Hey guys I noticed the forum has been slow lately, and after washing my car and seeing it needed a few layers of wax because of lack of water beading I thought Id share a thought/question and open up a healthy debate:


The question is how important or legitimate is "cure time" does this really exist when layering or is this just a suggestion from the manufacture.


While waxing my car I decided to do 2 layers of a sealant/gloss enhancer "CG's Black Light" then 2 layers of carnuba wax on top.

The sealant calls for 15 minutes in between layering. The carnuba Pinnacle souvergn is a wipe on wipe off product also calling for about 15 minutes of cure time in-between layers. I did not adhere to the recommended cure times, I gave each panel about 5 minutes of cure time in between layers.

So is this really a big deal? Waste of product? No layering effect? or Does the wax still layer with at least 5 minutes of cure time?

Lets have some insight!

 

Depends on the product.

 

Not really the basic answer I was searching for.

I am looking to at least make this forum a little more technical other then before and after pics for the rest of us that actually want to learn ..

 

Applying multiple coats will increase the strength of the protection and durability of the protection. The most important thing to note is that when you want to apply more than one coat, you have to let the previous coat cure. Each sealant's cure time will vary and environmental conditions (i.e. temperature, humidity, different products etc.) can impact cure times. Most sealants will cure within 1 - 24 hours and the vast majority of any sealant will be cured within the first hour. If you have the time waiting 24 hours is ideal to be absolutely certain but if you are in a rush waiting a minimum of one hour should still work very well for most sealants.

Your 15 minute interval probably doesn't hold any merit. I mean, what is 15 minutes?

 

Most sealants I have used don't even mention cure time on the bottle outside of Zaino and then you can use their promoter to allow you to do 3 layers in a short period of time.

Your not confusing cure time with drying time are you? Two different animals.

 

yeah def not confusing curing/drying time.

I was just skeptical or at least curious if I gave each coat about 15 min of CURE time before the next coat if it was still allowing a layering affect.. I mean what could really happen? Just mix the first and second layer together with not enough cure time and still end up with one layer? Either way I can see the points on giving proper cure time to be sure.... just wondering if thats really needed/overkill, and if we can get away with cutting the cure time before additional layers to save time. I am sure either process has marginal diminishing returns.

 

The cure time allows time for the sealant to bond "cross link" to the surface. Covering too soon with another layer restricts this action. So to me in other words if the first layer hasn't been allowed to bond it compromises every layer above it. Same applies if layer 3 isn't allowed or bond to the layer below it etc etc.