I'm hoping some knowledgeable paint guys can help me out with this one.
About a month ago, I had my chin spoiler and hood scoop painted by one guy and he told me that I should wait approx. 90 days before I wax it! Last week I had my shelby spoiler painted at a Ford dealer and he told me to wait 30 days before polish/waxing!!
So, can there be that much difference in paint or is the guy at the paint shop being overly cautious in telling me 90 days???
Thanks for any unbiased info you can offer (I'm going through withdrawal right now by not being able to wax that hood scoop and chin spoiler )
Mark

 

my ford dealer painted my hood and scoop and told me to wait a month before adding the hood stripe i bought and waxing the paint, so now it is just a waiting game because i got the car on tuesday

 

Same here 30 days.

 

Minimum of 30.
90 is a little overcautious.
The longer you wait, the more chance it is fully hardened.
The paint shop guy just doesn't want any chance you will come back complaining.

 

Thanks guys, I'll split the difference then....45 days. I appreciate your help, I wasn't sure if there were types of paint in which the cure or hardening time would be that much different.

I think you are on to something karman. I remember him saying, most of the time, any problems that he has had was with people not waiting long enough before putting wax on the paint. So it sounds like he was adding a little insurance to the cure time.

 

It's according if they had a heated paint booth or not,plus the longer you let the paint cure,the better off the out come will be. the reason to wait for waxing is you need to let the paint breath,to let all the solvents release. if you wax it to soon the solvents will be traped and paint could loose its adhession.rinseing the car in cold water once a week will help cure the paint.lol

 

hey GTMARK, do you have any other pics of your chin spoiler....i am going for the same look....i have a silver gt too

 

Here ya go Craigger325i. I cropped two of my photos so that I could post higher resolution pics....keeping my fingers crossed Oh, almost forgot. The classic spoiler that I bought was the textured black painted one. I had the paint shop wet sand the outer areas smooth so that the silver would tie in better with the rest of the facia and not look so out of place. The black portion is the original paint/finish of the spoiler.

 

OK....Here's the scoop on paint...
In days gone by when Acrylic enamel was the paint of choice, you had to wait at least 30 days before any stripes were applied. If you did it sooner you would get small bubbles under the stripe. This was due to the solvents coming out of the paint(Its called solvent popping). It took a while before all the solvents were out of the paint.
As for waxing/polishing, it would depend on what your using. I don't use a 'wax' I use a glaze.(From 3M). Waxes tended to be hard on enamels.
Nowadays we don't use enamels as much. Unless were painting large machines or Aircraft and so on (On these we use Polyurethane enamels - Imron). But for cars we us the Base clear system. I use Dupont's Chroma Base. There are minimal solvents in these topcoats. You can wet sand and polish most clears the next day. I have done it very often. Again I will not use wax I only use glazes. Waxes tend to trap the topcoat, not letting it breath. Paint has to be able to expand and contract with the heat. Waxes tend to inhibit this where as glazes do not. Plus, many waxes have silicone in it. Not good !! 3M has a great glaze, its called 'Show car glaze'.
I hope this info helps, and just so you know, I have been painting for over 25 years now. I have seen MANY changes in paints as well as the equipment used in the trade. If you need anymore information, I'd be happy to help ya out !!

 

Thanks.
That tells us you know more than we do.
Now, answer the oringinal question.
How does he know when to wax?
What kind of paint is on his car.
Where can he get 3M glaze?
Should one ever use wax?
How often do you need to "glaze the car"?
What about products like Zaino?
Which waxes have silicone in them?
I think you have raised more questions than you answered.

 

yeah, what he said

 

thanks for posting those pics GTMARK, i have had this idea of doing that with the chin spoiler ever since i saw the GT/CS front fascia. Im planning on goin with the black bullitts as well, thanks for the pics

 

You're welcome craigger325i

Thanks for the paint info flight96. After reading that I think I'll get rid of my Turtle wax Ice polish (has silicone) even though I've only used it once. I mostly use Meguiars Crystal system carnuba wax.

 

The whole issue of when he can polish it revolves around what kind of paint the shop used. Like I mentioned, I use Dupont's Chroma Base system with Chroma clear. You can wetsand and polish that after 24 hours. As for what is on his car....He would have to ask the shop. Im guessing it would be a base/clear of some kind. There are many manufacuterers of automotive paint (Sherwin Williams, Sikkens.....) As for Zaino and McGuires and those kinds of products, for the most part they are wax free. Just be sure to stay away from silicone based products.NEVER use a silicone based wax. With a good glaze you can reapply it as much as you need/want to. Every person is different in how often they wash their car or weather conditions...ect....The nice thing about glazes is, they don't build up a film like wax's do. You can put too much wax on and you will start to notice a haze. With a glaze this doesn't happen.