MULDER

Hello W&W whores!

I just had my fender, hood, and bumper repainted on Monday. Being W&W whore myself, I am dyining to clean my car. Is there any wait period ar any things I need to know ahead of time about cleaning new paint? It needs a wash and wax BAD.


Thanks Guys

robs_silver_s2k

I understand it that if the the paint was baked after being resprayed then no need to wait. If not the then leave for 6 weeks or so.

MikeyC

My understanding is that most body shops do not have ovens that bake the paint at a hot enough temperature to "instantly" cure the paint like at the factory. This is because these temperatures would likely melt the plastic, rubber, etc. on your car.

The best advice I can give is to tell you to ask your body shop how long you should wait before waxing the new paint. Likely they'll tell you somewhere between 30 and 90 days. In the meantime you can wash and polish your car as much as you want. To provide your new paint some protection put a "body shop safe" pure polish on it like Meguiar's #7.

demade

Mickey is correct, in that local shops can not cure the paint the same way as the factory. You can normally wash the car right away. Most shops will tell you to wait a min of 60 days. I know that if PPG paint was used they would like you to wait 90 days before waxing.

8800EZ

i just got my S back last friday. You can wash it right away, however i was told to wait at least 30 days before i wax it.

MikeyC

Sounds good! They are on the low side of what you usually hear for curing time. Before you wax just take a look at the paint and try to determine if it's still soft or kind of tacky feeling. It's kind of hard to explain what uncured paint feels/looks like. If it is soft then you don't want to wax it. Cure time is not an exact time period but rather an estimate and depends on weather during the cure period.

hkspwrsche

Even though the paint is dry, the cure time or time for the paint to off-gass is normally 30-45 days. If you seal the paint it will dull or trap solvents and reduce the adhesive properties. so product that seals/protects should NOT (edit by wanabe) be used.

MikeyC

I think there's a type-o in here. I think this was supposed to read at the end "should not be used."

wanabe

yes, that is the technically correct answer with a typo so i will edit it- and will let hkspwrsche know.

hkspwrsche

Oopppsss... Hope no one went out and waxed some fresh paint!