wax over new paint

Z

z28s

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I have new lacquer with a clear coat finish [3 weeks old]. Someone told me I should wait about 6 weeks to wax it [to let the paint cure] Good idea, or not?
 
Yeah a new car off the dealer lot has already had plenty of time to cure, so you could wax it right away. Since you have a new paint job on an "old" car, you need to give the paint ample time to cure.
 
You most def. should wait. When you paint a car the new paint needs time to breath and let it cure all the way. There are certain waxes that you can use on cars that have been freshly painted. But dont use ANYTHING that is going to seal the paint. You basically want it to be able to breath. yes 6 weeks is good time frame before you start to wax and seal your paint. To my knowledge i have always been told by the company that distributes our products that you can is QD's effectively and some over the counter waxes that dont have sealents in them. I would also suggest calling the people that detailed your car after it was painted and find out what they used. I am sure its nothing that you cant get your hands of if you need a good waxing. Or something else to consider is maybe bringing it back to them and telling them what a great job you thought they did (if they did do a good job) and seeing if you can get your car detailed by them before the holidays. They will want your business and word of mouth so if i were them i would hook you up. :xyxthumbs
 
Yeah, wait until the fresh paint finishes "outgassing". I wait at least two montsh.



Factory paint is totally different and can be waxed/sealed right away.



Stuff that's safe to use on fresh paint include: Mother's Glaze, 3M IGH, Meg's #3/#5/#7/#81 and also #80 if you need the abrasives in it. All these will provide some (minimal) protection and are better than nothing.
 
Accumulator said: "Factory paint is totally different and can be waxed/sealed right away."



I just want to emphasize that refinish paint has a completely different formulation than factory paint.



Wait at least 4 weeks (per PPG) and 8 weeks to be sure...



Use something Accumulator suggested in the meantime...



Jim
 
Ok, so no sealing right away, but what about polishing?

You see, my car got hit and I had a new hood painted and installed, but as expected, it came very badly swirled from the shop, should I wait before trying to fix this?



Thanks

Ricardo
 
What exactly would happen if one didn't wait the full cure time? Not that one would use a sealent immediately after freshly painting but what if it were sealed/waxed a week or two too early?
 
Find out about the company that did the work. If they are known to have problem with their work than i woudlnt take it back but if not take it back and let them deal with it. There are two things you have to think about. One if you take it back they can fix it and it will be ok and whatever they do they will have to fix it. Second you can try to do it yourself and you can have problems that they are not willing to cover. I mean three weeks isnt that long. You can use some hand glaze just to cover the swirls if you dont want to take it back and you just cant bare seeing swirls ( i couldnt either). Or just take it back and let them deal with it. In the end its how much you can put up with and how much patience you have. I know you want yoru car to look right but you dont want to ruin it in the long run.







T. Perinne- Your paint would seal all of the bad chemicals in and such and sometimes it has been known to make yoru paint start to peel, basically bubble underneath the clear. Those are the basic reactions, you can always have others from trapping harmful chemicals in your paint.
 
Hypnotiq04 said:
Find out about the company that did the work. If they are known to have problem with their work than i woudlnt take it back but if not take it back and let them deal with it. There are two things you have to think about. One if you take it back they can fix it and it will be ok and whatever they do they will have to fix it. Second you can try to do it yourself and you can have problems that they are not willing to cover. I mean three weeks isnt that long. You can use some hand glaze just to cover the swirls if you dont want to take it back and you just cant bare seeing swirls ( i couldnt either). Or just take it back and let them deal with it. In the end its how much you can put up with and how much patience you have. I know you want yoru car to look right but you dont want to ruin it in the long run.
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Thanks Hypnotiq04, the thing is I'm almost 100% shure these guys will not be able to fix it, at least to my complete liking. I've been there before, when I drove the car off the dealer it was all swirled, I took it back twice and it ended up looking the same. Thats when I began coming to Autopia and learned that it's not goog to work over the paint continuosly, so I decided to learn here what I should do, buy some quality products, wait a couple of months to use them and stop argueing with the dealer about something that they were clearly never going to get right, but wich they could definately get worst if they kept polishign over and over again.



Thanks

Ricardo
 
If you seal paint too soon the solvents will get trapped under the sealant and will eventually create small pockets that will eventually erupt with small pinpricks (like) in the paint.45 days is a minimum, of course if you do it in 43 days probably not much risk but better too long than too short (as my wife would say). Sorry couldn't resist.
 
ricastm8 said:
Ok, so no sealing right away, but what about polishing?

You see, my car got hit and I had a new hood painted and installed, but as expected, it came very badly swirled from the shop, should I wait before trying to fix this?
Click to expand...



Go ahead and fix it. It's perfectly safe to polish fresh paint (well, after a few days at least) and it's often easier as it isn't completely hardened. This is another one of those "been there done that" things; I'm speaking from extensive, direct experience, most recently on my beloved S8. I fixed everything from scratches to holgrams to you-name-it, using a 2.5K grit sanding block, PI-III products, and Menzerna FP. This was before the paint was cured enough to wax/seal.



Just use a polish that's fresh-paint safe. Common choices include Meg's #80 and 3M's PI-III RC and MG and Menzerna. I guess I'd get the PI-II stuff, most versatile, both now and later too.
 
Seems to be a wise choice, I say this in noticing a couple quotes here of minium "1 month" or "45 days". Especially this time of year when cars aren't baking in the sun parked during the day. Better be safe than sorry, I'd be dejected if my new $X,000 paint job started blistering due to wax/sealing a little too early.
 
You JUST dropped some cash to have a new lacquer with a clear coat finsih sprayed on your Z28. Why not listen to to the person you PAID. If you screw it up, they won't fix it without charging you the same amount of cash. The painter is no longer responsible.



Why can't people just wait the the required amount of time?



Also, if possible, before posting another topic that has been beaten to death, please perform a search.
 
If you've got swirls to deal with on fresh paint, then #80 would be my recommendation. Will also leave you with some protection that is safe on fresh paint.
 
It really depends on the shop. I've had shops say no wax for 3 months, and I've had one shop (best I've ever been to, corvette specialists) that waxed it for me after painting, as they bake it so hot it is ready to go right away. Best paint work I've ever seen actually.
 
pugoman said:
If you've got swirls to deal with on fresh paint, then #80 would be my recommendation. Will also leave you with some protection that is safe on fresh paint.
Click to expand...



One caveat: I used to recommend the #80 without reservation (and I do still recommend it for this), but the last time I had paintwork done on the Volvo (and they scratched it doing a post-paint wash :angry ) the #80 micro-marred the fairly fresh paint a bit too much for my taste. I got the marring out easily enough with a milder polish (old bottle of Griot's Machine Polish #3), but it just goes to show that fresh paint *is* soft and you gotta be careful.



And no, I couldn't just wait until it hardened up more; the new owner was coming to pick it up and I sure wasn't gonna say "look at the new paint" and have them see scratches ;)
 
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