thicker it should have better washing marr resistance and durability.

blk 5.0 said:
Opti coat is great. I only used it on a reprinted hood of mine due to the paint was super soft. Opti coat helped prevent marring and swirls 200%.

I personally enjoy buying products and tying the out on my car.
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I'm not sure about the 200% part are you using opti coat pro or opti coat 2.0 ?
 
Well with proper prep and application to my parents car it has lasted over 2 years and is still going strong... Looks great too but the car is a gold color with flake so others with a solid color might have different opinion. Durability is top notch... dirt releasing is top notch... only thing I wish it felt more slick to the touch but its a trade off. It will go on my GF's new car ASAP and if I didnt have a garage full of products to use up I'd put it on my truck.

Anyone not getting excellent results needs to talk to Dr G. at Optimum or pay someone to apply it for them.
 
Flatlander said:
My car is Opti-coated and the rear bumper is coated with C-quartz UK Edition.
So I have some experience with both. I have been impressed with the ability of both coatings to release dirt. They are amazing in that regard. I have been a bit disappointed with the "hardness" of the Opti-coat. Within the first three months you have to be VERY careful with washing techniques. I had to re-polish the entire car b/c the Opti-coat ended up covered with light swirls from 1 wash. I buffed it off and re-applied two coats. It seems to be holding up better now.
The bumper was replaced recently so I applied Cquartz UK to it to see if that would fare better. So far, so good. I have been VERY careful and washing with the most gentle pressure. The Opti-coat looks great and I would recommend it strongly. It is truly the ONLY permanent coating.
The Cquartz is really beautiful. I love the look and it seems to be a bit better at resisting marring, IME. I don't know about the durability of the CQuartz yet. I would recommend this coating as well.
As far as topping goes, I have tried a lot. They tend to add some slickness but don't last even a month. Honestly, I don't mind because I enjoy "testing" products on the Opti-coat.
Hope this info helps.
- Mike
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Good info!


I actually am in the process of polishing off all my opticoat after ~8 months. Why? Because I have light swirls I want to get rid of and too many waxes to try out!
 
Lim3 said:
Don't buy lava. ! I'm sure other can second that
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I already have a container of it. It goes on and comes off fairly easy but doesn't seem to add anything in the way of shine or depth. I tried using only Blacklight and V7 on one panel and couldn't tell the difference between it and the other panels that I layered with both plus Lava. To be fair, I haven't had it out of the garage to see what it looks like in natural light.

As for the Opti Coat, I'll probably pass on it for my car but try it out on my wife's car when she gets a new one. Like a lot of you, I enjoy shining up my car and would miss doing that. Plus, my car spends most of its life in the garage. Annual mileage might be 6-7,000 miles. I also wasn't aware of the 3 month cure time.
 
An old friend of mine that NEVER takes care of her cars just bought a new Blue Prius.

I washed, polished, and O[pti-coated her car and it should look pretty good for at least a year. She hardly even washes it. Even after I gave her two buckets, grit guards, MF's and Honeydew soap.:cry:
 
spiralout462 said:
A "permanent" coating is not for me. I enjoy waxing way too much for that. As others have said, I may apply OptiCoat to my wifes car so I can spend more time polishing and waxing mine. :)
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You my sir, are a genius!

Couldn't have put it better myself. I was on the tight rope about OC a couple weeks ago. But when a client canceled at the last minute. I polished out my Ram.... Nothing better than detailing your own ride!

Besides, there's to many LSP combos to try, LoL.

Sent from my Galaxy Note II using AG Online
 
I definitely agree with so many of the posts on this thread.

I have been using OC ever since it came to the masses (May long weekend in 2010?). I have put the coating on numerous vehicles over the couple of years. Like the postings presented already, there really isn't one bad thing that can be said about OC (or coatings in general).

I have been putting waxes (Wolfgang's Fuzion, Souveran, and then SwissVax's Insignis and Concorso) on for a long time now. I honestly believe that I receive between three and four weeks out of the waxes I use above on my fun car. I don't do any up-keep as far as QDs between washes, I only wash with ONR. Then dry with the Metro blower and catch the drips with MF.

I put SwissVax's Cleaner Fluid under all of the above waxes and the outcome, to me, is spectacular. I do find the look of SV Cleaner Fluid and Souveran was outstanding and lasts long enough that I get the best of both-worlds.

Last summer, I went golfing with some friends for the day. I decided to take my fun car out which wore OC and SV on. When I came back to the car, I had an army of bird droppings all over the car. The car had droppings that had been heated and actually dried and cracked all over the paint. I went home and washed the car with ONR and noticed no etching at all. Could I have gotten lucky with the birds not eating something crazy acidic? Perhaps? Personally, nothing performs as good as a coating for protecting paint, such as OC.

With that being said, having a wax that adds oodles and oodles of gloss, the results can be spectacular on properly prepped paint. Waxing the car once a month is not often for me, and the cost of putting a thin coat of wax - really isn't "that" expensive either. My Fuzion and Souveran are at most, a quarter gone. The Souveran I used every three weeks for a bit just because of the look. As I washed it before I waxed, it still beaded like Souveran does, not like OC.

On the other hand, I tried putting Fuzion on my daily which sits outside 24/7. As long as I hand washed the car, I still received an average of three weeks on it. Now, when I took the car through a touchless car wash once or twice a week (winter time here), I was only able to get at most 1.5 weeks.

Hope you are all still awake after this long post, I wanted to take a moment and share my experiences.

NOTE: For clarification, all waxes were put on a coating and naturally are not reflective of their true durations on properly prepped paint.
 
It's too damn expensive for me lol. I can get like 10 products or tools for the price of one syringe of OC. Or pads.......i really need pads.
 
swanicyouth said:
There is a few reasons why I don't:

1. It may not give a carnuba "glow"

2. Sprucing up your paint with a paint cleaner with a glaze or light polish every few months and topping it with a sealant or wax (or both) really adds pop to the finish IMHO. OC looks best day 1. There is no way really to "refresh" it.

3. If you do any "work" (polishing) on the OptiCoat its impossible to know if you've gone through the coating for sure. With traditional products, this is no big deal.

4. While the product does work as advertised, not everyone gets the results as advertised :(. This could be user error, peculiarities to the paint, or an environmental issue not predicted by the manufacturer. For whatever reason, OC seemed to only last me 6 months. Prior to application, I did multiple IPA wipe downs (70% undiluted). I don't know why it didn't last. I do know I topped it with many spray waxes, so in not sure If that may have messed it up.

5. A lot of us like trying new products and aren't looking for the longest lasting product. Looks may play more of a role

**** OC seems to be holding up very well on the wheels of my 2 cars. It's really working well there. I may give it a go again next winter for the paint using only Optimum products to prep.
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I agree. The warmth I get from other products is what I look for. Have no personal problem with product but I like the look I get with coly 845 and a topper and sometimes no topper.
 
I personally used Opti-Coat 2.0 because I was getting too busy as a detailer along with providing the many other services I provide to be able to keep after the condition of my own vehicle. Below is the thread where I installed the Opti-Coat 2.0 on my car...note the date of the thread.

http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/41954-polished-my-daily-driver-last-time.html

When I put that thread together, it was my first application of a coating of any type or brand. I am skeptical by nature so I wasn't about to put these coatings on my list of offered services before thoroughly torturing, testing the looks of and the true durability of them.

All through the summer of 2012 I allowed the pollen, bird droppings, freeway fallout, (I live directly next to the freeway and my shop is also situated on the freeway on ramp) to dwell on my car as long as it would stay there...which basically was until the next rain storm where the rain would wash all those contaminates off the car.

In addition to all of that, on some of the hot sunny days I would load up a garden sprayer full of a concentrated caustic degreaser and spray the car down with it and just allow the undiluted degreaser to dwell on the car in the hot sun all day long. The last thing I'd do before cleaning up and locking down the shop for the day would be to pressure rinse the degreaser off of the car and then brush wash the car without using 2 buckets or grit guards. This would simulate way beyond what an "average Joe" car owner would do to their car in the non detailing world.

If the coating held up to all of this torture then I would add it to my services menu and offer it to the average Joes that would be willing to pay for this type of service.

After my trip up the coast this past Thanksgiving I parked my Buick upon returning home and the inspection expired at the end of November. Being pretty busy at the shop, combined with the fact that the old car needs some repairs and I rarely drive it anyway, It hasn't moved from that spot in my driveway ever since.

So this old Buick was coated once with Opti-Coat 2.0 at the date of the thread I linked above, tortured all summer of 2012, hasn't been re-polished or re-coated with anything and has sat unwashed in my driveway since the end of November 2012. Here are a few photos of my car that I just took about an hour ago this morning.

This is why I sell the stuff and have faith in it's performance and durability. If I would factor in the time alone to have been waxing this car monthly since the day I applied the coating, It would surely exceed the cost of purchasing a dozen syringes of Opti-Coat 2.0.

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I have nothing as to why everyone doesn't use it, but there's a bunch of reasons outlined above by various posters. These are just some of the reasons I do use it and sell it out of my shop. TD
 
Kaiser37 said:
I feel that the long term look of OC isn't as great as applying wax's/sealants. Maybe even the short term look. Hehe

I also don't like the end stage of the product. If you are not sure if the OC is at its end, then you might have to buff off the product. Who is to tell when you are taking off clear coat or OC.

My original thought was that it would be awesome if every year I was only eating at the OC rather then the clear coat while buffing. Then I could apply more OC. But I guess proper practice is that you get rid of all of the previous OC, which brings us back to how tricky that can be.
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You only need a finishing polish to prep OC for another coat. You can in fact never remove any clear after the first app of OC.
 
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