2010 Camaro Optimum Gloss Coat New Formula

[The Guz]

This car belongs to my uncle. He asked me if I could polish it out as he will be giving it to his son as a gift for his 18th birthday on December 23rd. He's a good kid so I went the extra mile and coated the car after correcting it. This was a full interior and exterior job. It only has 18k miles on it and it is a V6. Don't let the SS badge fool you lol. My uncle decided he wanted a clone but the exhaust tone gives it away lol.

This is how it arrived. With a nice coat of dirt on it.

The defects underneath the layer of dirt

I started off using this wash method by Mike Phillips (The Aggressive Approach to Washing a Car - Auto Geek Online Auto Detailing Forum)

Here is Ironx doing it's thing

Followed that up with a foam bath using Meguiar's Hyper Wash

There was no sign of any protection on the paint. The water just stuck to the surface

Pulled it into the garage. This is what I was working with.

Defects on the trunk

On the rear drivers side quarter panel

Went on to clay the car. This is what I pulled out on a small section of the trunk. It was similar around the entire car. There was also some white overspray on a few areas of the car.

I knew I was going to have to compound but I started off with a test spot with M205 and a Meguiar's thin yellow foam polishing disc. I did this on the door as I also tried a couple other combinations to see what works best. M205 did a good job but the defects were pretty deep. My camera couldn't pick them up.

Video of the test spot.

[video=vimeo;148760788]http://vimeo.com/148760788[/video]

I ended up moving to D300 on a microfiber cutting disc. This was doing a better job but even that was struggling a bit. I ended up using M100 on a microfiber cutting disc. The paint on this is on the hard side. The good news is that both D300 and M100 finished LSP ready. Here's the drivers side front fender after using the M100/microfiber combo. There were some deep scratches on the fender that would require more work than what is needed.

After compounding with M100 and the microfiber cutting disc, I moved to M205 on a thin yellow polishing disc, followed by Menzerna SF3800 on a thin black foam finishing disc. M100 on microfiber did dust so I ended up doing a quick rinseless with D114 to remove all the compound dust from the paint and from the crevices it found it's way to (ie door panels, trunk, etc). After that I followed up with a couple wipedowns of Carpro Eraser.

The coating of choice was Optimum Gloss Coats newest formula. Thanks Vega from Autopia for matching the Autogeek cyber buster deal on gloss coat.

This is what is included in the package. One thing to note is that I did not use the provided foam applicator. I ended up using a CarPro suede applicator and the CarPro applicator block. It worked flawlessly.

This is a 10cc syringe.

This is what I have left after applying 2 coats to the paint.

Here are the end results on the car

Trunk looking good.

Driver side rear quarter panel looking good

It was a bit overcast when I took these

The interior was not bad. A quick vacuum cleaned up most of it. Followed up with some Meguiar's Quik Interior Detailer and Natural Shine. The rubber was a bit dry. The dirtiest part was the glass.

My brother came over and he decided to give Blackfire All In One Tire and Trim Protectant a go in the engine bay. This is all he used.

Before

After

Air intake before

All dressed

Final shot of my 4th gen behind this 5th gen

Products used (clickable links to store products):

Paint:
Wash: Meguiar's Hyper Wash
Decontamination: Ironx, Clay with Meguiar's M34
Compound: Meguiar's M100 + Meguiar's microfiber cutting disc
Polish: Meguiar's M205 + Meguiar's thin yellow polishing disc, Menzerna SF3800 + Meguiar's thin black foam finishing disc
Coating Prep: CarPro Eraser
Coating: Optimum Gloss Coat (new formula). Applied 2 coats
Tool: Meguiar's MT300, Porter Cable 7424XP, Harbor Freight 2" polisher

Tires:
Meguiar's D143
Pinnacle Black Onyx (2 coats)

Wheels:
Meguiar's D143 with various brushes
Clayed
Polished with M205
Detailer's Pro Coating Prep Polish
Pinnacle Black Label Paint Coating Version 1 (using the remainder I have only on the wheel face)

Wheel Wells:
Meguiar's Super Degreaer
Meguiar's Hyper Dressing

Exhaust Tips:
Meguiar's Medium cut metal polish
Meguiar's Fine Cut metal polish
Wolfgang Metal Sealant

Trim:
Front cowl, grille, window trim, roof trim, shark fin antenna, rear valence was cleaned with Mothers Back to Black Heavy Duty Trim Cleaner, dressed with Wolfgang Exterior Trim Sealant

Glass:
Detailer's Pro Krystal Vision Glass Cleaner
Clayed
Detailers Pro Glass Restorer Polish + Lake Country Hydro TechTangerine Polishing pad
Detailers Pro Coating Prep Polish
Detailers Pro Glass Coating

Interior:
Meguiar's Quik Interior Detailer
Meguiar's Natural Shine
Detailer's Pro Krystal Vision Glass Cleaner
303 Fabric Guard (seats and mats)
Blackfire Leather Conditioner

Engine Bay:
Adam Lug Nut Brush
Blackfire All In One Tire & trim Protectant

 

[Stokdgs]

Wow, Mike !!!

Beautiful, perfect, incredible clarity and gloss !!!!
Inside and out, you just Killed it !!!
That is such a beautiful shade of blue metallic - I really like it..
From here it looks pretty much perfect - the birthday-boy had to be ecstatic - I know I would have been..
Thanks for all that hard work, perfect work, and then all the time it took to capture it in pics, posting, and editing..
Love it !
Dan F

 

[The Guz]

Thanks Dan. I like this color as well. I still have the car. I'm waiting to see when he comes to get it. His dad told him the car went to the dealer for warranty work. He's in for a surprise.

 

[GearHead_1]

Guz, I know I looked at this thread but must have got side tracked without telling you that it was wonderful. Very nice.

 

[Loach]

Great write-up, the car looks awesome! I probably should have jumped on that Gloss-Coat deal, too many great deals going on at once.

 

[Detail Impressions]

Mike, awesome work!
How does the new version compare to the old GC?

 

[Marc08EX]

Amazing job Mike! The write-up is equally spectacular as well.

That Camaro looks extremely glossy in your after pictures. It really speaks well of your detailing and polishing skills.

How did you like the new gloss coat?

That kid is lucky to have that car for his 18th birthday. Hope he also notices your hard work in the paint dept.

 

[Angus]

Excellent results Guz! That blue paint looks like glass now

 

[Ronkh]

He will LOVE it !!! Beautiful.

What is a test spit ? Is this something new I need to learn ? :lol2:

 

[The Guz]

Guz, I know I looked at this thread but must have got side tracked without telling you that it was wonderful. Very nice.

Thanks.

Great write-up, the car looks awesome! I probably should have jumped on that Gloss-Coat deal, too many great deals going on at once.

Thanks. It was to good of a deal to pass up. I was expecting the old version as it was being phased out and Ray hooked it up with the new version. So big ups to Ray.

Mike, awesome work!
How does the new version compare to the old GC?

Thanks. I never used the previous version so I can't compare.

Amazing job Mike! The write-up is equally spectacular as well.

That Camaro looks extremely glossy in your after pictures. It really speaks well of your detailing and polishing skills.

How did you like the new gloss coat?

That kid is lucky to have that car for his 18th birthday. Hope he also notices your hard work in the paint dept.

Thanks. Yeah he is lucky indeed. I will be having a conversation with both he and his dad about the proper way to wash it and maintain it.

I liked Gloss Coat. What I really like about it is that it flashes and sort of self levels within a couple minutes. I went over the area afterwards to remove any remaining high spots. Really easy to use. This was the first time I used a syringe to apply a coating and I must say it made it a lot easier to control the amount of product versus the little bottles (ie cquartz style). One thing I forgot to mention is that I applied the second coat after one hour of applying the first coat.

Excellent results Guz! That blue paint looks like glass now

Thanks. I absolutely like this blue color.

He will LOVE it !!! Beautiful.

What is a test spit ? Is this something new I need to learn ? :lol2:

Lol thanks I fixed it. But it takes a little practice to get the test spit just right.

The car gets picked up later today. I will report back.

 

[The Guz]

Well I ended up keeping the car a couple extra days. Drove it over to their house today which is close by. Prior to that my uncle stopped by after work and he couldn't believe how great it looked inside and out. He said it looked better than when he bought it new from the dealer.

Once I get to their house his dad takes him outside. He couldn't believe it was the same car. He was digging it and was very surprised. He then realized that it was never dropped off for any recall work lol.

Today is his actual birthday and he's the new owner. Congrats to him.

I also set him up with a starter washing kit so he can maintain it. I was asked how to maintain it so that's a good sign. Well worth the work that was put into the car.

 

[donbeezy]

good job on guiding him to a proper wash. i started off with using dish washing soap, big yellow foam pads with 1 bucket for paint/tires, and chamois for drying......

 

[The Guz]

This is an update on how the coating fared.

It`s been 17 months since I have seen this car. I had my uncle bring it by to do a decon wash to evaluate how gloss coat has been doing.

I started off with the wheels and tires and then proceeded to spray Ferrex onto the painted surface. I let that sit for a few minutes. I rinsed it off and saw some unexpected behavior. So I proceeded with a wash. I used CarPro Reset to wash it. As I was done washing this is what I saw. Similar behavior as when I rinsed the surface free of ferrex.

No beading or sheeting. Water was laying flat. Primarily on the flat surfaces. The sides were barely clinging on.

Rear Quarter

Hood

Trunk

Roof

The only area that showed signs of life was the front bumper

I dried the car off and then moved it into the garage thinking maybe it just had some built up road grime. On an episode of the optimum synergy podcast dated on 2/21/2017 there is a discussion on how to do a decon wash using Optimum MDR at 3:1 and Power Clean at 3:1 and agitate each step with a dampened towel in ONR. I won`t go into too much detail on the steps. After this is done it is recommended to rinse the surface with water. I even did the so called wash, clay, wax method using optimum car wax and a fine grade clay towel on one area of the hood. I did the baggie test and there was not very much contaminants on the paint.

I said lets give it another wash with Reset. Well same behavior. Gloss Coat has indeed failed on the above shown surfaces. It was barely clinging onto the sides. The front bumper was the only area that had any signs of life.

Now this is the newest formula of Gloss Coat which is stated to last 3 years (36 months). Optimum guarantees it for 2 years (24 months). This is quite a disappointment that it did not even make it to 2 years before it failed.

I asked my uncle was this taken to a tunnel wash or coin op wash. He said no and that he washes all the cars at home with Meguiar`s Deep Crystal car shampoo.

The weather here in Southern California has been dry for the most part. Other than December 2016 into around February/March 2017 time frame where it did rain more than usual.

It is possible that Gloss Coat did not bond well as CarPro Eraser was used since Optimum Paint Prep was not out at the time.

Anyway I could not let it leave with lack luster protection.

I cleaned up the interior and protected it with GTechniq C6 Matte Dash

Cleaned all the glass with McKee`s 37 20/20. The back window had some nasty crud on it and turned my applicator brown. 20/20 is good stuff.

Treated the trim

Polished up the stainless steel tips

Meghan sent me this tire gel to review. I went ahead and used it and will have a review up soon.

1 coat in full sun on the rear tire. I did not buff it. It dried to the touch in about 20 mins.

1 coat on the front tire in full sun

For protection I went ahead and just used opti-seal for the fact it is quick to use. I let it sit for an hour before I wiped it down with optimum instant gloss detailer.

Recap, Gloss Coat has failed at the 17 month mark which is a little disappointing given that optimum guarantees it to last 2 years. Doesn`t really give me confidence on how it will hold up on my dad`s car that also has gloss coat. I hope it lasts longer than this.

I told my uncle if he wants me to polish it later on I will do so. The paint is swirled out. My cousin is the owner of it so he has been taking over the maintenance of it in terms of washing the car at home. I came to the conclusion of not re-coating this car. If I ever work on it again it will either be a one step cleaner wax type product or a one step polish and seal.

This will be the last update to this thread with regards to gloss coat.

 

[MattPersman]

That`s a bummer. You gonna mention anything to Opt about it


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[bcgreen]

Why the 3 tools?
For me I sometimes use a rotary and a DA.

 

[The Guz]

That`s a bummer. You gonna mention anything to Opt about it


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I have the same thread over on the optimum forum so I posted it there. I will be posting it in the optimum facebook group as well. That way Yvan and Dann can see.

As you said it`s a bit of a bummer. The thing is, this is the first time I have washed it in 17 months. For all I know it probably failed sooner.

 

[rlmccarty2000]

That sucks. I get 2 years out of Pinnacle Black Label. I sure expected at least 24 months out OPT coating. I`ve still got a syringe of the old version that I need to use.

 

[The Guz]

That sucks. I get 2 years out of Pinnacle Black Label. I sure expected at least 24 months out OPT coating. I`ve still got a syringe of the old version that I need to use.

I agree with you. Maybe this was a fluke.

I am at 18 months with Pinnacle Black Label V2 and it`s performing very well. So testament to it for lasting that long and performing that well.

 

[The Guz]

I posted feedback on the optimum FB group. Here is the response I received. So basically don`t use their polishes and it can fail early. I will let you guys discuss.

 

[MattPersman]

So what happens if you use there polish and 17 months it fails what will they blame it on then ?

Anyone have longer results from gloss coat. ?


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