Just took delivery of my 2002 Silver Satin with Navi. I planned on having the 3M clear bra put on front bumper. My salesman suggested waiting 30 days for the paint to cure. Car was built the week of Aug 27. Is this suggestion a valid one? Anybody with experience on this?

 

I have heard the same thing, allow factory paint 30 days from manufacture to cure. I would think it would be a good idea to wait 30 days, but an xpel installer should know or send them the question through there xpel web site.

 

well, i'm not too sure about the factory paint, but i just dropped my car off @ a body shop to have those key marks taken out and have it re-painted and she told me that the paint manufacturers say that you should let the paint cure for 60-90 days... which means 60-90 days with no wax on my entire drivers side...

 

I believe its recommended for the paint to cure for at least 30 days before washing or waxing. When my maxima was rear-ended the body shop told me to wait at least a month before washing and waxing and that was in the spring. Since its summer you might be able to get away with it in less time.

 

Body shp paintjobs are different than the OEM one and will require a longer curing time. Asking X-pel would be the best bet, although I dont think waiting for a few more weeks is that risky.

You sure your car was built on the 27th and you already got it? If so thats a pretty quick turn around time. What does your drivers side door jamb say on it?

 

From what you guys have said, it means that when the car leaves the factory, the paint has not cured yet? If it's not cured, wouldn't the paint be more vulnerable and be damaged from harsh elements? e.g., harsh sun from sitting in the dealers lots, rain, road debris, etc.

Are today's car paint really that far behind in technology for it to allow 30 days to cure??

 

Like Mr. Hyde explained, there's a difference between OEM (factory) paint and aftermarket paint. When your car is painted on the assembly line, the car itself is nothing more than a shell. Because there's no interior/motor/electronics installed yet, they can apply the paint and then "bake" it on in a large "oven." This rapidly bonds and cures the paint and is supposed to make the paint more durable (yeah right!).

Now if you get into an accident and they replace a fender and need to repaint it, they mask off the area to be worked on and spray the paint on. Because your car is fully intact, no way would you want the interior/motor/electronics to go through a paint oven--most of it would probably get damaged. So the paint is "cured" by letting it air dry in a (hopefully) dust- and moisture-free environment.

When aftermarket paint is done drying, it still isn't fully cured/bonded to the car. Many of today's paints will "outgas" or release chemicals as they cure. This usually takes 30-90 days depending on type of paint and the atmospheric conditions. If you were to apply a wax to newly applied aftermarket paint, you would be preventing it from properly outgassing. Then what happens is the chemicals get trapped between the paint and the wax and give your car a hazy look. Plus the chemicals can break down the wax as well. Although this isn't necessarily harmful to the paint, you'll have to keep stripping of the wax and reapplying it to get rid of the haze. And you're not letting the paint fully cure. It's kinda like concrete. Concrete gains 95% of its strength in the first 24 hours of curing but it'll take almost a year of curing to obtain the last 5%.

Most body shops will tell you that you shouldn't wax freshly painted areas for 30-90 days (usually the latter). Paints have a small amount of moisture retardant anyway so rain won't really hurt it for that amount of time. The biggest danger is UV and chemicals (road salt, bird crap, etc). UV isn't that much of an issue for 90 days but you wouldn't want to leave it unprotected longer than that.

As for your new car, because of the paint-baking process, you can safely wax the paint when you pick up your car. Heck, most dealerships that detail out cars before delivery wax them anyway.