Super Frustrated. LSPs constributing to water etching damage on daily driver

[jbgrant]

Opti-Coat COMPLETED!

3rd polishing in two months...... Hopefully the last for ~2 years+

I love this stuff. First time user and had very little trouble (lots of practice applying Ultima polymer products). It was a little harder to screw up than I thought it would be (I didn't have to redo any sections) so my application experience was quite positive. Once you get the feel of the pad drag and learn to distinguish too much from too little product on the applicator it goes pretty well. I actually started on the glass so that I could see how even my application was, as opposed to the paint where it is nearly impossible to tell if you missed any spots. This is the best approach for Ultima PGP, and it seemed to work very well for me with Opti-coat. Once confident with the side glass, I moved to the rear window, then windshield... trunk deck, roof, hood, sides, small areas (mirrors, inside fuel door, etc.). I did not cover the trim or the wheels; save that for Ultima TTG which works extremely well for me. It took only 5.5ml to complete, which is simply incredible. Wow does this stuff really cover the territory. The only trim I did was the door handles, which it coated both in just about 3 drops each!

Initial impressions:
The good-
a) Curing appears fast; looks unbelievably good in just about 20 minutes (80f, 70% humidity)
b) No paint darkening like other sealants (KlasseHGSG, Wolfgang 3.0, etc)
c) Looks a lot like UPGP, which it to say VERY BRIGHT and VERY CANDIED.. Only better. I would suggest that 3 coats of UPGP looks about this intense in terms of reflections and gloss
4) Gloss/reflections are as good as anything I have ever used
5) Made a couple deep water etching deposits I decided not to compound out much less apparent (I think by "wetting" the chemically bonded mineral salts)
6) There is a great satisfaction in knowing I won't need to do nearly as much to maintain a polished finish that's 15 years old and stays out of the garage...


The bad?-
1) Slickness. Slickness is about halfway between bare paint and a typical polymer sealant. Definitely not an oily film in the slightest. Nowhere close to a velvety wax.
2) I had very, I mean very minor issues with streaking and only on glass where I was not careful enough and didn't spot a high area in time.
3) Very little (if any) hiding of remaining swirls / heavy damage
4) There is almost no darkening of the finish after it flashes and even less after cure, so application is a challenge as you can't "work between the lines". I actually really like a darkened, deepened finish on this particular vehicle as it actually changes the color. This finish does not really exhibit any effect, but perhaps a future topper might.

Notes:
- I won't be top coating this for at least 1-2 months (well, that's my goal) to get a feel for how it responds to precip and fallout (etc.).
- Applications actually goes pretty fast because it must.... Slow and stumbly for a while, very fast when confidence is up. You only have 1-2 minutes to level a section and blend it into the adjacent section. Working slowly is very detrimental to the finish quality. Takes complete focus.
- I don't recommend working a section over 2 square feet in area. I found this size area took approximately 8 drops of product from the syringe needle.
- Not sure I could be more satisfied with the initial outcome.

[jbgrant]

[IMG][/IMG]

[LegacyGT]

Looks great, I just washed my first OC'd car, and it was a dream. 500 miles of bugs at 81mph slid off with a brief soak, and the car looks great.

[FUNX650]

Looks great, I just washed my first OC'd car, and it was a dream. 500 miles of bugs at 81mph slid off with a brief soak, and the car looks great.

You seem to be having great success with OC!! Good for you.

[Also: You seemed to also have had great success while "flying low" during your recent trek, or do you just considered that a sojourn?] J/K

Bob

[LegacyGT]

You seem to be having great success with OC!! Good for you.

[Also: You seemed to also have had great success while "flying low" during your recent trek, or do you just considered that a sojourn?] J/K

Bob

I like sojourn the best! It was not from lack of effort on the local road revenue collections department, I had at least a dozen encounters, but the early warning systems were properly efficient.

[FUNX650]

I like sojourn the best! It was not from lack of effort on the local road revenue collections department, I had at least a dozen encounters, but the early warning systems were properly efficient.

HMMMM...Wonder if the glint from an OC'd vehicle inhibits true readings from those revenuer's radar beams? What a selling point that would be for the good Dr. G's products!

Bob

[LegacyGT]

HMMMM...Wonder if the glint from an OC'd vehicle inhibits true readings from those revenuer's radar beams? What a selling point that would be for the good Dr. G's products!

Bob

Or maybe it increases detection range for the electronic counter measures by reflecting the slight bits of microwave into the detector Either one would be a fun story!

That and I was driving the incognito Prius this weekend; getting 45mpg @81mph average - it just doesn't make sense to road trip the subie since it was all interstate. I still take the subie if there is 2 lane highway where I need the passing power.

[jbgrant]

Or maybe it increases detection range for the electronic counter measures by reflecting the slight bits of microwave into the detector Either one would be a fun story!

That and I was driving the incognito Prius this weekend; getting 45mpg @81mph average - it just doesn't make sense to road trip the subie since it was all interstate. I still take the subie if there is 2 lane highway where I need the passing power.

Funny, I'm about to head to Canada for the weekend and trying to decide between the car pictured and a 2nd gen prius. Obviously, I will save some gas in the prius, but boy is it a bore in the countryside. My 2nd gen (2005) definitely does not get 45mpg at 81. No way. It will get 45 around 70-73 average and that's with LRR tires. Do you have a current third gen? EPA published speed vs mpg curves for several select car models, prius (2nd gen) scored the worst in terms of reduced efficiency with increasing speed above 60 of all cars compared. It has a wide sweet spot, but doesn't extend much past 70 for mine.

On the other hand, my bmw is more linear with 37 mpg at 55, 34@65, 32@70, 30@75, 28@80, 25@90, and 20-21@100. I wonder what my prius gets at an avg of 100?

[jbgrant]

Two week update:

1500 more miles on the BMW (short trip to Canada). It has rained and the sun has come out baking the water off the hood just as it has in the past. Mineral deposits were left behind, damage was not.

Is this statistically relevant? No. But, it has me feeling a lot better. The Opticoat sheets very well, but still increases the tendency for the flat surfaces to hold water longer as the water is still motivated to gather into macro droplets where it doesn't run off by gravity. Either conditions were not right for the etching (it rained hard and would have washed off alkaline dusts/fallout), or the Opticoat is actually going to protect the paint. Time will tell.

The hydrophobicity of the windows and especially the windshield is fantastic. My wipers literally work better and I run them much slower.

Cleaning the car is a breeze. I did a 15 minute pre-soak with pressure washer-applied pH neutral soap (foams lightly) after the 4 day trip. About every family of flying insect was on my car from Kentucky to Ontario and back. About %90-95 of the dried bug juices and parts were gone after a pressure wash. Road tar was removed incredibly easily by MF and weak APC (was not dried on). I did not even do a bucket wash yet... just a very gentle ONR wipedown to remove the very thin scum/dirt film remaining. The car cleans up as easily as if a good quality polymer sealant had just been applied and cured before a road trip. I did find some dried sap spots a week later, these were easily removed just by soaking a few minutes with waterless wash and gently buffed with MF.

Thus far, I have not put anything over the OC. I did notice that a little bit of Ultima WWP I used on the hood had a significant darkening effect on the paint. The UWWP leaves a polymer film behind. This suggests to me that a darkening poly sealant like Wolfgang 3.0 will layer over the OC and still darken the paint the way it does on hellrot red normally.

Very satisfied so far. Amazing what <6ml of a coating can do.