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Detailing for dummies: I'm the dummy-Wash mitts have entered the chat; possibly other things you stick your hands into!

bentin

Autocross Champion
Location
Austin, TX
Car(s)
23 Golf R - 3 Pedals
I have used ONR for a few years now, it works, if used properly. You're not going to use it on a car you just drove through the mud, and I always use a pressure washer to "pre-clean" the car before ONR. The big difference between ONR and soap is that soap don't do anything other than suspend the dirt particles, they can still scratch the car. ONR encapsulates the particles in the polymer, this is why it won't create marring if used properly. With that said, the most marring created on any type of wash is done while drying the car.
Hey, @Maiden69, is there benefit to using ceramic specific wash for a ceramic treated car? If so, would you want two thirds of a gallon of ONR? Aren't you in San Antonio? We can meet for tacos in San Marcos...
 

Maiden69

Autocross Champion
Location
Texas
Car(s)
2020 GTI
Hey, @Maiden69, is there benefit to using ceramic specific wash for a ceramic treated car? If so, would you want two thirds of a gallon of ONR? Aren't you in San Antonio? We can meet for tacos in San Marcos...
I got enough ONR to last me till I die... I was an authorized OptiCoat Pro installer.

As far as ceramic specific washes, I haven't tried any. I tend to use pH neutral shampoos if I wash my cars. I recently bought BLACKFIRE Pro Ceramic Coating Wash because it was recommended, not because it was a "ceramic coating wash". It's decent, I find it better than Optimum Car Wash. The OptiCoat Yellow ONR is decent for coated cars, it's similar to the ONR wash&wax but designed for OptiCoat coated vehicles. If you have ONR, use it and use a drying aid like their spray Car Wax, Opti-Seal, HyperSeal, Polish Angel Cosmic Spritz or something similar.
 

riceburner

Autocross Champion
Location
nice try PPNT
Car(s)
MK5 Best GTI
i think ceramic specific shampoos are both designed to be chemically neutral to the ceramic coating (which many other shampoos simply are by default) but also contain small amounts of ceramic detailing chemicals which are designed to help 'boost' or 'rejuvinate' the effects of the existing ceramic coating. Having used lots of shampoos of both types, I don't seriously notice a big difference between them - ultimately the soaps lubricity and ability to encapsulate and transport dirt away from the paint safely is what matters most, and not adversely affecting any surface coatings. I might argue for a ceramic boost shampoo to have slightly more water beading at the end of the wash, but that gets subjective very easily.
 

acoustic_

Ready to race!
Location
NJ
Car(s)
2018 Golf R
I got enough ONR to last me till I die... I was an authorized OptiCoat Pro installer.

As far as ceramic specific washes, I haven't tried any. I tend to use pH neutral shampoos if I wash my cars. I recently bought BLACKFIRE Pro Ceramic Coating Wash because it was recommended, not because it was a "ceramic coating wash". It's decent, I find it better than Optimum Car Wash. The OptiCoat Yellow ONR is decent for coated cars, it's similar to the ONR wash&wax but designed for OptiCoat coated vehicles. If you have ONR, use it and use a drying aid like their spray Car Wax, Opti-Seal, HyperSeal, Polish Angel Cosmic Spritz or something similar.

You said you *were* OptiCoat certified. What are you now? Any reason you dropped OptiCoat?

I feel like I'm light-years behind some of you guys. I use Meguiar Gold Class Shampoo, two bucket method. No pressure washer, just slap the car with my hose on Jet. Rinse, wash, dry, and then I've just started using Griot Garage 3-in-1 Ceramic Wax. I was always raised on Carnauba. Not sure how good the Griot Garage stuff is, but the hydrophobic properties seem legit. I got caught in some rain earlier today and was watching it just fly away. Pretty awesome!

Never heard of Optimum before. I'm thinking about ordering some of their stuff. I've been researching a ton on Ceramic Coats (looking to get my new-to-me R done after a paint correction and touch-up) and OptiCoat seems to be pretty well regarded. Not too many detailers using it around me though. There's a million options!
 

Maiden69

Autocross Champion
Location
Texas
Car(s)
2020 GTI
You said you *were* OptiCoat certified. What are you now? Any reason you dropped OptiCoat?
I closed my business during Covid.
Never heard of Optimum before. I'm thinking about ordering some of their stuff. I've been researching a ton on Ceramic Coats (looking to get my new-to-me R done after a paint correction and touch-up) and OptiCoat seems to be pretty well regarded. Not too many detailers using it around me though. There's a million options!
Optimum only have one ceramic coating available to the public, it has evolved through the years. It used to be called Opti-Coat, then Opti-Coat 2.0 and now Gloss-Coat. They have 4 Pro level coatings, the first three are really the same coating but with different percentage of SiC, the newer one, Opti-Coat Pro3.

Little history, Dr. David Ghodoussi, the owner worked for over 10 years in the research and development of automotive paint formulations, mostly the development of clear coats. So he set out to create a coating that help protect clear coat from UV exposure. Unlike most coatings in the market made out of SiO2, Optimum uses SiC exclusively in their pro level coatings. This is the reason why I decided to get certified with them, and not just buy other coatings out there.

I don't buy Griots Garage, never liked their products, but I know of people that had great success with them. For a first time use, Gloss-Coat is very easy to install, and at $60 for a 10cc syringe, the price is about the same for other companies out there. I recently bought Adam's Advanced Graphene coating to try out... although I still have several syringes left for Pro. I want to do a side by side to see if it is really different. I know it won't last as long as Pro, but I heard that the initial gloss and hydrophobic properties are better, kinda like the Pro+.
 

tmw2442

Autocross Newbie
Location
Approved NPC storage contanier
Car(s)
Mk7 R
I closed my business during Covid.

Optimum only have one ceramic coating available to the public, it has evolved through the years. It used to be called Opti-Coat, then Opti-Coat 2.0 and now Gloss-Coat. They have 4 Pro level coatings, the first three are really the same coating but with different percentage of SiC, the newer one, Opti-Coat Pro3.

Little history, Dr. David Ghodoussi, the owner worked for over 10 years in the research and development of automotive paint formulations, mostly the development of clear coats. So he set out to create a coating that help protect clear coat from UV exposure. Unlike most coatings in the market made out of SiO2, Optimum uses SiC exclusively in their pro level coatings. This is the reason why I decided to get certified with them, and not just buy other coatings out there.

I don't buy Griots Garage, never liked their products, but I know of people that had great success with them. For a first time use, Gloss-Coat is very easy to install, and at $60 for a 10cc syringe, the price is about the same for other companies out there. I recently bought Adam's Advanced Graphene coating to try out... although I still have several syringes left for Pro. I want to do a side by side to see if it is really different. I know it won't last as long as Pro, but I heard that the initial gloss and hydrophobic properties are better, kinda like the Pro+.
I assume you can confirm this, the opt pro plus line coatings, embed or fuse into the top clear coat and are basically permanent(silicon carbide) to the car.
Where are the normal 3-5 year coatings (silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, etc) will eventually break down by themselves, which is why if you read the fine print on most other coatings, they will say something like to keep your coating warranty intact the car should be detailed a certain number of times a year and a top up sio2/ti02/graphene etc product needs applied to the surface, to top up the surface ions
 

Maiden69

Autocross Champion
Location
Texas
Car(s)
2020 GTI
I assume you can confirm this, the opt pro plus line coatings, embed or fuse into the top clear coat and are basically permanent(silicon carbide) to the car.
Where are the normal 3-5 year coatings (silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide, etc) will eventually break down by themselves, which is why if you read the fine print on most other coatings, they will say something like to keep your coating warranty intact the car should be detailed a certain number of times a year and a top up sio2/ti02/graphene etc product needs applied to the surface, to top up the surface ions
Yes, that's why David went with SiC, because it forms a permanent bond, the chemicals that are in the coating create the SiC upon contact crosslinking with the clear coat, unlike SiO2 that just sits on top of the paint. From how they explained it in the class was that it actually converts the top layer of the clear coat into SiC.

Like you added, this is why Ceramic Pro and other products had customers coming in for yearly "refreshes" to maintain the warranty. Basically, they are topping the coating with more coating. Opti-Coat does not require a topping to maintain the warranty. They do sell Hyper-Seal, which is an SiO2 maintenance spray that is formulated to bind to the SiC in Pro. I have applied wax to cars with SiO2, and the only effect is that it is gone within a week. I tried applying it to Pro and all I had was white flakes as it dried out. Didn't even bond to it.

My interest in the graphene is that it supposedly makes the color of the car look deeper, vs. SiC which is very reflective, making the shine look a little artificial, but provides better protection.
 

acoustic_

Ready to race!
Location
NJ
Car(s)
2018 Golf R
I closed my business during Covid.

Optimum only have one ceramic coating available to the public, it has evolved through the years. It used to be called Opti-Coat, then Opti-Coat 2.0 and now Gloss-Coat. They have 4 Pro level coatings, the first three are really the same coating but with different percentage of SiC, the newer one, Opti-Coat Pro3.

Little history, Dr. David Ghodoussi, the owner worked for over 10 years in the research and development of automotive paint formulations, mostly the development of clear coats. So he set out to create a coating that help protect clear coat from UV exposure. Unlike most coatings in the market made out of SiO2, Optimum uses SiC exclusively in their pro level coatings. This is the reason why I decided to get certified with them, and not just buy other coatings out there.

I don't buy Griots Garage, never liked their products, but I know of people that had great success with them. For a first time use, Gloss-Coat is very easy to install, and at $60 for a 10cc syringe, the price is about the same for other companies out there. I recently bought Adam's Advanced Graphene coating to try out... although I still have several syringes left for Pro. I want to do a side by side to see if it is really different. I know it won't last as long as Pro, but I heard that the initial gloss and hydrophobic properties are better, kinda like the Pro+.

Thank you very much for the detailed reply. Sorry to hear about your business .. COVID took out so many..

What products have you been using for regular wash/wax maintenance?

I may get the paint correction + touch-up done at a detailer, and then do the ceramic coat myself. Please post your thoughts on the Adam's! I've been looking at both Adam's and the Opti-Coat (Gloss-Coat, as you mentioned). My main concern is just not fucking the paint up, and before I put on a ceramic coat, getting the paint in as good condition as possible. I don't want to seal in fucked up paint, that's for sure. The last owner had the front-end PPF'd, and it's pretty banged up (did it's job!) so I need to get that removed as well before coating, obviously.
 

riceburner

Autocross Champion
Location
nice try PPNT
Car(s)
MK5 Best GTI
^ i mean, my fiero looks lightyears better after before vs after the graphene coating (like much much redder) but its definitely more due to the polishing step. i'm really not convinced there is anything out there that actually increases depth/gloss despite literally every product claiming it does.

before:
1660335826974.png

1660335841772.png


lighting also plays a role here, but after
1660335862515.png

1660335879275.png
 
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