new paint care

[8Banger]

hey guys, some big smelly backed into my car about a month ago and i should be getting it back tomorrow. i looked at it today and the paint is okay, a little bit of OP but i guss thats expected with a repaint :doh ...anyhow, the dealership resprayed the whole left side of the car (door was hit) and of course theres some swirlage on the new paint (the rest is fine, they never washed it)...how do i care for this paint? im guessing its only 3-5 days old (dont think it was in a dry room for an extended period of time)



how/when do i wash?

how/when do i clay?

how/when do i polish?

how soft is this new clear?







thanks, guys:cooleek:

[Accumulator]

OMG do we need a sticky on this....rather than do the "oh, go search" thing, a short version of the standard info follows:



You can wash now. You shouldn`t need to clay new paint but you can do it but be very, very gentle or you`ll mar it. You can polish but it`ll be soft for a while until it cures. The curing/outgassing will take a long time...hardness will often take at least two months to finalize and you shouldn`t consider it fully cured/outgassed/ready to wax for at least 90 days (as per the paint manufacturers and also IME).



I seldom polish for the first month unless there`s some marring I just can`t stand. If the paint is still really soft even something like Meg`s #80 will have too much initial cut and leave marring. It can be pretty amazing how much the paint continues to harden, I`ve had it take a good three months to end up nice and (very) hard; it seemed soft after six or eight weeks and I was starting to wonder..just needed to wait a while longer.



I *never* wax/seal until at least the 120 day mark. That`s just me, but it`s based on over 30 years of having cars repainted (and yeah, all this also applies when the paint is baked).