Freshly painted 1/4 panel and Opti-coat

M

Marj

New member
How long should I wait before apply opti-coat to this panel? Normally I would wait 2 mos before polishing and waxing, but I am not sure with opit-coat.
 
David, so we assume that the shop uses the latest paint technology and have the right booth, booth temp and air flow set up, and follows the paint suppliers "cure out" instructions?

Not enough information was provided for me to say much at this point.

For all I know, the work may have been done by a "shade tree" shop.

Sorry, just don't want to offer any advise until I know the particulars of such.
 
I see and respect your point Ron totally. From my understanding, Opti-Coat will not interfere with any of those things. If a paint job isn't done to spec and fails, it won't be a result of it being treated with OC.
 
Do not totally agree and here is why.

If the shop used a very low grade, high VOC content set of materials,reducing solvents, etc, the applied paint films, will continue to "off gas" for more that a month. In doing so, that means that the resin system has not completed it's "curing-cross linking process" and if any product is over the top surface of the paint, it will not allow the "off gassing" or "release" of the carrier and tailing solvents to be completed.

I am not informed as to wether or not the product, Opti-Coat, is formulated to allow this to take place, but with my very limited knowledge, find it hard to understand a product that produces such an advertised and promoted, dense top surface, will allow the needed "off gassing" to take place.

Such may result in several issues later, such as premature die back, pin-hole pops, or even "delamination", as the paint system is needing to rid it's self of those carrier, etc solvents in order to complete the "curing" process.
 
David Fermani said:
I see and respect your point Ron totally. From my understanding, Opti-Coat will not interfere with any of those things. If a paint job isn't done to spec and fails, it won't be a result of it being treated with OC.
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That, and my understanding is that the OC "curing" process (full curing, that is) can take about a month for the consumer version. During that curing process, I would presume the substrate would be able to outgas through the layer of OC since it isn't fully cross-linked.
 
That would make sense, Charlie.

I know that we always informed people applying our paint sealant that to get full cross linking, to obtain maximum protection, the sealant should not be exposed to water for at a minimum of 24 hours and our chemical engineers studies showed it needed at least 7 days to get full cross link/curing.

That, compared to todays new resin systems being used for sealants, is very "old school".

It worked quite well, however I understand from my old contacts at the company that they have moved to the newer resins for their paint sealant.

Not up to date on them at this time, so can't say much more on the subject.
 
Ron Ketcham said:
David, so we assume that the shop uses the latest paint technology and have the right booth, booth temp and air flow set up, and follows the paint suppliers "cure out" instructions?

Not enough information was provided for me to say much at this point.

For all I know, the work may have been done by a "shade tree" shop.

Sorry, just don't want to offer any advise until I know the particulars of such.
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Regular body shop, no shade tree.
 
Ron Ketcham said:
Do not totally agree and here is why.

If the shop used a very low grade, high VOC content set of materials,reducing solvents, etc, the applied paint films, will continue to "off gas" for more that a month. In doing so, that means that the resin system has not completed it's "curing-cross linking process" and if any product is over the top surface of the paint, it will not allow the "off gassing" or "release" of the carrier and tailing solvents to be completed.

I am not informed as to wether or not the product, Opti-Coat, is formulated to allow this to take place, but with my very limited knowledge, find it hard to understand a product that produces such an advertised and promoted, dense top surface, will allow the needed "off gassing" to take place.

Such may result in several issues later, such as premature die back, pin-hole pops, or even "delamination", as the paint system is needing to rid it's self of those carrier, etc solvents in order to complete the "curing" process.
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So, I am going to assume there is not harm to letting it cure off. Seems to have more problems by applying a coating before its time.
 
Like I stated, not sure regarding the Opti-Coat, but since you had the work done at a qualified shop, and it's been a few days, you should be fine.
 
Ron Ketcham said:
Like I stated, not sure regarding the Opti-Coat, but since you had the work done at a qualified shop, and it's been a few days, you should be fine.
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Are you saying its okay to wait a couple of months for it to cure before application?
 
I can't actually provide a "time line", what does the shop say, they know the materials used, the reducers, their booth air flow etc.
 
This is a shop I would not deal with again. It took them 4 times to get the panel correct and this, after much discussion how it didn't look right..." I can still see the crease".

2 years later and it looks the way I expected them to get it the first time.
 
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