Due to some damage done by a tow company (the car was supposedly illegally parked, I'm in the process of fighting that) my rear bumper got damaged fairly heavily, luckily it was only cosmetic though. Anyways, I just got the car back yesterday from the bodyshop and it looks PERFECT, you could never tell anything happened. shoped around a lot and found what I think was the best place in town. I only dealt with the owner which also made this very nice. He said its ok for me to wax right away, but I've heard differently in the past from other people so I just figured I'd ask you guys too. The car is going away for storage next week and will be under a cover until April. So, wax now or next spring?

 

It may be OK to wax your bumper right now. Call the body shop and ask if they baked the paint. They may have removed the bumper to paint it and then baked the paint. I'd say there is a 50/50 chance they did that if it's a really good shop. Anyway, if the paint was baked you can wax after 2 or 3 days. If it wasn't baked you need to wait about 90 days for the gases to exhaust from the paint before waxing or sealing it.

 

I have been told (but don't personally know) that repainting of these plastic bumper covers presents a special case. What I have been told is that a "flex binder" must first be applied that needs to "cure" before being sealed with wax. This isn't true of the metal parts of your car. I was told to wait six weeks to wax my rear bumper cover after it was repainted. Here again, I don't have any personal expertise in this area. It is merely what I have been told.

Thanks,
Richard

 

Normally, if a painter is going to be painting a flexible body panel, they'll add a flexing agent to the base mix before shooting. Otherwise you *will* have peeling and flaking issues later on. I also heard the same thing about waiting a month or so after a paint job. If its stored properly, I dont see why you'd have to worry about a rear bumper. I've heard the hood, trunk, and fenders are more prone to car-cover scratches.

-Chris

 

Had my front bumper cover replaced and repainted(suzuka blue and it looked great). The body shop said not to hand wax the part for a month. They said I could run it through a car wash after a couple of days. But, of course, I don't do that anyway.