Any ideas on how long I should wait before I wash & wax my MINI after touching up some small rock chips and scratches? I'll be using dealer-provided touch up paint, color and clearcoat.

I'd also appreciate any other advice about prepping new touch-ups for waxing!

Thanks --M.

 

Let the paint dry... several hours if it is cool and humid out... 30 minutes if it is warm and dry.

You may want to investigate a product called Langka. It helps smooth out the touch-up paint blob that always forms and flattens the finish back down to near the height of the original paint... it selectively 'melts' (the best word I can think of) fresh paint (applied within the past day or so) to help smooth out the touch-up.

 

not sure how large of an area you're planning to touch up, but if its small
dots, i would just let it dry for a week and apply wax over the general
area after your next wash.

 

It's just a few tiny rock chips on the front bonnet, and one small scratch on the rear left side. I'll probably take your advice and do the touch-up after my next wash, then wash & wax about a week later.

Thanks --M.

 

I try to schedule any touch-up painting a week before I plan any waxing. Some products actually recommend that long. It's usually too much for me to do in one day anyway, and it's too dirty to wax by the second!

 

yeh, enamel sometimes takes days to dry completely.

 

Langka is funky stuff. You can use it on touch up paints months after it's dried.

I have a bottle of it. Never quite learned to use it well.

Richard

 

^^ i recommend ScratchX on a lint-free cotton towel wrapped on a flat
wood block. it turned out better than my previous process using a
2000grit wet sanding block as the surrounding orange peel doesn't
flatten.

ive yet to try spot bondo-ing larger chips with a small ding.

 

It's all in the timing... do you wait 30 minutes, 2-3 hours (my recommendation for a first try) or 2-3 days. I still like wet-sanding for the best finish, but that's a little more hard-core than most people want to try. Langka is a good place to start because it won't remove the factory paint and, should you remove too much of your touch-up paint, you just apply some more.

The other thing that helped was picking the right cloth. T-shirt material was to abrasive, as was a glass microfiber (tight nap). I had great luck w/ an old, worn out, high-threadcount pillowcase that I ripped into shreds to use for this purpose.