Time for body shop paint to cure

[twistedman]

Hi everyone. I own a Sterling Grey Z4 and it`s got a few deep scratches and impact marks (hit and run and keyed by someone) and I have sent it to a body shop for repair today (wednesday). The shop says the car will be ready on Fri. and I am wondering how much time should I wait before I clay, wash and zaino the car. Thanks!

[Jngrbrdman]

Technically the car shouldn`t need to be clayed coming right out of a paint shop. Clay is to pick up damage from the atmosphere or sap or something like that. It doesn`t do anything for the looks of the car and really won`t do anything for a car that was just freshly painted.



The amount of time is something that the paint shop should tell you before you drive it out. Generally they tell you to wait anywhere from a month to 90 days. 90 days seems to be the usual recomendation. I would suggest waiting as long as they tell you to regardless of what reality says about paint. If you polish the car in 20 days and they said to wait 30 and some of the paint chips off because they did a crap job then they will just blame it on the fact that you didn`t follow their directions. If the paint job is crappy then you want them to have to deal with any problems you may have and you don`t want to give them a shield like "you didn`t wait the suggested amount of time before waxing" or something like that. ya know what I`m saying?



If the paint was cured by heat then it shouldn`t need any cure time. It should roll out of the paint shop ready to wax. If they just did a quick spray job on it then you want to follow their directions. Get something in writing and find out what their warranty is on the paint job. That will cover your butt in case something happens.

[twistedman]

Thank you very much for the insight Jngrbrdman. Do you think the paint job will be a "spray on" job? He mentioned priming and then painting. Should I also have let him know that I have been using Zaino on the paint? Or are they experienced enought to tell? THanks!

[twistedman]

Also wondering, does anyone know much about the kind of paint BMW uses? And what is the best way to get rid of orange pee effect? Thanks alot!