The importance of letting fresh paint outgass

When detailers say to wait 30 or more before waxing or coating fresh paint we mean it.

This was a new panel replacement and painted to match the truck with base/clear. Painted on a Thursday afternoon and stickers applied Friday morning. Stickers laid down flat but come Monday morning you can see the paint was still outgassing which bubbles the stickers.

https://i.ibb.co/J52zNym/C3-E9148-E-...342-D72-CF.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/tqdW0Zy/08886396-18...C5-FE52-BF.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/XCCKw9s/2383-B503-D...-FF8-CA440.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/9nDHQkd/233-B7-E27-...-AA4676-AC.jpg

My body shop paints a lot of spoilers and other things for me, but they always bake it before they give it back to me, with that I can polish it immediately.

I just got an estimate from a body shop for my car and they were actually recommending 90 days after repainting.

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Originally Posted by Mike@DedicatedPerfection

When detailers say to wait 30 or more before waxing or coating fresh paint we mean it.

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Nice visuals Mike.

I've never seen paint lift like the vinyl graphics are lifting/bubbling-up, but the concept is the same. Allow some time for the solvents to outgas or to use a more simple word, to evaporate.


:dblthumb2:

I have a lot of experience with this simply due to the nature of my job and how long I've been doing this type of work. The CONFUSION is so common that I wrote an article about this topic back in 2004, 17 years ago as I type today on Monday, April 12th, 2021 - that's a long time. Heck probably most of the people active on this forum haven't been detailing cars for this long.


Paint Needs to Breathe




Here's more from the year 2010


Don't wax your car for at least 30 days!

Fresh Paint - But you can touch it...

Body Shop Safe Glaze on Fresh Paint - #7 Show Car Glaze




They all say about the same thing and that is when it comes to FRESH paint - wait at least 30 days before you SEAL it.

There's a DIFFERENCE between SEALING paint and compound and polishing paint. It's find to compound and polish paint with body shop safe products. What is NOT recommended is to SEAL the paint with a wax, sealant, paint coating or even an AIO, which can seal the surface.


My big question has always been,

What's the hurry?


For most people, if you have a fender repainted or an entire car - what's the hurry to SEAL the paint? Just wait the 30 days or whatever your painter recommends, (he's the real expert, not some dude on a Facebook group), and then after the 30 days, do whatever makes you feel good.


:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MisterSnoop

I just got an estimate from a body shop for my car and they were actually recommending 90 days after repainting.

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Last year my wife's car had some work done and the 90-day wait was in the printed documentation they gave us when picking up the car. I found this interesting because my daughter's car had work done by the same shop about two years before this job and they said to wait 30 days at that time. Not sure what's happened in the industry which has changed the recommendation from 30 to 90 days.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by glen e

My body shop paints a lot of spoilers and other things for me, but they always bake it before they give it back to me, with that I can polish it immediately.

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This is a common misconception throughout the general public and even some in the painting industry... Baking.

The paints used in the refinish industry are not "bake" formulations. They are "air dry" formulations and if subjected to true baking temperatures would boil, blister and wrinkle the finish.

Factory baked finishes are special paint formulations that can withstand "baking" temperatures in the 300-400 degrees F range. These are the only finishes that are fully cured as delivered.

In the body shop refinishing world what is often mischaracterized as "baking", is actually "force-drying". Force drying is done at temperatures in the 140-145 degree F neighborhood and this is what many body shops do to speed up the initial dry time. And many shops will mischaracterize this step by generically referring to it as "baking".

The point is, don't confuse "force-drying" with "baking". They are not the same thing.

Force drying does not result in a fully cured finish - it accelerates the curing process but it alone does not complete it. That is where the 30, 60, 90 day recommendations come from as they are necessary for completing the cure process.

Baking, OTOH, completes the cure process. The paint is fully cured and hardened following the baking process.

Fresh paint may be compounded and polished, but the waxing (or other products that seal the surface) should wait.

All that said, I have never seen damage like that shown in this thread from waxing too soon. I think the more common consequence of waxing too soon is simply greatly extending the time the paint will need to reach its potential (and designed) hardness... And maybe not ever getting there.

The example in this thread of the graphics blistering is as good of a testimonial as I have ever seen for the wait periods prior to waxing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Desertnate

Last year my wife's car had some work done and the 90-day wait was in the printed documentation they gave us when picking up the car. I found this interesting because my daughter's car had work done by the same shop about two years before this job and they said to wait 30 days at that time. Not sure what's happened in the industry which has changed the recommendation from 30 to 90 days.

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My theory is this is,

Bubba-Proofing


Painter's know the paint all by itself is stout and durable. What they don't know is what the unwashed masses will do to this stout, durable paint after it leaves their shop. So to protect themselves from the lowest common denominators among us and to protect their customers from themselves - they say wait for 90 days. Plus of course, over the course of the 90 days the paint will in fact come to full hardness, full cure, full dry, at least in most cases and most climates/environments.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 2black1s

All that said, I have never seen damage like that shown in this thread from waxing too soon.

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Same here.

While the collective "we" are not supposed to seal fresh paint for at least 30/60/90 days - I've never seen a paint job fail because it was sealed too soon.

And I've never seen anything like what Mike shared with the vinyl graphics over fresh paint.


And just to reiterate it for those that will read this into the future and might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, there's a difference between using body shop safe compounds and polishes on fresh paint - this is okay, it's done every day across the world), and SEALING the paint with some form of surface sealer - be it a carnauba wax, a synthetic sealant, some kind of paint coating or even an AIO.


:buffing:

I'm only aware of one product line of sealants that claims to be new paint safe and it starts with Z.

Usually waiting 30 days isn't a huge deal for people.