bird-keeper

I wouldn't think paper or paper stock would be a good test material since it's compressible and might expand back after I remove it to measure. Either way, the shims from McMaster came super quick and solved the problem for me. The lock button is still not centered in the hole but at least it doesn't rub enough to get stuck.

OPT was the retailer, but I believe it's out of warranty. I think I bought it 2+ years ago. I did take it apart to see what I could find. The trigger and lock is a single mechanism and it functions just fine outside of the tool. The issue, I think, is that there is juuuust enough play in the mounting location for the trigger mechanism that the lock button looks misaligned in the housing and rubs against the wall on one side. The contact/friction that occurs prevents it from popping back out when I squeeze the trigger. I think if I put a shim under the mechanism it will correct the position of the trigger lock once reassembled. I ordered some 1mm shims that should be here this week to test my theory. My only concern is if 1mm is too thick. The amount of play really is minimal so I don't need much.

My trigger lock got stuck today while polishing and I had to unplug the machine to stop it from rotating and switch to my trusty ol PC7424 to finish the job. Anyone ever have this happen? Is it a common issue? How do I fix it?

Any reason why exposure to Power Clean on a restored and coated headlight would cause it to haze over?

Thanks Ron. How is it's chemical resistance?

How long is Opti-Lens supposed to last on a car that sits outside 24/7 exposed to sun, rain, hot, and cold? It gets washed with ONR but probably not as frequently as you might recommend.

Ron, it is not lost on me that Dr. G is willing and able to answer questions like these. I especially did not expect a reply so soon as I know he is a busy man. His response definitely helped answer my question. A definite lesson learned for me: use less Power Clean.

This is a really sciency question that needs a chemist to answer. Unfortunately, I don't personally know any but who better to ask than Dr. G himself (albeit indirectly through this forum). I'll ask what I think is the right question first and then explain what I've done that's got me thinking about this. Question: What attributes of a chemical's make up play a role in how water behaves on a surface it's been applied to, even after it's been rinsed? And how specifically do those attributes affect it? In this particular case, I'm asking about how various non-LSP chemicals react on a coated surface (Gloss Coat for instance). I would love an answer as detailed as Dr. G can give here. Perhaps not PhD level, but certainly college level. Background: Today I was playing around with a panel that has 2 different SiC based coatings on it trying to decontaminate it but also maybe seeing what I could do to kill it. The coatings are around 7-8 months old at this point and not performing like they did when new so I decided to try to chemically and mechanically decontaminate it to see what would happen. After an ONR wash, the water behavior was really poor. Water would pool and then sheet but very, very slowly. My first step was to spray Ferrex and clay with the OPT/TRC clay towel. After a thorough agitation and rinse, I noticed an improvement in water behavior, probably due to the removal of surface contaminants no doubt. But after my next experiences, I'm wondering if the chemical itself played a role. My next step was to try an acid to remove water spots from hitting the panel with hard water so I sprayed Meg's Wheel Brightener diluted 1:1 and agitated with a clean microfiber before rinsing. After a thorough rinse the water behavior on the panel improved even more, getting as close to "new" as it had been in a long while. No amount of additional rinsing seemed to make this water behavior any better or worse. My final product would be an alkaline, as that is commonly suggested for coating decontamination. For this I sprayed Power Clean at full strength, then agitated and rinsed like I did with the wheel acid. This time, however, the water behavior didn't get better. It actually made the panel completely flat, as if no protection were on it at all. No amount of rinsing would improve the water behavior. I know that Power Clean can be used safely on GC as this has been pointed out many times before by folks at OPT so I know that I didn't strip the coating simply with one application of PC. My next thought was that there must be some component that isn't rinsing well that's affecting the water behavior. So I thoroughly sprayed the panel with Paint Prep and let it dwell for several minutes before agitating with a clean microfiber and rinsing. The water behavior didn't improve much if at all so I'm still wondering what's going on at this point. I decided to go back to the acid to see what it does. But instead of spraying only wheel acid (and also spraying it on the whole panel) I decided I'd use two different acids on separate test spots to see what, if any, differences I noticed between the two. I was still going to use the Wheel Brightener at 1:1 but I also used OPT MDR. Again I applied, agitated, and let dwell before finally rinsing. After the rinse I was a little surprised to see that some of the water behavior had returned and was most noticable on my test spots. Having done all of that, I'm starting to wonder what role these various chemicals we use play in the water behavior we notice when spraying our cars down and why it happens even after thoroughly rinsing the product off. Is it something to do with the pH or is it an acid/base thing? Is it a specific component that somehow interacts with the coating leaving it more or less "susceptible" (for lack of a better word) to rejecting water? These are things I don't know but want to know. Any insight would be helpful.

@Ron@Optimum what classifies as an industrial strength acid?

Just want to double check since there's no "new formula" mention on the store. I'd like to get a 2oz sample of the new formula to try out. Will I definitely get the new formula in that smaller size if I order through the OPT store? And will it have a sticker on it to denote it's new? If not, how will I know it's the latest formulation?

On the lawn care and pest control point, often times you "can't buy the stuff they use" because they are using their own branded and blended products. There are a few small exceptions for products that require a license to purchase but for the most part, there's absolutely nothing special about those "proprietary blends" of grass seed, fertilizer, herbicides, etc. You could easily source all the ingredients yourself and put down a comparable "blend" of products that does the exact thing as the stuff you can't buy. There's actually an entire industry built around the DIY lawn care enthusiast who wants professional products. To relate it back to coatings, you can think of your OTC Weed-B-Gon and Scott's type products in lawn care as the consumer grade coatings (Gloss Coat, CQuartz, CSL, etc.). They are "watered down" in a way so just about anybody can apply them without compromising some level of quality, but don't last as long or aren't as potent or don't cover as much as the pro product. But there's an entire group of people out there who want that pro level product without having to pay a professional company to do it for them. I'm not trying to convince anyone at OPT that this is the way you have to do things, but I definitely think there is a market out there for it and you don't have to sacrifice quality or profit to do it.

I guess that was really my question. I didn't know the form in which the SiO2 is integrated into the product so I wasn't sure if it was considered a hazardous component or if "SiO2" has become a generic term for a much more complex compound that is already listed in the SDS.

So is it safe to assume that SiO2 is not considered an active ingredient that has to be listed? OPT products are not the only ones I've noticed that are missing the SiO2 on the SDS.

Bueller? Anybody have an answer about the SiO2 thing?

Is SiO2 not considered an active ingredient that has to be listed on the SDS? I can't help but notice the SDS for OS and Hyper Seal are exactly the same, even though many swear they are different (and that Hyper Seal is OS with SiO2 added).