Hi All, k, so I was in a minor accident and had my hood replaced and painted. Shop finished paint job on friday and next friday I would like to drive from Philly to Miami and back. I have a 2 part question:
a) Will I be ok to take that trip with all the debris/rocks flying on the road?
b) Should I get a bra for the trip to help protect from flying rocks or is 2 weeks curing time too short for me to risk putting a bra that could possibly stick to not-fully-cured paint?

Thanks for your input!

 

Tape it all. I used to own a POS Audi and the guys on that board taped the front end.

 

Be careful covering or taping over a freshly painted surface. Air dry or two component paints can continue to cure for several weeks after application, even if the finish appears to be completely dry. Preventing air circulation over the surface may trap some residual solvents, affecting the degree of cure and possiblly causing adhesion failure issues.

 

[FONT=Courier New][FONT='Arial Black'][SIZE=3]Takes over 30 days for the paint to fully cure. Might want to get a regular bra since it can still breath. Just remove it if its raining.[/SIZE][/FONT]
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The cure time has a lot to do with the paint process and if it was baked afterwards. MINI Factory paint is cured by the time it leaves the factory. Some paint shops don't bake at all, so you still might be in the cure stage.

There are some spray-on protectants you can buy, but they are going to seal the surface, which you are trying to avoid. I'm not a huge fan of the tape idea either, because you might be pulling up uncured paint with the tape when you arrive.

I think I'd just drive and try to leave a bit of extra distance between you and the semi in front of you...

 

just drive it, tape or a bra would do more damage than help.

 

Just go Braless it is the in thing to do.

 

thx all for your comments.....seems like i may be doing more harm than good by covering the paint. i'm just a little afraid that i might get rock chips in my freshly painted hood ....also, i will be getting painted arches and fenders installed tomorrow which were also freshly painted this week...so i really have 2 paint issues going on. You gotta figure, i'll be taking a 2400 mile roadtrip so the odds are that rocks will hit my car/bonnet at some point right?

To bra or not to bra....that is the question?

Any new advice with this new knowledge about the painted trim???

 

Don't buy a regular vinyl bra. I had one on my CRX and no matter how clean I kept the car there was always dirt/sand between the bra and paint. It just turns into sandpaper. I'm not writing about the clear bra that sticks to the surface, but I think I have heard something about not sticking those onto repainted surfaces, but your clear bra dealer could advise on that.
Greg

 

+1. Ate up the front of my old Civic.

Clear-bra, 3M type stickers are okay on repainted surfaces, but only after the paint has cured. We had a repaint on another car, and they reapplied the 3M several weeks later.

 

I was actually thinking of the regular leather bra (with cotton backing) because i was advised not to get the clearbra b/c as mentioned the paint will take several weeks to cure. My plan is to only keep the bra on for the trip there and back and to immediately remove it if I run into rain on the trip. My main thing is to provide protection to the paint during the trip. My questions are:
1) Do I install a bra just for the long roadtrip to/from Miami, removing the bra if it starts raining on my way to/from,
2)Do I drive braless and risk multiple rock chips to a freshly painted hood,
3)Do I skip the trip altogether and miss out on the fun of the first MTTS2 event because it's too risky for the potential paint damage.

Help please - it's hard for me to make this decision ....