My brothers FX35 got into a slight accident and we sent the car to get the front bumper repainted. Well they repainted it (a horrible job, paint is chipping where the license plate frame is) and I am wondering if they put clearcoat on the bumper? Will I have huge amounts of paint transfer if I attempt to polish it? Should I just leave it alone? Polishing will be with PC and a polish like OP.
Repainted bumper at dealer - ok to polish?
- Thread starter BMW335i
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Accumulator
Well-known member
Noting that I know absolutely *nothing* about Infinities, if the bumper cover was originally b/c it should have been reshot with b/c. If it's ss then you'll get transfer, which is usually more 
looking than it really is, just have to be used to seeing it as it looks like all the paint's come off onto your pad.
It absolutely shouldn't be a "horrible job" or be chipping though, I think I'd take it back to them and discuss such stuff.
But otherwise, yeah, you can polish it. If the work was done recently it might be very soft but it should harden up over the first six weeks or so (but will continue to cure for longer than that, so no wax). Sometimes the initial softness of repaints is *so* significant that "normally OK" products leave awful marring from their initial cut, so start our milder than you think you need to
looking than it really is, just have to be used to seeing it as it looks like all the paint's come off onto your pad.It absolutely shouldn't be a "horrible job" or be chipping though, I think I'd take it back to them and discuss such stuff.
But otherwise, yeah, you can polish it. If the work was done recently it might be very soft but it should harden up over the first six weeks or so (but will continue to cure for longer than that, so no wax). Sometimes the initial softness of repaints is *so* significant that "normally OK" products leave awful marring from their initial cut, so start our milder than you think you need to
Accumulator
Well-known member
Nah, baked or not you need to wait to wax. There's a thread around here somewhere in which MirrorFinishMan queried the paint makers and got their official last word on the subject.
Baking (at post-production heat levels) just kick-starts the curing to a fairly negligable extent. My one painter bakes and my other one doesn't, and there's not that big a difference with regard to the initial softness; they both harden up dramatically over time. The S8's (baked) deer-incident repairs were a perfect example, I worked on them a few times during the curing process and directly experienced how much harder the clear got over time.
For some reason lots of painters/bodyshops disseminate incorrect info about this, they've said such stuff to me too. When I refer them to what the paint maker says they usually mutter some excuse about how it "doesn't really matter" or say that "nobody has ever complained". FWIW those are usually the shops that do lousy work too
Baking (at post-production heat levels) just kick-starts the curing to a fairly negligable extent. My one painter bakes and my other one doesn't, and there's not that big a difference with regard to the initial softness; they both harden up dramatically over time. The S8's (baked) deer-incident repairs were a perfect example, I worked on them a few times during the curing process and directly experienced how much harder the clear got over time.
For some reason lots of painters/bodyshops disseminate incorrect info about this, they've said such stuff to me too. When I refer them to what the paint maker says they usually mutter some excuse about how it "doesn't really matter" or say that "nobody has ever complained". FWIW those are usually the shops that do lousy work too
[quote name='Accumulator']Nah, baked or not you need to wait to wax. There's a thread around here somewhere in which MirrorFinishMan queried the paint makers and got their official last word on the subject.
See: Paint Cure Time Not Necessary
http://autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/64978-paint-cure-time-not-necessary.html
See: Paint Cure Time Not Necessary
http://autopia.org/forum/car-detailing/64978-paint-cure-time-not-necessary.html