Paint Polishing for OC Prep - Advice

T

The Critic

New member
Greetings,



I am getting ready to apply OC 2.0 on my daily driver. This car sits outside 24/7, has a ton of miles (75k+ for a 2011), but has been maintained regularly since new.



Obviously, I'd like to polish the paint prior to applying OC 2.0. The part I am struggling with, is the level of correction to attain. While I understand that it is a personal preference, I would like to hear your advice on how you would normally advise your clients in this case.



In preparation, I did a test panel (or two) tonight with the following findings.



Roof: Flex 3401, M205, LC orange pad. 3 passes at speed 5 with moderate pressure, 1 pass at speed 4 with no pressure. 70-80% correction, but a couple deep rids and some nasty water etching remains. I have some FG400 on the way, but I have concerns about compounding as the paint measures in the 60-70 micron range. The nasty water etching is quite noticeable from a distance...



Door panels and rear quarters: Flex 3401, M205, LC Orange pad. 3 passes at speed 5 with moderate pressure, 1 pass at speed 4 with no pressure. 90%+ correction. No concerns with paint thickness here (110+ microns).



The thought of apply Opti-Coat to less than perfect paint sounds a bit un-kosher, but then again, this is a daily driver. What do you guys think?



Thanks.
 
The Critic- I'd ramp it up a *LOT* farther than M205/orange. Never used the FG4000, so I don't know it that'd do it for me or not.



I'd only OptiCoat if I could achieve a basically flawless finish. Otherwise I'd use something else, even on a daily, even on one that sat outside. Eh, that's just me...



Is 110 microns a lot for your car? On any of my current vehicles that'd be getting pretty thin, but I've had cars a lot thinner than that from the factory.
 
Accumulator said:
The Critic- I'd ramp it up a *LOT* farther than M205/orange. Never used the FG4000, so I don't know it that'd do it for me or not.



I'd only OptiCoat if I could achieve a basically flawless finish. Otherwise I'd use something else, even on a daily, even on one that sat outside. Eh, that's just me...



Is 110 microns a lot for your car? On any of my current vehicles that'd be getting pretty thin, but I've had cars a lot thinner than that from the factory.
Click to expand...



I read somewhere that over 100 microns is considered normal, but I could be wrong.



I was able to do the entire left side of the vehicle tonight: fenders, both doors, pillars and quarter panel.



Here were some interesting findings. HD Polish and a LC orange pad, 4 passes @ speed 5, would cut through almost all the defects. However, the finish achieved was not glossy. Going over the same area with a Uber green pad yielded a very glossy finish. Meguiars Yellow Soft Buff 2.0 seemed to be decent, but the Uber green still gave a better finish.



Never expected to see such noticeable differences between pads.
 
What type of vehicle are you working on? Chris@Optimum coatings told me that their finishing polish is designed to work with OC and only needs to be wiped off with a damp MF towel instead of an IPA mixture. This isn't an issue with hard paints but softer paints I have had an IPA wipe down leave marring even using good MF towels. The next time I use OC I'm going to use their polish and see what the results are.



I understand the Optimum wants to sell their products and they are going to say their polishes work the best with their permanent coatings. I thought I would throw my .02 from talking to Chris.
 
Not sure exactly how extensive the defects are in your finish, but nothing is preventing you from just doing a semi-perfect correction followed by some nice gloss enhancement. If HD Polish is giving you good results I'd go with that. I'd do a heavy Alcohol wipe down followed by either a Dawn or ONR wash and you can go right to Opti-Coat.



Also, with both HD Polish & M205....both are non-diminishing abrasive polishes and should be worked with semi-firm pressure to produce the best correction and gloss. You don't need to make super long passes (i.e. jeweling) either.
 
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