Guest ddlaz Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Hi all. New to the forum but not detailing. I applied Cquartz to my S2000 4 years ago and the water still beads off, no marring or anything. Last year, I decided to give opticoat a try. I applied it to my mom's brand new GLK350. After a few days of curing in the sun, it was beading water similar to the cquartz so I was happy that it performed the same as my cquartz. I looked at her car the other day and her paint is seemingly dull and marred from the constant automated car washes. She goes to the non-touchless car washes. I guess I shouldn't have assumed that the opticoat would be more resistant to light scratches from the car wash brushes. I would rather that she didn't use those car washes but I don't have time to hand wash her car in the frequency she wants. Is the coating gone? Do I need to reapply? Is it worth it to compound it off and reapply? If it's not gone, do I refresh it with degreaser and chem cleaner I read about in other posts? If I do need to remove and reapply, how do I know that the existing coating is gone? I have DFT meters/gauges at work that I can borrow but that might be a crapshoot seeing as how the paint isn't the same thickness everywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Setec Astronomy Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 You're not going to be able to measure the thickness of OC 2.0 with an eddy-current meter (IMO), and as you say, the paint thickness variation is going to be more than the possible 1 micron of coating. Nothing is really going to hold up to an automated car wash, I think even the Opti-Coat Pro warranty is voided if you run the car through a contact automated wash. Try a good IPA or prep-sol wipe and see if the beading comes back? If it does then I guess the OC 2.0 is still there, but it sounds like you're going to want to polish it off anyway if the surface is marred (or you're going to wind up polishing it off if the marring is only in the OC 2.0). Maybe there is a touchless wash she can go to in the future. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron@Optimum Posted April 1, 2015 Share Posted April 1, 2015 Setec has given great advice - OC may still be there but decontamination necessary to find out. Touch car washes will beat the snot out of any coating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ddlaz Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thanks. I figured as much. What level of cut is enough to remove the coating? Compound level, swirl remover level, final polish? If beading doesn't come back with ipa wipe, would clay bar help any further to see if coating is still there? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ddlaz Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 And if beading isn't there after polishing, I can assume the coating is gone and reapply? Or is there another way to test? I think I read that oc will yellow if a second layer is applied after curing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron@Optimum Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 Compound will remove for sure and heavy polishing. I doubt claying will provide any better evidence than a good IPA wipe down. Opti-Coat Pro can be layered - you would need to polish or use primer, clay, then apply OCP. It won't yellow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lowejackson Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Might be worth considering a paint cleaner such as Poliseal by hand or GPS on a finishing pad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Jack Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Check this thread, it may have information appropriate to your question:http://optimumforums.org/index.php?showtopic=7390 Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ddlaz Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Since it won't yellow, I'm going to try polishing to remove the swirls/marring, hopefully I won't need to go higher than a fine polish. Then reapply OC2, Kind of sucks because it was a lot of work to apply it in the first place. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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