Review and Extreme Testing: Opti-Coat 2.0 and CQuartz

[C. Charles Hahn]

It would very likely end up marring the paint and wasting product. Opti Coat is more like paint than sealants and waxes. It has no lubricants and drys rather quickly. You can spray it or wipe it, but that's all.


Sent from my iPad 2 viaTapatalk

If one were to spray OptiCoat, do you have any estimates of how much product would be needed to coat an entire vehicle?

[rwright]

If one were to spray OptiCoat, do you have any estimates of how much product would be needed to coat an entire vehicle?

Good question. I was reading the post as spraying like Opti-Seal, but you are reading it from a painters perspective right? Hmm...now it's getting interesting.

[richy]

If one were to spray OptiCoat, do you have any estimates of how much product would be needed to coat an entire vehicle?

Good question. I was reading the post as spraying like Opti-Seal, but you are reading it from a painters perspective right? Hmm...now it's getting interesting.

If you go way back in the archives of the Optimum forum, you will see that when they were beta testing this product (I think they called it product X or something to that effect), that spraying it on with an air powered spray (painter's) gun was the original method. The downside to this is you use a lot more product. To me there is no upside. You CAN layer OC if you do it within 5 minutes of the first coat's application if you want a thicker coating. Optimum people say it is absolutely unnecessary to do so. So it begs the question of why waste a product that is expensive when you can effectively coat a car for about 5-7 mils when you get good at it. (Some report using even less). But, hey, I'm a cheap S.OB...or my favourite word...parsimonious!!

[Avi@CarPro]

Very Thorough review Corey , well done.. as i told you already i admire your time and patient.
few remarks to some guys posts here,

we dont call our coat "permanent coat" since nothing in life is permanent,!
if coating can be removed by chemicals or abrasion it means its not permanent.
we dont like to promise too much as many paint "protection" companies did in past years over the USA, promising "5 years warranty" ,"life time guaranty" etc.. they just ruined this market reputation.
though we say up to 2 years ,Cquartz can last much longer even, as you saw the harsh tests Corey has done, its all in the maintenance after.

about the fun of waxing and detailing your cars... ofcourse it wont replace this fun... some guys like more protection on there cars, less washing it, less marring the paint..
waxing is nice... but as you all saw here this is few "blocks" ahead of any organic /synthetic sealants and others. and still you can use wax on Cquartz coat.

[SPIROS ANTONIOU]

Very Thorough review Corey , well done.. as i told you already i admire your time and patient.
few remarks to some guys posts here,

we dont call our coat "permanent coat" since nothing in life is permanent,!
if coating can be removed by chemicals or abrasion it means its not permanent.
we dont like to promise too much as many paint "protection" companies did in past years over the USA, promising "5 years warranty" ,"life time guaranty" etc.. they just ruined this market reputation.
though we say up to 2 years ,Cquartz can last much longer even, as you saw the harsh tests Corey has done, its all in the maintenance after.

about the fun of waxing and detailing your cars... ofcourse it wont replace this fun... some guys like more protection on there cars, less washing it, less marring the paint..
waxing is nice... but as you all saw here this is few "blocks" ahead of any organic /synthetic sealants and others. and still you can use wax on Cquartz coat.

THANK YOU FOR THE INFORMATION.The best thing in our days is to be honest

[C. Charles Hahn]

Good question. I was reading the post as spraying like Opti-Seal, but you are reading it from a painters perspective right? Hmm...now it's getting interesting.

Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. When Chris described Opti Coat as "more like paint than sealants and waxes" my immediate thought was wondering how the product would behave if sprayed out of a mini HVLP gun or an airbrush.

I can see Richy's point about the expense of layering and using more product this way (not to mention the extremely short flash-off time), but for certain applications I can't help but wonder if it would make the product even easier to use.

For example when it comes to headlight restoration, if the product would "flow out" like a regular paint or specific UV coating, it could provide an easy way to get a thicker layer of OC onto the lens for added durability while requiring less masking or removal of the headlight assembly from the vehicle.

Because Opti-Coat is rated safe for almost any exterior material, overspray shouldn't be as detrimental as it would be with regular paint or a coating not rated to be used on anything and everything.

I've got some OC 2.0 sitting here on my desk... I might play with the idea unless Chris or Dr. G can tell us what sort of testing to that effect has already been done. Hate to waste material if I'm just duplicating others' documented results.

[CEE DOG]

Also your test panel is begging for an extreme scratch test! With sandpaper, or maybe lay it face down on sand and dance on it

LOL, OK! You twisted my arm. I'll do something but it might be a week or so. I'm not committing to a time frame yet. But I'm NOT dancing!

Wo
So I am able to use OCW and Opti-Seal on the Coating?

Going by one of Dr. G's responses, the answer is yes even though nothing can really stick to Opti Coat?

This would be nice at least to temporarily add a bit of gloss instead of gathering dust on the shelf.

You got it

INCREDIBLE review!! I really think they should give you the authority to edit your first post so you can do timeline updates of the coatings. Since you are the product review king, I don't think anyone would be offended if they gave just you those limits.

Thank you! That would definitely be helpful for long reviews!

Mike P did fix 2 pictures for me that were stretching the reading area. Very kind of him!

WOW!! That has to be the best review I have ever read in my life. Great going Cory, I don't think you left any question unanswered. Just amazing. I am speechless. GREAT REVIEW!!

Wow Mark, Thank you!

holy crap .... this is absolutely the deepest and fairest review I have seen, youve clearly touched on many areas the AG users want to know. Corey I am completely impressed !

Thank you Scott!! I tried to be especially fair and objective on this one particularly since it is a new product to a great many people. It wouldn't have been very smart or fair for me to make strong opinionated statements with my lack of experience with these coatings. I was learning as I went there.

WOW! A fantastic review of two leading edge technologies by the undisputed King of the Detailing Review! Just in time for those on the fence! I think you should change your signature s to "Mad Scientist" after the diabolical tortures you dreamed up for that poor ole test panel. We lack the words to adquately express how much we enjoy & appreciate yoour efforts. If a detailing review can be considered art you just painted the frigging Mona Lisa buddy!
Can I give this review six stars?

Thanks so much Jim! You had me laughing there. LOL, Thanks for everything buddy.

Corey, again, congratulations on a paradigm-shifting review!! I will repeat what I wrote you-know-where:


Corey, I have been waiting for this review to get published...boy, was it ever worth the wait!! You did a brilliant job showing all aspects of both products. I think yours might be the only video showing how OC is applied. As far as the small issues with applying OC, I agree with your opinion about the syringe. As far as doing it on hot panels, there was mention on the Optimum forum about that. It is best applied in temperate conditions. I, too, found that the high spots are best removed sooner than later. It is cool to see the surface transition with the coating applied.
As far as both being inadequate as a trim restorer, I have found the same thing. Shorter term (months) solution is UTTG (And thank you for introducing me to that!) or the C4 for long term. I will be looking forward to your upcoming review of that product. One thing to mention about using both products, if you use a mf to remove the residue, toss them into a pail with a strong mix of APC before the product has time to crystalize. You can save your towels that way. As far as the residual amount in the bottom of the CQ bottle, just pull out the white dropper and you'll get down to the very last drop. It was really impressive to see the coatings protect the cc failure sections. The one advantage CQ has for me is the ability to touch up small areas. I recently got a stone chip in the leading edge of my hood and I had the dent pulled out and filled it in. Now, I just have to re-do the immediate area and not the whole hood. I am really enjoying using both and the customers have been blown away by it. Thank you very much for doing all this meticulous research and posting it so succinctly.

Thank you so much Richy!! I really appreciate you taking the time to talk to me about the products when I called you that day as well.

Good to hear your validation on the trim restoration or lack there of aspect. I'm going to order the C4 this week and I'm looking forward to that review big time! Those bumpers have been crying for that product for a long time.

Man, on your bucket of APC to save the towels tip... I really blew it. All along after talking to you I meant to have a section on that and it slipped my mind somehow even though I had thought about it a couple times during the times I was working on the review.

Impressive and very thorough review! You should get some free bottles of OC and Cquartz for your hard work .

I will refer to this article for future reference. This review will answer a ton of questions.

I think you did an outstanding job of demonstrating via videos how you applied Cquartz and OC with the applicators.

As far as being worried about leaving any residual Cquartz in the dropper bottle, you can pop off the top white plastic dropper cap with a knife. I had to do this because I used too much the first time and needed every last drop

Lastly, cant wait for your updates and C4 review! Phenomenal job!

Thank you so much!! I appreciate all your kind words. As far as the C4 review I won't be able to post it here as its not carried by AG.

Incredible write up Corey. You answered every question I have had on these products...

Thank you Pat! Excellent

Though I haven't tried to remove it yet, from what I understand, you'd have to compound to remove...
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong

Well, I'm not sure on how aggressive of a polish is necessary but yes it can't be removed chemically.

Hey Corey,

Phenomenal review with some great videos but the photos aren't viewable on my end, here's what I see; any ideas?

Sorry for those troubles Bobby! Apparently photobucket tracks bandwidth from sites that have photos linked in them. With the free version after a certain amount of bandwidth is used per month they shut you down! I didn't know that till I saw your message. I went and paid for pro immediately but it took a few hours and a couple emails for them to unlock it I guess. All is well now!

Great review Corey! You are by far the best person to do a review I think!

I saw all the photos last night but now they show up like Bobby said.

Thank you Jason! Thats very kind of you

Corey, you hit this one out of the ballpark! Great review. You really looked at it from every angle and did a great job showing/conveying it to everyone. Great job my friend

Jon

I really appreciate that Jon! Thank you

Wow! I have been lurking on this forum for the past couple of months, but I have to take the time to express my appreciation for this review. Like a number of people on the forum, I have also been considering these coating products, and the thorough descriptions, pictures and videos here answer a lot of questions I've had, and make it so much easier to visualize how they would look and apply on my car. Again, thanks for taking the time to share this with everyone!

to AutoGeek!

That is very cool! Thank you!

[Chris Thomas]

Good question. I was reading the post as spraying like Opti-Seal, but you are reading it from a painters perspective right? Hmm...now it's getting interesting.

Anthony Orosco has the most experience with spraying Opti Coat, so I will ask him to chime in on the thread. I think he said it takes about double the product, but lessens the high spot problem dramatically.

[Anthony Orosco]

I originally started spraying both Opti-Seal and Opti-Coat some time ago, along with tire and interior dressings, to see how they performed and set up.

If you're familiar with airbrushes then you can use them (double action preferred) to apply Opti-Seal on the surface of a car rather quickly and since it's double action, meaning when you press down on the trigger only air comes out, you can spray the Opti-Seal and afterwards blow air across the surface to evaporate remaining product.

My thoughts for doing this were if I can get away with laying down 100% of the product this means more actives are getting to the surface and little to nothing is being wiped off hence I should be left with greater performance from the product.

Downside is you'll use more product.

So if Opti-Seal can be layed down in this manner then Opti-Coat should work fine also, Dr. G confirmed this so I set about using various spray guns, from mini-HVLP guns to fan tipped airbrushes. I have several mini-guns from Iwata and Asturo and they are excellent guns, pricey, but worth it. These mini-guns work great for application of the Opti-Coat but again the downside is more product is being used, about one syringe for 2 Porsche 911 sized vehicles. This includes all paint, wheels and lights. Maybe some extra left over.

An airbrush will atomize the product to a very fine mist so I recommend a larger needle (.3 or .5) with a fan tip, so not a true airbrush but an airbrush gun more so.

The key advantage is more product on your surface and if sprayed properly very little to knock down in terms of high spots.

I will post up pictures and a video of me applying this to a car when I get the time.

Anthony

[Mike Phillips]

I watched Anthony spraying Opti-Seal at his shop when I was down there for the GTG last summer and the first thing I thought as I watched him spraying the product was that he's really laying down a "layer" of protection.

It was impressive. My second thought was with this type of application you're going to use more product, as long as you're building that into the price of your work it shouldn't be an issue.

And my third thought on this technique is that after you do the correction and polishing steps, and then prep the surface for the coating, if you can do all of these steps and end up with a defect-free finish, then by spraying the coating on you reduce the potential to re-inflict any type of marring because nothing is touching the paint.

No hand rubbing an applicator over the paint, no machine spinning a pad over the paint... just air pressure.


Talk about non-invasive...