My guy washed the car with a mild solvent to remove any existing wax/sealant. Then completely dried the vehicle (many of you know how the Mustang likes to hold water in sneaky places) clayed the car, then used a buffer to remove any surface scratches, swirl marks, paint imperfections etc which took about 4 hours. Mind you my paint was in incredibly good shape when this happened, I've only put about 1500 miles on it and had babied the car up until this point. After that about two more hours to apply the optiguard pro and let it set. When I arrived back at the shop we took it outside to look at it in direct sunlight, did some spot work on anything that wasn't 100% perfect, reapplied the coating in one place and after that we let it cure until it was ready to go. Now it's sitting in the garage for the next 2 - 4 days due to weather. You cannot get the car wet within the first 12 - 48 hours.
Optiguard Pro gives you some chip protection. The bra would give you the best chip protection on the front of the car, but I don't know if it still gives you the UV protection that Optiguard offers. I'd probably Optiguard Pro it first, then add the clear bar about a month later.
this. Opti coat is a semi permanant coating that you can expect to remain hydrophobic for 3-4 years with regular washings. If in that time you have to polish the car the coating is removed. It is very thin and does very little to protect against rock chips.
Yup. I actually got VXPro 2 from 22ple for my car. Won't officially be released for another couple weeks, pretty pumped to get it on there in a couple weeks.
Okay, so the standard commercial version of OptiCoat is Opti-Coat 2.0 - the professional options is OptiCoat Pro - it isn't called OptiGuard. The Guard products are for leather/fabric - not for paint. The primary difference between 2.0 and Pro is the length in which the coating is stated to last. Neither provides any sort of rock defence, period.
I am going to have to disagree with some of what you said. First off I was wrong about the thickness. modern top clear coats are around 60-90u thick and Opticoat (it doesn't say if it's the pro or standard product) according to their website is around 2u. However because it resists scratching/swirls better than a standard clear coat, by nature it would have to be harder in the technical term. Hardness is measured by the ability to receive scratching. 9H being the hardest which is what the Opti products rate as, which is the same level as diamond. Unfortunately I can't find any actual data on the thickness of the pro product other than "It is believed to be a thicker coating than the consumer product."
Yes, it will prevent discoloration of the bra. It can be used on paint, plastic, glass, and vinyl.
Anything exposed to sunlight over a period of time can and will fade or discolor. Cloudy headlights? Oxidation from sunlight. Vinyl will fade over time from it, as will plastics on the car. Even clear will still to yellow. Opticoat Pro will keep that from happening.