Just had my hood and bumper resprayed... shop says go ahead and wax?

G

Gopher

New member
I just had my hood respsrayed and a new bumper installed on my titanium silver BMW. I picked it up yesterday, and the color seems to match pretty good.



The body shop guy wet sanded once and did a shoddy job of polishing afterwards, but before I even mention it he asked if I could bring it back in a week or so for him to wet sand again and polish. I'm sure I'll need to follow up with correction work of my own... we shall see. I can actually see holograms/trails in the sunlight on a silver car if that says anything...



Anyway, when I'm taking the car I commented on how dirty it was from the sanded down clear/wet sanding that dried everywhere, and said I needed to get home and give it a wash. He told me that is absolutely fine, and I can wax it immediately as well...



It seems most paint care enthusiasts are against this idea--was this bad advice he gave me or what?
 
It's bad advice for sure. Wait at least 30 days (2 months better).



Curious, was there any repair work done? What did the job cost? How many

coats of clear? What brand and product number of the clear?
 
Did they bake the paint? If so wait 30 days, if they didn't bake the paint wait 90 days. You can still put a glaze on it. Now is the perfect time to put Venture Shield on it.





John
 
Honestly, I wanted to find out the paint/clear names of what he used, but there is a MAJOR language barrier going on and after a few attempts I let it go.



No real repair work was done, per say. I had my hood sanded and sprayed due to a bunch of pitting/chips that occurred driving to Chicago last winter and a brand new M front bumper.
 
As long as he's warranting his work/product, I say wax it. I'd love to do a test to see what happens. I was under the impression that baking is to speed up the drying process(not the curing process) to allow quicker shop turn around.
 
There are varying schools of thoughts, some say to follow the paint manufacturer's directions, some say listen to the painter, and others just use straight "30/60/90 day" rules regardless of the situation.



It's a tough call!



Bottom line, if you can wait 30 days to wax it...do that. Odds are the VAST majority of out-gassing will have occurred by then and it would be VERY VERY unlikely that damage could occur. Your car though, and ultimately your call.
 
If you wax it, and dyeback occurs, all you have to do is polish it. No real damage will be done anyways. And David, you are correct about that one, baking the paint may not speed up the curing process, unless if you have a fast catalyst.







John
 
I had an accident last 6 mths back and the body shop guy also told me that it's okay to wax my car immediately like yours. He didn't have an oven to bake my repainted hood and front bumper. So I just went back home, polished the hood and bumper and seal it with Z2 Pro. The following week I top my car with M16.



So far no problem overall. But now I notice that the paint work are prone to stone chip very easily. I don't know if its becoz I seal the paint before it cure or the body shop did a bad repainted work? If he used a low quality clear coat or so?
 
SilverSeven said:
I had an accident last 6 mths back and the body shop guy also told me that it's okay to wax my car immediately like yours. He didn't have an oven to bake my repainted hood and front bumper. So I just went back home, polished the hood and bumper and seal it with Z2 Pro. The following week I top my car with M16.



So far no problem overall. But now I notice that the paint work are prone to stone chip very easily. I don't know if its becoz I seal the paint before it cure or the body shop did a bad repainted work? If he used a low quality clear coat or so?
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There is no way to repaint a car and have the same quality paint as a factory paint job.



Now, there is a difference between a $500 Maco paint job and a $6000 custom paint job, but even that $6000 paint job is not going to be near as good as a factory paint job.



The reason why is because when the metal is initially painted at the factory, the paint is applied very thinly. This thin paint can mold together with the metal, so when something like a stone hits the car, the metal AND the paint bend together.



When you repaint a car, the paint will be applied in a very thick layer, so when that stone hits your car again, the paint is not able to bend along with the metal, so it just chips and falls off.
 
I've known a lot of painters and shop managers/owners over the years, but not too many who a) knew or cared how various aspects of their work ended up being a few months down the road, b) actually read and assimilated all the factory info about subjects such as how long to wait before waxing, or c) had customers as particular as many people on these boards. I've, uhm...educated a whole lot of guys who had been painting for years but who didn't know much at *all* about anything except how to work the spraygun.



David Fermani said:
As long as he's warranting his work/product, I say wax it..
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You and I always seem to meet on these fresh-paint threads :D



You'd say to wax it even after those discussions on the autobody/paint boards?



worth said:
There is no way to repaint a car and have the same quality paint as a factory paint job.



Now, there is a difference between a $500 Maco paint job and a $6000 custom paint job, but even that $6000 paint job is not going to be near as good as a factory paint job.
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Welcome to Autopia!



I'm assuming you mean that a factory paint job is better with regard to chip-resistance, not overall quality. Once you get into really good paint jobs (and I don't mean just $5-6K, not even close to that amount) it can be *much* better (overall) than an OE finish.



Even with regard to chipping, I've had aftermarket paintjobs that were far more chip-resistant than some factory paint (early '90s RX-7s had nice hard paint but it simply chipped something awful). But *generally speaking*, yeah, repaints do chip a lot worse.
 
So far no problem overall. But now I notice that the paint work are prone to stone chip very easily. I don't know if its becoz I seal the paint before it cure or the body shop did a bad repainted work? If he used a low quality clear coat or so?
Click to expand...



Several factors, really. It's hard to say without knowing what they used and how

they used it. For better stone chip protection (and this really helps), i epoxy

seal, catalyze the base and use better clears. It's a bit more expensive and the

process is much too long for most production shops. Then there's the issue with

too much film build...



There is no way to repaint a car and have the same quality paint as a factory paint job.
Click to expand...



That's not true. It can be MUCH better. Again, there are many factors.
 
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