Newly OptiCoated vehicle reveals scuff marks in the sun

[AlexL]

Hi OptimumForums Community!

I am a new member here since I just recently had OptiCoat Pro applied to my new 2018 Toyota SUV. I need some help interpreting what is going on with my new coating.

I have a brand new 2018 Toyota SUV with OptiCoat Pro applied mid January by an authorized installer. I left the vehicle garaged for three weeks for the coating to fully cure. I drove the car to work last week for the first time since the coating and parked outside in the sun. In the morning sunlight, I saw a whole lot of swirl marks on the painted panels!! These swirls lit up like crazy and caught my eye and I wasn't even looking for it! Below are two videos I've taken to show the swirling I am looking at. The swirls are pretty much visible on every painted panel!

Driver Door

 

Rear Passenger Door

 

The tricky part is, it is hard to spot the swirls when the sun is bright and overhead. I've even tried with a regular flashlight and couldn't reveal the marks very well. These marks are inherently visible to the naked eye when the sun is horizontal to the vehicle, during the softer glow of sunrise or sunset. I'm guessing that when the sun is overhead, it may be too bright or at a wrong angle to illuminate and reveal the marks. Now, I keep calling it "marks" because I'm hoping these are not paint or clear coat fine scratches, and are rather something more benign like OptiCoat streaking.

 

That's why I'm reaching out the OptimumForum community to ask if anyone else has had this issue or can shed insight on what these marks may be. I've contacted the installer whom will come out to look at the vehicle the next time he is in my area. But I wanted to know if these marks mean he'd have to buff out the entire vehicle and reapply coating (which I'm sure he doesn't want to do, nor do I want to burn through my clear coat or paint.

 

Please help. Thanks in advanced!

 

[Guest]

AlexL ; can you please let me know who did the coating for your Toyota to get this taken care of for you>

Opt Mack

[A&J]

Those look to me as polish removal marks (polish was removed with a microfiber towel). Ive done this myself. Nothing is wrong with the coating and they are barely visible under a certain angle and certain light. Thats damage on the paint Im afraid.

Your detailer will probably have to re-polish and re-coat the car.

There is another way however. The scratches could be "filled" using a non OPT product called Carpro Essence+. Its a product designed to fill minor damage on coated vehicles, add gloss and serves as a paint protection on its own.

But Im guessing that you got your Opti coat applied by a certified detailer and you received a waranty which coveres cases like these so the detailer will have to redo the entire job for free.

One of the OPT representatives will pop up soon to give more info on this.

 

[Ron@Optimum]

As Opt Mack and A&J suggest, your first step should be to contact your installer.  They should be able to resolve the problem.

[AlexL]

3 hours ago, Ron@Optimum said:

As Opt Mack and A&J suggest, your first step should be to contact your installer.  They should be able to resolve the problem.

The first thing I did when I saw these scratches last week was contact my installer. He said he would come and look at the vehicle he next time he is in my area. I haven't been able to fully schedule an appointment with him. But prior to the installer's visit, I wanted to better understand what I was looking at. If it were high spots of the OptiCoat that would wear away over time, I probably wouldn't have minded too much.

21 hours ago, Opt mack said:

AlexL ; can you please let me know who did the coating for your Toyota to get this taken care of for you>

Opt Mack

Dann the regional manager for the West Coast has contacted me and I have given him the installer information. I'm glad Optimum has such an active and engaging customer relations folks.

 

9 hours ago, A&J said:

Those look to me as polish removal marks (polish was removed with a microfiber towel). Ive done this myself. Nothing is wrong with the coating and they are barely visible under a certain angle and certain light. Thats damage on the paint Im afraid.

Your detailer will probably have to re-polish and re-coat the car.

There is another way however. The scratches could be "filled" using a non OPT product called Carpro Essence+. Its a product designed to fill minor damage on coated vehicles, add gloss and serves as a paint protection on its own.

But Im guessing that you got your Opti coat applied by a certified detailer and you received a waranty which coveres cases like these so the detailer will have to redo the entire job for free.

One of the OPT representatives will pop up soon to give more info on this.

 

These scratches are indeed best visible under a certain angle and certain light -- in my case, with sunlight that is near to the horizon and not too glaringly bright. There was no wash or polish step, but yes, the paint prep was removed with a microfiber towel. Would removing paint prep with a dry microfiber tower have contributed to the paint damage? A&J, how were you able to reproduce seeing these scratches? I have some flashlights, but I haven't been able to consistently reproduce seeing these scratches as well as when under the sun.

I'm just worried that the buffing would eat away at the already thin layer of clearcoat and paint. That's the whole reason why I wanted to add a layer of ceramic coating on top of the clear coat -- to minimize any scratches to the paint!

I hope I don't end up regretting getting OptiCoat. I feel that if I had not gotten OptiCoat and just let the elements take it's toll on my paint, it would have taken years to get to the swirl marking state I am in now. 

[AlexL]

I've uploaded three more videos to show my installer what I see everyday when I get to my car, since my installer doesn't have plans to come out and look in person. These swirls are pretty much visible with the naked eye and lights up in the sun.

Driver Side

 

 

Passenger Side

 

 

Hood

 

My installer says that when he gets a chance, he'll stop by for 5 to 10 minutes to take a look, but having to rebuff and recoat the entire car he is not going to do that. I'm in email contact with Dann and Mack to ask if there are other detailers who can do the warranty repair here in the San Francisco Bay Area since I would be worried to have the same guy who said he would not rebuff and recoat the car, actually be the person to rebuff and recoat the car (if that were the remedy). I hope this issue works out. Even though I don't have a showroom Ferrari, I'd still hate to see these unsightly swirling everyday when I go to my car.

Frustrations and worries aside, I do want to ask about the rebuff and recoat. I chose to go OptiCoat Pro because it advertised itself as a coating with polymers that reactively bonded the resin to the clear coat of the paint. If the first application of OptiCoat (bonded to the clear coat) is abrasively polished off, what would the reapplication of OptiCoat Pro bond to? It's not like there are inches upon inches of clear coat, and the polymer probably won't bond to bare paint. Wouldn't the recoat just fall off without anything to bond to?

 

 

[A&J]

I made a sort of long term test using various rinseless washes over the winter last year to show people how much damage rinseless washing can create over a longer period of time. Anyways, I did end up with light swirl marks that look similar to yours.

They were only visible under a certain angle and under certain sun light. If I used a spot light I was not able to see them strangly enough. I later removed them via polishing using the mildest of polish removing very little clear coat (nothing to be concerned about). The car really looks amazing once its perfect but its anoying once you start seeing light damage like this.

Now your case is different as you have not washed the car yet but something to point out is that damage like this will start apearing over the life time of your car due to washing it and its nothing you can really prevent. Toyota (+ most USA made cars) have soft paint that is prone to scrathes. A coating like Opti coat will prevent dirt from sticking to it and reduce friction when washing but it wont harden paint to the point its not susceptible to marring. Just saying its just something you can expect to see sooner or later.

Nevertheless have your detailer fix it.

[Ron@Optimum]

Alex, you can trust Dann to stay on top of your situation.  You are correct in that OCP bonds to your clear coat, but light polishing can remove it without reducing the clear.  Recoating can be done with no issue.   Occasionally marring/swirls can be missed during prep for Coating, ones that appear only in certain light, but the installer should be able to correct and reapply OCP.  Several years ago we had a customer in Dallas that had swirls that only showed up at sunset on cloudy days - true situation, but how does an installer prepare for that?  Optimum took care of him.

[KellyKona]

Hi,

I know this post is old but was this resolved? And how?  I am facing a similar situation 

[KIS76@]

People that get scratches from rinseless washes need to re-think their technique.  Too much pressure most likely.  There was an interesting test done among the rinseless washes and ONR produced the least amount of scratches compared to similar products.  

[AlexL]

14 hours ago, KellyKona said:

Hi,

I know this post is old but was this resolved? And how?  I am facing a similar situation 

Kelly,

It turns out that my idiot installer was not employing the proper technique to apply the opticoat. He globbed the opticoat liquid onto those scratchy yellow Costco microfiber towels to coat  onto my car. Opticoat had removed this individual from the list of authorized installer since last check. The only fix was to go to another authorized installer to buff off the incorrectly installed Opticoat and then reinstall.

Who is your installer? Hope it is not the same idiot I used (if he had somehow sneaked back into the authorized list). In any case, take videos and reach out to your local or regional Opticoat representative for assistance. Good luck.

[KellyKona]

22 minutes ago, AlexL said:

Kelly,

It turns out that my idiot installer was not employing the proper technique to apply the opticoat. He globbed the opticoat liquid onto those scratchy yellow Costco microfiber towels to coat  onto my car. Opticoat had removed this individual from the list of authorized installer since last check. The only fix was to go to another authorized installer to buff off the incorrectly installed Opticoat and then reinstall.

Who is your installer? Hope it is not the same idiot I used (if he had somehow sneaked back into the authorized list). In any case, take videos and reach out to your local or regional Opticoat representative for assistance. Good luck.

My installer is in MD and was probably a younger person - although there were 3 names listed on the warranty. The person today looked at it and was like can fix this. He didn't quite admit it was wrong but didn't say it was correct either. He said we have "brand new" microfiber or buff pads or something. He claims he can fix the coating on my (brand new) vinyl roof too. They are trying to fix it now so I'll wait to report anything to see what happens but I'm without a car at least 1 extra day because of this (and out of work). The original coat was only installed on Saturday. But my car looked similar to what you had in videos - swirls ALL over the car so I'm guessing they did something similar to my car.

[Ron@Optimum]

Opti-Coat Pro comes with an applicator pad and should never be applied with a towel.  Also, no one can "sneak" onto the approved installer list, it is closely monitored.  Optimum is quick to remove installer who is not capable and arrange to have OCP reapplied at our expense.  

[AlexL]

Just now, Ron@Optimum said:

Opti-Coat Pro comes with an applicator pad and should never be applied with a towel.  Also, no one can "sneak" onto the approved installer list, it is closely monitored.  Optimum is quick to remove installer who is not capable and arrange to have OCP reapplied at our expense.  

In all fairness, Opticoat did step up to remedy my situation to my satisfaction. I'm happy that Opticoat stands by the quality of their product and process.

[KellyKona]

2 minutes ago, AlexL said:

In all fairness, Opticoat did step up to remedy my situation to my satisfaction. I'm happy that Opticoat stands by the quality of their product and process.

Thank you for the update!