My Mini is getting its trim, grill and some other parts painted body colour in a few days. I have purchased a clay kit from Meguiar's and am wondering if it is 'safe' to clay the entire car, including the newly painted bits when it comes back from the body shop?

Thanks.

 

Don't do anything but wash the freshly painted parts. No wax, no clay no other treatments.
Your painter will likely advise you to leave the new paint alone for about 30 days. This is for the paint to fully cure and outgas.

 

yah, i would wait for the paint to cure completely before using any clay or polish.... could take as much as 2months.

usually paint dries completely by the 3rd week or so...but why clay/polish fresh paint if there aren't any contaminants/swirls on it, right?

 

Do the whole car before it goes to the body shop, then you can admire it when it comes back and DON'T put any sealant or anything on it for at least a month. Your body shop will tell you for sure, but paint needs time to cure.

 

My wife's car had some paint job as well and we were advised to wait ~30 days before waxing. As others have said, you need to wait for the paint to "degass."

Does anyone know why this is important? What bad things will happen if you wax before it 'cures'? Discoloration? Doesn't become hard? What?

 

Ok guys, thanks a lot for that! I was pretty sure I didnt need/have to do it after the fresh paint, so Ill clay it at a later stage. She got her last wash today before she goes into paint; going on a club Mini run in an hour and tomorrow the headlights come off for the Joey.

 

You can clay fresh paint. You can also polish fresh paint, as long as you use a "pure" polish that doesn't leave any kind of coating or sealant behind. (If you see a polish marked as "paintable", that's a sure sign it's a pure polish.)

The key to treating new paint is simply to not seal the surface with any kind of wax or synthetic sealant. When paint is curing, it's releasing the volatile compounds evenly throughout the surface of the paint. If you seal the surface, these gases can't escape and the pressure will build up. Eventually, the accumulated gases will "erupt" through a weak/thin spot in the clear coat. If you look at the results through a magnifying glass, it looks like a bunch of little pimples or volcanos in the clear coat. The same thing can also happen if the painter doesn't wait long enough between multiple clear coats. You can look up "solvent popping" for more pictures and explanation.

 

Well said.

 

Thanks for the explanation!

So, the clearcoat is actually somewhat breathable and lets gases from the paint underneath to escape, but waxes are relatively impermeable.

 

That's the gist of it, although it's both the base coat and the clear coat that are off-gassing during the curing process, not just the base coat underneath.

 

OK, thanks!

 

Wow! Thanks very much Scott. Now I know how paint works.

The car comes back from the body shop on Thursday and will be spending a few days in the garage while I fit some things. Is it OK to wash it after a week or so when it gets dirty, or is it best to garage the car for a bit to let the paint cure even more. The car soap I have has a wax part (so the bottle says) but I doubt that will do much compared to the true hand wax I normally use.

 

Washing it won't cause any problems, but I'd still be a little hesitant to use a car wash with wax in it. While the chance of accidentally "sealing off" the paint is low, it would only have to happen in one tiny location for you to end up with flaking/peeling paint at some point in the future.

Since it's in the 50F range there, I'd go with a non-wax car wash for the first two weeks or so just to be safe. After a month, you should be good to use whatever you want on the car, including paste wax or any kind of synthetic sealant.

 

Got it. The temperature here is around 27C which is 86F. Ill buy a small bottle of wash without wax to be safe. Ill still keep it in the garage and drive it as least as possible for the first few weeks.