Hi xenangel,
Aftermarket / refinish paint jobs continue to cure for two to three months after being sprayed onto your car's body panels. During this curing time, paint manufactures recommend
NOT to apply a “wax” or “protectant” to the finish. This is because solvents and other volatile paint components are still evaporating out of the paint.
However, you can safely use many of
Meguiar’s car washes and polishes during this curing period on fresh paint without fear of causing any damage. There are other products from manufactures like 3M you can use also, but typically, most Consumer manufactures of car care product contain silicones, waxes and polymers that are not considered
Body Shop Safe, or in other words, they are not safe for fresh paint, or for use in a body shop environment because they will contaminate the shop.
The below
Meguiar’s polishes are
wax and silicone free, and will not seal the surface of your fresh paint. This means the paint can continue to properly cure throughout the recommended curing period.
M-03 Machine Glaze
M-05 New Car Glaze
M-07 Show Car Glaze
M-09 Swirl Remover
M-80 Speed Glaze
M-82 Swirl Free Polish
M-81 Hand Polish
A-21 Deep Crystal Polish
I have noticed over the last few years, that some people are suggesting that it is okay to safely apply a wax, or paint protectant to fresh paint before the manufactures recommended curing time has past.
The logic behind this advise usually stems around the paint type. If your paint is a catalyzed paint, (that is, it is a chemically cured type of paint instead of a solvent-evaporation type of paint), that it is safe to apply a product that seals the paint. By
seals, I mean a product that forms a protective, (yet sacrificial),
barrier-film over the surface. Typically, this includes some type of organic, or synthetic wax, some type of silicone or polymer, and/or some type of acrylic.
While modern paints, both at the OEM level, and paints used in the refinishing industry are cured chemically, many still use some type of solvent as a
carrying-agent, and these solvents still need to evaporate out of, and off of the finish.
Unsure if this is true? Next time your or a friend has their car painted, try this test.
Typically, the day after the car is painted you can pick it up from the painter and take it home. Anyone with a garage will probably park their car in the garage to further help protect their new paint job. After a few hours have gone by, walk out into the garage and
take a big whiff of air.
What do you smell?
I think you’ll find the air in the garage will have a noticeable solvent smell, you can call it a
fresh paint odor, but realistically, what do think is really floating in the air that gives off the scent you smell, your cars
paint, or the solvent evaporating off the paint and into the air?
Will applying a wax-type product to fresh paint harm the paint? I don’t know. I can’t say
”I” have ever seen a paint job that has failed because someone applied a wax-type product too soon. But I don’t follow cars with fresh paint around and have had wax applied before the manufactures recommendation and study them as a case history. It could be the paint will still last a long time and buff and shine as expected. Here’s what I do know however, a manufacture typically knows their product better than Joe Consumer and their recommendations should carry more weight, especially considering the time, money and yes hassle of having a new paint sprayed onto your car.
This guy,
iceberg just had his Corvette painted,
by the same guy who painted the new
Meguiar’s Special Events Trucks,
I’ll guarantee you he will listen to his painters recommendations as far as,
How soon do I need to wait before I apply a wax to my new paint job.
As far as your swirls and holograms go, that doesn’t surprise me. Painters are great at painting, but many of them not only don’t like the wet-sanding, cutting and buffing process, but they don’t even do it. Someone else, lower down the seniority list, is usually responsible for the dirty, hard portion of the job. Ironic thing is, it’s this guy, (the guy who does the wet-sanding, cutting and buffing), that makes
or breaks a great paint job. The painter gets all the glory, the low level technician performs the craft of
massaging the paint to perfection. Except, a lot of times they don’t massage the paint to perfection, they instill it with swirls. Some times it’s their fault, but often times they have no control over the sanding papers, buffing pads, compounds and polishes supplied for them to use. Once you lose control over your sanding papers sanding marks, it’s usually down hill from there. (My opinion).
If your paint is filled with swirls, the best time to remove them would be
right now where if you’re lucky, the paint is still
somewhat soft, at least not
case-hardened.
If it were me, the first thing I would do would be to take the rotary buffer to it using a W-8000, or W-8006 foam polishing pad and some #83
DACP at about 1800 rpm and remove whatever damage has already been done. After that, I would take the PC to it with the same pad and product. After that I would apply #80 Speed Glaze, (Because it contains a special
Paintable Polymer, for a little added protection during the curing process), and then baby that paint job as much as possible until the painter says it’s okay to apply a protective wax type product. Then use the product of your choice to add a protective, sacrificial barrier-film.
Hope this helps…
Mike
p.s.
(word count = 993, not too bad for my first post of they day)
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