How long after paint till I can remove swirls

[_M_]

left by the dang body shop?:mad:

Its been over 7 days and car has sat in sun the whole time.

And how long till i can LSP it?

Thanks

[zinc02gt]

When my passenger side got repainted from a hit and run incident, they told me 30 days. I also did a very light polish just to bring out some better gloss. I've heard anything from 30 days to 6 months, but I'm sitting here after doing mine after 30 days without ANY issues.

[arkus]

30 days

[RaskyR1]

You can polish right away to remove the swirls, just give it 30-45 days before you apply a wax or sealant.

[Mike Phillips]

There's a HUGE difference between polishing paint and sealing paint.

Most paint manufactures recommend you wait to "Seal" the paint for at least 30 days, that's to allow any residual solvents or other ingredients to outgass.

Polishing or even sanding and compounding can usually be done the next day or two after the paint is sprayed. Keep in mind that suppliers to the body shop industry make their compounds and polishes "Body Shop Safe", that also means, Fresh Paint Safe, which is to say there are no protection ingredients in the products that will act to seal the surface of the paint.

So polish away! :buffing:

In fact, the sooner you get on this, generally speaking, the easier it will be to remove the swirls because the can take a few days up to a few weeks to reach maximum hardness via drying and curing.



Lots of confusion over this topic and I usually cover this in my 101 classes.

In a body shop production environment, after cars are painted "if" they are going to do any sanding or buffing it is usually done a few days after the car is painted and moved out of the paint booth, they certainly don't wait for 30 days.


:)

[OCDetails]

You need to go by whatever the paint shop said to do. If they said to wait 90 days and you do it in 60 days and then for some reason the paint fails (probably due to a problem with the painter) they will say that you voided any warranty by waxing too soon. Do whatever they say. If they don't have a standard for how long to wait, then I would definitely wait at least 30 days anyway.

[Mike Phillips]

You need to go by whatever the paint shop said to do.


That's a good point.

While there is technically a difference between removing swirls with body shop safe products and sealing paint with non-body shop safe products, a body shop might not care about the difference and void any warranty if you use any kind of product on it.


If it were me, I would still remove the swirls due to the paint hardness factor, not to mention the ugly factor.

Maybe show them the swirls and print this out in landscape mode and show them that you've been taking the issue public and your honest goal is just to fix the problem the right way the second time.

Don't let them offer to buff it again because if they can't do it right the first time, re-doing it with the same pads, products and probably person, (which means skill level and experience, then they won't be able to fix it the second time but they will remove more of your precious paint in the process of using the Caveman Style of buffing.


:)

[RaskyR1]

I agree with Mike. Remove those swirls ASAP as it's only going to be harder to do as the paint continues to cure.

[_M_]

Thanks Mike. Appreciate the expert advice

[jmp09fg2]

After taking my car back to the body shop SIX times after the initial repair for a deer accident they seemed to get it right. First wash showed everything, but it is okay because I have spring break coming up and nothing to do but to make my paint look like water. Like others have said, you can get the swirls out now, and it will probably easier. Just don't seal it or put anything over it.