Bad Opticoat pro+ application or too high expectations?

[Ron@Optimum]

A couple of things, Iann, it's really hard to make determinations from pictures - you know what you see, but it's not that evident to others, trust me, I get emailed pictures all the time.  Second, Subarus have very soft clear coat very susceptible to marring (I had a WRX for years).  Third, Optimum stands behind our warranty as do our installers, but warranty does not include water beading.  Can you imagine trying to write a legal description of beading?  Since you've already approached your installer and are dissatisfied, I recommend you contact Mack, an Optimum Regional Manager, at 901-363-4955 or at mack@opticoat.com and ask for his assistance.

[Stokdgs]

Did anyone try to wash this vehicle a few times with  Carpro Reset, and see what that did to the finish ?

I started with the first Opti-Guard product, long, long, ago,  and it did just fine for several years on my black Grand Cherokee..

When it started not looking so great, etc., and they had invented Carpro  Reset, I tried it and it actually made that old, Opti-Guard look and act much better..

Dan F

 

[Iann]

On 1/24/2020 at 3:56 PM, Stokdgs said:

Did anyone try to wash this vehicle a few times with  Carpro Reset, and see what that did to the finish ?

I started with the first Opti-Guard product, long, long, ago,  and it did just fine for several years on my black Grand Cherokee..

When it started not looking so great, etc., and they had invented Carpro  Reset, I tried it and it actually made that old, Opti-Guard look and act much better..

Dan F

 

Quite a bit late to reply but since the covid shenanigans slowed the world down this coating issue was not the prority anymore.

As to your question, yes I have also used CarPro reset on the car, and can tell it is indeed an amazing product but no it did not change anything about the coating's behavior. 

Thanks for your answer tho.

 

I'm also back here because something came to my mind perhaps a little late but better late than never.

When I first brought my car to the detailer for a wash and a correction of three high spots on my coating (1 month after the initially application) he got rid of those three high spots by simply using a solvent and a microfiber towel.

From what I have collected Opti-coat pro/pro+ can only be removed by abrasion and is not removable by a solvent yet I did see the high spots  being removed (all three).

How does that work?

Regards

[Ron@Optimum]

I don't know of any "solvent" that will remove OCP - are you sure it wasn't a cleaner wax, which does contain abrasives?  It's been a recommendation of mine to use GPS (a cleaner wax) to reduce minor high spots.

[Heijneker]

@Iann Shame to hear that you have such a bad experience with the Opti-Coat pro+ coating, for that amount of money, it should have been perfect. And if it wasn't perfect to begin with, it should have been repaired perfectly ASAP.

I doubt this to be the solution to your beading/sheeting problem (and the detailer hopefully has used it in the decon wash, but I haven't read you mention it); You could try MDR. This will get rid of any minerals (like salt, or waterspots) from your paint. These minerals cause a lack of beading and sheeting.

Given the right (wrong) circumstances, these minerals can quickly 'clog' the paint on your car, even when coated, within a thousand miles even.

I don't believe (synthetic) clay is effective on these minerals, but may be wrong about that.

[Heijneker]

@Iann I watched your vids on the coating's perfomance, that looks horrible.... On the sides it's pretty OK, but very slow.

Most notibaly, look at the water on your side windows, that's is completely stuck on there. With just regular ONR on windows, that won't happen. Heck, even windows with NO protection on them don't do that!!

I feel like something is stuck on the exterior, maybe it's minerals, maybe Optimum Car Wash leaves a bit of residue behind, but I doubt that.

Beautiful car by the way!

[Iann]

5 hours ago, Ron@Optimum said:

I don't know of any "solvent" that will remove OCP - are you sure it wasn't a cleaner wax, which does contain abrasives?  It's been a recommendation of mine to use GPS (a cleaner wax) to reduce minor high spots.

He called it a solvent so I sadly can't confirm wether he made a mistake or really did use a solvent. I also wasnt at a point where I questionned everything since I did not have the knowledge I have today and did not question the integrity of my coating back then as I do today.

2 hours ago, Heijneker said:

@Iann Shame to hear that you have such a bad experience with the Opti-Coat pro+ coating, for that amount of money, it should have been perfect. And if it wasn't perfect to begin with, it should have been repaired perfectly ASAP.

I doubt this to be the solution to your beading/sheeting problem (and the detailer hopefully has used it in the decon wash, but I haven't read you mention it); You could try MDR. This will get rid of any minerals (like salt, or waterspots) from your paint. These minerals cause a lack of beading and sheeting.

Given the right (wrong) circumstances, these minerals can quickly 'clog' the paint on your car, even when coated, within a thousand miles even.

I don't believe (synthetic) clay is effective on these minerals, but may be wrong about that.

It's a a damn shame indeed, specially since I did not think about it twice for I felt this was the best route for protecting my first brand new car ever. 

No he did not use MDR  while they tried to decon it, they just used Ferrex and a microfiber towels, although I did tell them I had used a claymit a day before so there was no point in adding it to the mix.

I did just fully decon my car 2 days ago although and did try MDR ;

Used Optimum CarWash in a foam canon as prewash

then washed the crash using Carpro Reset + a little bit of ONR

then proceeded to ferrex entire car while rubbing it with a microfiber towel

then used a claymit + ONR as the lubricating agent

then finally used MDR as a final step

then topped the car with Opti-Seal

MDR sadly did not do any miracles, everything behaves exactly as it did in the videos I had initially taken (Which is almost a year ago at this point)

 

The detailler has agreed to redo the coating on the horizontal surfaces (Hood, Top of car, top of trunk) but not the rest, which is essentially why I went to create  this topic for I felt nothing looked right on that car, and while reddit people are not right about everything, nobody argued that the coating displayed adequate behavior.

My last car (a 2009 impreza) which I gave to my mother and proceeded to coat myself using Optimum gloss coat, beeds and sheets more than my WRX which gets far more maintenance as my mother  washes it like twice a year. 

For the first  time since I've had the car I feel like a have a working coating, but that is because I have for the first time applied Opti-seal to it and it makes a night and day difference compared to how my coating by itself behaves.

 

Thanks for the replies, it's much appreciated!

 

 

 

[Heijneker]

@Iann It sure shows that it's a new car, looks awesome!

To put some more thought into it (hope I don't bore you to death):

I kind of get the feeling you got tricked, and you actually did not get the coating, or at least an insanely poor install. However, the water behaviour on the side windows makes me think there's roadsalt on there, even though that may be very unlikely. So to be sure, I'll provide you with some more information, which you may/may not find useful.

With MDR, a bit of dwell time would greatly help it. Since it's a gel, drying out won't happen very soon (I'd like to try a gel-variant of Power Clean). 10-20 minutes dwell time in the shade and cool temperature is surely possible. But start with 5 mins, and ramp up dwell time per testpanel, till something hopefully works.

Optimum Power Clean is also part of a proper/complete decon wash, diluted 1:5 in a sprayer/foamer. This surely has a lot more power than Carpro Reset, if only due to the lower dilution ratio.

A full-on decon wash with Optimum Products would look like: 

- (Optimum Car Wash pre-foam) Optimum Power Clean on front end

- Rinse with pressure washer

- ONR wash

- Quickly Dry with MF Towel (only necessary if you use the BRS and the car is dirty, it leaves behind dirt and you want a squeeky clean car for the next step)

- Foam/spray OPC and agitate with W&B Brush (Completely scratch safe, amazingly soft brush), wheels as well (different brush)

- Rinse

- Quickie BRS ONR wash to get most of the water off and have ONR on the surface

- Ferrex and agitate with clay towel or brush. Ferrex sprayed onto the clay towel works great and is far more economic. Just 2-3 sprays per panel needed.

- Rinse

- Quickie BRS ONR wash

- Apply MDR, let it dwell for desired amount of time

- Rinse

- ONR wash

- (Optimum T.A.R., rinse, Wash)

- (Optimum paint prep)

In your case, I would leave out Ferrex and test slowly ramping up dwell times with MDR. Maybe paint prep would help if MDR doesn't, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

 

 

Sorry for this long and possibly obsolete post. I do hope you find something of use though. Please keep us updated on what the proper remedy for your problem will turn out to be!

[Iann]

On 8/6/2020 at 3:27 PM, Heijneker said:

@Iann It sure shows that it's a new car, looks awesome!

To put some more thought into it (hope I don't bore you to death):

I kind of get the feeling you got tricked, and you actually did not get the coating, or at least an insanely poor install. However, the water behaviour on the side windows makes me think there's roadsalt on there, even though that may be very unlikely. So to be sure, I'll provide you with some more information, which you may/may not find useful.

With MDR, a bit of dwell time would greatly help it. Since it's a gel, drying out won't happen very soon (I'd like to try a gel-variant of Power Clean). 10-20 minutes dwell time in the shade and cool temperature is surely possible. But start with 5 mins, and ramp up dwell time per testpanel, till something hopefully works.

Optimum Power Clean is also part of a proper/complete decon wash, diluted 1:5 in a sprayer/foamer. This surely has a lot more power than Carpro Reset, if only due to the lower dilution ratio.

A full-on decon wash with Optimum Products would look like: 

- (Optimum Car Wash pre-foam) Optimum Power Clean on front end

- Rinse with pressure washer

- ONR wash

- Quickly Dry with MF Towel (only necessary if you use the BRS and the car is dirty, it leaves behind dirt and you want a squeeky clean car for the next step)

- Foam/spray OPC and agitate with W&B Brush (Completely scratch safe, amazingly soft brush), wheels as well (different brush)

- Rinse

- Quickie BRS ONR wash to get most of the water off and have ONR on the surface

- Ferrex and agitate with clay towel or brush. Ferrex sprayed onto the clay towel works great and is far more economic. Just 2-3 sprays per panel needed.

- Rinse

- Quickie BRS ONR wash

- Apply MDR, let it dwell for desired amount of time

- Rinse

- ONR wash

- (Optimum T.A.R., rinse, Wash)

- (Optimum paint prep)

In your case, I would leave out Ferrex and test slowly ramping up dwell times with MDR. Maybe paint prep would help if MDR doesn't, but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

 

 

Sorry for this long and possibly obsolete post. I do hope you find something of use though. Please keep us updated on what the proper remedy for your problem will turn out to be!

Thanks for the response again, last thing I will try is to let MDR sit and work it's magic for a longer period as a last resort.

 

Although I'll say this  .... I don't know how much knowledge you have but you seem to know what you're talking about quite a bit, and when I hear you say that I either got tricked or got an insanely poor install I think it shows to extent of how my coating does not seem to behave the way it should be. And you're not the only one who went to describe it this way which only makes me uneasy when I'm being told by Optimum people that it looks ''fine''.

Either way I don't know how this situation will end exactly but at the very least the retailer will redo the top surfaces, but I just don't know how much I trust their work at this point seeing people's reaction to my coating's behavior and how my retailed said the sides worked fine and needed a little push from my part to agree to redo the horizontal surfaces.

I also have a question regarding the correcting/coaitng stepts.

When retailers redo the coating they have to polish and correct the entire surface again right? I want to make sure because I remember seeing a lot of micro scratches when my car had just gotten it's very first wash (BRS + ONR) by the retailer a month after I got it corrected/coated and I couldnt believe how many scratches I was seeing. It led me to believe that these scratches were very likely on the clear coat itself and not the Opti-Coat.

Since they will redo the top surfaces, I should not expect to see ANY scratches at all as they are supposed to correct the clear coat before reapplying Opti-Coat right?

 

 

Thanks!

 

[Heijneker]

@Iann It may sound that way, but I'm still only a rookie! I have been looking into Optimum Products since approx. a year now, so just got to grips with how everything works and slots in together. I use Optimum products professionally, cleaning customer cars occasionally.

As for coatings; I am very uneducated on this subject, because I kind of dislike the thought of them. Slowly getting around to that though, as I start to learn more about them. 

One last thing (again...), since CarPro Reset seemed to help, I suggest you try OPC as well. This is a lot stronger than Reset.

Regarding the micro-scratches: There's polishing, and then there's polishing 😁. Most likely, the scratches will not be removed, he will probably barely do enough polishing to remove the coating. You are best to communicate this with the installer, if you can.

[rjblake]

@Heijneker - what is the "W&B Brush"? I've tried to search for this without any luck

[Heijneker]

@rjblake the Wheel & Body brush, available at The Rag Company.

[Nav]

I bought my brand new Range Rover Sports in July 2018 and had it coated with the Opti-caot Pro + by a certified dealer at Clyde, Sydney. Within a few months the beading and sheeting properties slowly and almost totally dissipated from both the vertical and horizontal panels. The car subsequently developed minor scratches, surface defects and swirl marks despite being washed as per instructions. I paid $1400 AUD for this thing and took out a 5-year warranty.

I have not spoken to the dealer because I am just too pissed off. The product was mis-sold to me, I was told about the miraculous properties of the Opti-Coat pro + at time of purchase e.g. it has scratch resistance properties that get stronger with time, it will keep the surface of car immaculate and free of any acquired defects for up to 5 years as long as I wash the car as per instructions etc etc I am a doctor by profession and have very little knowledge or experience of car detailing. I got this product to save me at-least some hassle and time from maintaining the car without having to do a great deal of research and look for all the fancy technical info of car detailing industry. I probably make more money in a day than what I paid for this product but just feel disappointed and frankly cheated. The car is still in pristine condition as I am a Shmick Club member and even tiny scratches and surface defects have been taken care of in good time, however the panels that have not seen any repair atleast should show the effects of being protected by the Opti-Coat Pro + coating but sadly there is nothing,

[Ron@Optimum]

the process is to contact the installer, they are responsible to back the warranty.  Complaining on a Forum will not solve your problem, which may be something as simple as decontaminating your paint, but there's no way to know without a professional inspection.

[Heijneker]

@Nav Sounds indeed like the product was mis-sold to you, which is a shame. However, the coating is most likely still installed correctly, you should contact the installer first, like Ron has stated. I think your problem is not the same as that of the topic starter.

It will most likely need a proper decontamination wash, which he will certainly be able to perform quickly. Afterwards it will perform the same or better as when you first got it. This will need to be done periodically, once you notice loss in performance.

If time is an issue, and money seems not to be, there should be someone capable willing to come and wash/monitor the car/coating for you.