Tsyndr

Gonna pick up my S3 in a few weeks and looking at options for paint protection. The top 3 yelped detailers in my area (San Diego), all have recently removed themselves from the Opti-Coat Installers Program. Is there something that happened with Opticoat or some long term problem with it?

Instead they offer Modesta (expensive, asking $1200 before paint correction) and Ceramic 9H (not sure $$$)

I'm probably only keeping it for my 36 month lease, so I don't want to break the bank on paint protection, just something that will make it look nice and help keep it clean for 2-3 years. Any suggestions? Ideally it would be applied to all surfaces, including glass and rims.

uberwgn

I see a lot of people paying in the $500 - $700 range to do a new car. That would be polish + coating. Maybe the market will bear significantly higher pricing in CA?


The Opticoat issue is a political one. That's always been the grand daddy of the coatings.


I've never heard of Modesta or Ceramic 9H.


The cost of the coating for one car is around $50. A bit more if you are including wheels.

gamegenie

I'm still going to get this done to my A3 before the month of November is over with. I got to wait another month for the repainted bumper on my car cures.

Tsyndr

I spoke to one of the detailers and asked him why he stopped putting Opticoat on. He said he still thinks its a solid product, but he said that their most recent changes have tried to make it easier to apply so that it can be installed by dealerships. He thinks the overall quality has suffered a little, and has found other products (Ceramic Pro 9H) which he thinks are better.

Interesting, but also keeping in mind he may be trying to sell me on his install of Ceramic Pro which ranges from $890 - $1600!

So we'll see..

snagitseven

I just had my car reapplied with Opti-Coat Pro and the new, extra Opti-Coat Plus after bodywork was done on my car. The quality is still terrific. Can't speak to your installer but mine here in MA offers both Opti-Coat and CQuartz and swears by both. After three years before the accident, the Opti-Coat Pro was good as new and with the reapplication and adding the Plus layer, the gloss is even better than done originally.

Hulamau

Agree 100% with Snagitseven . I had a full Opticoat Pro Plus treatment on my 2016 A6 3.0T Quattro prestige/S-line sports suspension w/ 20" wheels and drivers assistance paks by an experience professional detailer outfit in Scottsdale AZ ... And it's been a great decision.

The pros at Rolling Arts Motorsports took off the 4 complex Audi designed bi-color double 5 spoke Star design wheels and coated them as well as the car....has made cleaning these sharp wheels a breeze with brake dust not sticking at all... Big relief.

Last month I switched from the stock Pirelli P Zero 255-35-R20 hi-perform summer tires to the new Conti Extreme Contact DWS-06 hi-per AS 255-35-ZR20 tires for our colder weather season in the mountains of northern AZ.

I bought the tires online from TireRack and had them fitted by a local outlet of a national discount tire dealer. Everything when well except one of the workers drug an air hose over the roof of my car and pulled it down over the top leading edge of the D piller adjacent to the where the upper rear window seeks against the rear seam of the D piller to fill the left rear tire.

Doing so put a small just under half inch embedded scratch in what looked to be for sure breaching down into the Florett Silver factory paint job.

The problem was this very small scratch was right at the most visible spot so that every time I walked past the car on the left side when not in direct sun, but rather flat light, the scratch just jumped out at you.

I tried to buff the scratch out but it had a clear deep indention in the clear coat and what looked certain to be the paint too that you could feel with your fingernail indicating almost certain paint breach.

I did not want to risk burning through the paint by buffing further with a polisher so I took my car back to the Opticoat retailers to try to minimize the stratch and reapply a bit of Opticoat Pro Plus over the buffed area on the left D pillar.

Much to their and my amazement this small but deep scratch was entirely only in the original Opticoat pro plus layer!!

The detailers were just as surprised and blown away as I was. I watched the entire process of careful professional rotory polisher buff job when lo and behold the scratch entirely disappeared leaving the original clear coat and full factory paint job entirely unscathed below the level of the depth of the scratch!!

The happy detailers who also took

photos as more real world proof the Opti-coat pro plus properly applied can and does offer a decent degree of factory paint protection too from such deeper embedded scratches that fail the fingernail test.

Anyway, no touch up paint of any kind was used... They buffed out the entire scratch and the photo I took afterward below is before they reapplied a new layer of Opticost pro plus over the full D piller to finish up.

You can't see any evidence of it being anything other than the original paint job from Audi, amazing when you felt how deep the little cut was! ... Except it is incredibly smooth to the touch and maintains an outstanding shine at all times.


Small just under a half inch deep scratch with fingernail deep gouge on top ridge of left D piller on 2016 A6 3.0T Florett Silver Metallic with Opticoat Pro Plus ceramic coating ... Before shot





Close up is scratch in Opticoat pro plus layer before rotory buffing ...note I had had buffed it lightly at this point so the scratch is slightly smaller than the initial scratch





After professional detailed rotory buff completely removed deep scratch revealing to our surprise it wasbm entirely contained in the Opticost pro plus layer and fully protecting the Audi factory clear coat and paint job!! No touch up paint at all was used here.

gamegenie

How much did your Opti-Coat Detailer charge you guys for Opti-Coat Pro Plus?

I'm looking at $1,050 minimum for my A3 from Detailer in my area.

deadboltpoison

I paid $800, with no paint correction required.

snagitseven

It will vary by area but $800 is about right unless you also add the Opti-Coat Plus layer over the Pro which can add another $200-$300. It adds a higher gloss and slicker feel. The price should always include a complete paint prep to rotary off all the contaminants, old wax, etc. before applying the Opti.