how long for paint to 'cure'

[cj10jeeper]

For you detailers how long would you leave newly painted panels from a bodyshop to fully 'cure' before hitting them with the full blown clay the pc through to wax, end to end treatment? My gut feeling is a couple of weeks should do it given the weather is cold?

Indeed what would you guys do as a process? Let's assume it will come out of the spray booth and then have average polish slopped on to make it look shiny, but assume it will have minor areas of roughness, orange peel, etc.

Having some spraying done and will need to get it to tip top condition once finished, before ya'll ask

 

[Mr Whippy]

You shouldn't need to clay or polish new paint, unless they were painted badly

I think it might have changed now, wrt to letting solvents release through the laquer etc, as they have gone to water based solvents now afaik. I'm not sure if any places use two pack anymore, but I'm sure for 2k it was about 3-4 weeks to let the base coat solvents cure out along with the laquer.

Orange peel will be under the laquer, so not much you can do about that.


In theory, the bodyshop should have gone right down with ultra fine cutting compounds so it's like glass anyway.

I guess what you do is to see how good the bodyshop is when the car comes back!? They should be able to advise on what you can/can't do and for how long as they have the specific guidelines for the paints, and all paints are a bit different, especially as said with the new waterborne stuff many will likely be using!

 

[cj10jeeper]

OK - perhaps I should clarify. The car will come back from the bodyshop with the paint really good quality,else it will not be coming back, but it will have imperfections as it's a hand sprayed process and I'm more fussy than the average customer

2 pack is long gone and sure it's all water based, but that's where my knowledge of the drying and curing time reaches it's limits?? How long do water based paints take to cure to the point of being hard enough to work on?

OK so orange peel is the wrong term and I'll only be working on the clearcoat, but what process would the detailers follow to remove any waxes applied, flatten any imperfections and build up from back to my preferred NXT?

 

[Mr Whippy]

Ah ok. Hmmm, not sure then

I'm not up on my waterborne stuff really

I'd just leave it three weeks then go from the ground up with the detail. Ie, cleaners then fine compound preparation then sealants then waxes.

Gah I hate cleaning cars, I have no idea how these detailers can stand all day. After a wet sponge and rinse I'm bored

 

[GAZA62]

CJ10 had my Calibra front bumper sprayed around 3 weeks before a show waterbased paint and i polished and sealed OK by hand using AG products that was before i discovered the joy of Clay and Carnuaba wax so cannot comment on them and i had no orange peel but they were a good bodyshop.

Most cars are now waterbased paints

 

[cj10jeeper]

CJ10 had my Calibra front bumper sprayed around 3 weeks before a show waterbased paint and i polished and sealed OK by hand using AG products that was before i discovered the joy of Clay and Carnuaba wax so cannot comment on them and i had no orange peel but they were a good bodyshop.

Most cars are now waterbased paints

OK - 3 may be a better bet than 2 weeks. Gives me something to do in that dead zone between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve

 

[Herminator]

CJ10 had my Calibra front bumper sprayed around 3 weeks before a show waterbased paint and i polished and sealed OK by hand using AG products that was before i discovered the joy of Clay and Carnuaba wax so cannot comment on them and i had no orange peel but they were a good bodyshop.

Most cars are now waterbased paints

OK - 3 may be a better bet than 2 weeks. Gives me something to do in that dead zone between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve

You can always come and clean my Z whilst you're waiting

 

[Shipkiller]

When I had my front painted early this year, the paint shop told me 90 days before I wash, or wax...