Questions on pro ceramic coating and maintenance

[BrightShine]

I am looking at getting a pro coating installed and I am looking at Opticoat Pro. My car sits in the sun 24/7 and gets bird droppings throughout the week, some weeks the bird droppings are worst than others. The paint is not perfect as I do see some light scratches mainly on the hood when in direct sunlight, there are a few chips exposing bare metal, and the front bumper has a bit of rock chips.

Current routine:
-Wash weekly with ONR and then apply Optimum Spray Wax

Mainly I'm afraid that if I get Opticoat pro I will become complacent and maybe do washes twice a week instead or maybe even once a month.

Questions

1) I've read that a ceramic coating is chemically resistant and will do a better job at resisting bird droppings LONGER than if you didn't have a ceramic coating. For how long though? If the bird dropping is not removed within hours or that same day, or even in 1 week or 2 weeks, does it even matter at that point whether you have a ceramic coating or not? Has the damage been done and baked in by the sun? I want to know if bird dropping protection alone would be the main reason for getting Opticoat pro. I can say sometimes the bird droppings sit days or a week on my car as I don't have a chance to remove them.

2) Opticoat pro installations were much cheaper about 7 years ago. The prices I see now for Opticoat pro are more than 2x higher which I don't know why prices increased so much. If I continue my current routine without Opticoat Pro, is it even worth it to get Opticoat pro? I know I'd miss out on the hydrophobic properties, car would get less dirty between washes, more gloss, but what else?

3) My current routine. If I don't get Opticoat pro, what products can I add to my routine to make it better?

4) I read here in the forums that polishing should be done around 2-3 years. Can you polish if you have Opticoat Pro installed? What should I expect to pay to have a polish done at a pro detailer?

Thanks!

[Dan Tran]

I am looking at getting a pro coating installed and I am looking at Opticoat Pro. My car sits in the sun 24/7 and gets bird droppings throughout the week, some weeks the bird droppings are worst than others. The paint is not perfect as I do see some light scratches mainly on the hood when in direct sunlight, there are a few chips exposing bare metal, and the front bumper has a bit of rock chips.

Current routine:
-Wash weekly with ONR and then apply Optimum Spray Wax

Mainly I'm afraid that if I get Opticoat pro I will become complacent and maybe do washes twice a week instead or maybe even once a month.

Questions

1) I've read that a ceramic coating is chemically resistant and will do a better job at resisting bird droppings LONGER than if you didn't have a ceramic coating. For how long though? If the bird dropping is not removed within hours or that same day, or even in 1 week or 2 weeks, does it even matter at that point whether you have a ceramic coating or not? Has the damage been done and baked in by the sun? I want to know if bird dropping protection alone would be the main reason for getting Opticoat pro. I can say sometimes the bird droppings sit days or a week on my car as I don't have a chance to remove them.

2) Opticoat pro installations were much cheaper about 7 years ago. The prices I see now for Opticoat pro are more than 2x higher which I don't know why prices increased so much. If I continue my current routine without Opticoat Pro, is it even worth it to get Opticoat pro? I know I'd miss out on the hydrophobic properties, car would get less dirty between washes, more gloss, but what else?

3) My current routine. If I don't get Opticoat pro, what products can I add to my routine to make it better?

4) I read here in the forums that polishing should be done around 2-3 years. Can you polish if you have Opticoat Pro installed? What should I expect to pay to have a polish done at a pro detailer?

Thanks!

1. Opti-Coat Pro should yield better results compared to what you have been used to. It all varies case by case, but if you left it there after a week it should not be a big deal. I had Opti-Coat Pro installed on my 2008 Subaru Forester last year and it survived such things when I “got lazy”.

2. Hydrophobic properties and “self-cleaning” abilities were very evident. Especially, when it comes to the maintenance part. Please keep in mind that it is still vulnerable to defects. Just at a slower pace. But as long as your washing method is solid, you will have an even better experience hand washing your car to begin with.

Gloss is nothing without proper machine polishing. You will see the “candy” look, but when you are paying a minimum of $899—at the least it will include a one step Polish, primarily to prep the paint. Paint correction is typically extra. Opti-Coat Pro is for sure competitively priced.

As a side note: Opti-Coat Pro+ at minimum
Cost $1299 and again includes a polishing step to prep the paint.

Now that there are prosumer grade products that anyone can do, you are truly paying for pro-grade results. It’s all about paying for the proper prep work.

3. In the Optimum line alone, Opti-Seal is the only product that (believe it or not) can go on top of their very own car wax. With that said, I customer favorite (in terms of looks):

Wash with ONR, used Optimum car wax as a drying aid, and too with Opti-Seal. I promise you it looks stunning.

4. Again you will get an initial polishing included to prep the surface for Opti-Coat. But for a paint correction it will cost extra and will vary by location.

Once it is on, do not have it polished, it will undo all that work. You are essentially buying into an LSP that bonds well with the paint and will keep your car looking good (and polished) longer. So no need to have it done for a while.

Just be realistic. It’s not a cure all. It boils down to how you care for it. However, when maintaining it, you can used Optimum Ferrex and such annually for example. You can find more maintenance routine stuff from their website.

I hope this helps.


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[WillSports3]

To add to it, the reason the price went up is (correct me if I'm wrong) because Opticoat used to price polishing and the coating seperately. Now the installers have been told to include it in the price. It used to be that they were not to coat if the car was not polished to a certain point so you would have the price of the Opticoat and then the polishing steps would be extra.

Or I could be getting the names mixed up, because there was Opticoat, Opticoat Pro, and Opticoat Pro+. You could be thinking of the price of Opticoat and now you're looking at Opticoat Pro which is a two layer system? Hence the double price?

[BrightShine]

1. Opti-Coat Pro should yield better results compared to what you have been used to. It all varies case by case, but if you left it there after a week it should not be a big deal. I had Opti-Coat Pro installed on my 2008 Subaru Forester last year and it survived such things when I “got lazy”.

2. Hydrophobic properties and “self-cleaning” abilities were very evident. Especially, when it comes to the maintenance part. Please keep in mind that it is still vulnerable to defects. Just at a slower pace. But as long as your washing method is solid, you will have an even better experience hand washing your car to begin with.

Gloss is nothing without proper machine polishing. You will see the “candy” look, but when you are paying a minimum of $1299—at the least it will include a one step Polish, primarily to prep the paint. Paint correction is typically extra. Opti-Coat Pro is for sure competitively priced. Now that there are prosumer grade products that anyone can do, you are truly paying for pro-grade results. It’s all about paying for the proper prep work.

3. In the Optimum line alone, Opti-Seal is the only product that (believe it or not) can go on top of their very own car wax. With that said, I customer favorite (in terms of looks):

Wash with ONR, used Optimum car wax as a drying aid, and too with Opti-Seal. I promise you it looks stunning.

4. Again you will get an initial polishing included to prep the surface for Opti-Coat. But for a paint correction it will cost extra and will vary by location.

Once it is on, do not have it polished, it will undo all that work. You are essentially buying into an LSP that bonds well with the paint and will keep your car looking good (and polished) longer. So no need to have it done for a while.

Just be realistic. It’s not a cure all. It boils down to how you care for it. However, when maintaining it, you can used Optimum Ferrex and such annually for example. You can find more maintenance routine stuff from their website.

I hope this helps.


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1. Do you mean if I leave bird droppings on the car with Opticoat pro it should survive a week?

3. Have you tried or seen the results of Optimum hyper seal? It's designed to work especially for the pro coatings. If I do decide on Opticoat pro, could I use ONR then Hyper seal as a drying aid without the Wax and Optiseal?

To add to it, the reason the price went up is (correct me if I'm wrong) because Opticoat used to price polishing and the coating seperately. Now the installers have been told to include it in the price. It used to be that they were not to coat if the car was not polished to a certain point so you would have the price of the Opticoat and then the polishing steps would be extra.

Or I could be getting the names mixed up, because there was Opticoat, Opticoat Pro, and Opticoat Pro+. You could be thinking of the price of Opticoat and now you're looking at Opticoat Pro which is a two layer system? Hence the double price?

It would have been Opticoat pro available only to pro installers, the prices 7 years ago that I remember were $500-$700. There was no Opticoat pro plus at that time as I believe the plus was introduced years later. I would have thought it was the chemicals themselves that spiked in price and that drove the price up and not the actual installation.

[Dan Tran]

1. Do you mean if I leave bird droppings on the car with Opticoat pro it should survive a week?

3. Have you tried or seen the results of Optimum hyper seal? It's designed to work especially for the pro coatings. If I do decide on Opticoat pro, could I use ONR then Hyper seal as a drying aid without the Wax and Optiseal?




It would have been Opticoat pro available only to pro installers, the prices 7 years ago that I remember were $500-$700. There was no Opticoat pro plus at that time as I believe the plus was introduced years later. I would have thought it was the chemicals themselves that spiked in price and that drove the price up and not the actual installation.

Just in case it matters, I was an Opti-Coat authorized installer at one point. With that said...

I can’t speak for everyone, but the bird droppings I period left didn’t affect the coating. I purposely did stuff like this to test out the coating.

Yes! You can use Hyper-Seal in place of Opti-Seal etc. it’s is actually recommended. If you decide to use any other maintenance product outside of the Optimum line, just make sure it’s designed as a coating maintained product in general—such as Gyeon or CARPRO.

But assuming you want to stay true to the Optimum line of products just because, you won’t be disappointed. Optimum synergy is not crap.

In terms of the price increase, you are essentially buying into a warranty program. Plus, due to the plethora of ceramic coating “installers”, they advertise their prices using MAP structure.

All in all, they are trying to protect their company because there unfortunately are “installers” using Gloss Coat and saying that they are an authorized installer. There is an administration process to become an installer.



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