My wife just bought a new car. The door decal tells me it was made last month. Should I wait a while before waxing it, or is it OK to do so now?

I'm sure this info is already here somewhere, but I can't find it.

 

Brand new cars are baked from the factory and are ready to wax by the time you receive the vehicle. When you get it back from a body shop from repair work, it depends on a bunch of factors but typically requires 90 - 120 days before you seal or wax your paint.

If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Sincerely,

George @ Detailed Image

 

Thanks George, that's good to know.

 

I always detail my cars as soon as I get them home. That includes using a clay bar on the surface. Take the plastic bag test. You might be surpirsed!

 

plastic bag test? care to expand on that for those of us wallering in ignorance?

 

I think I know that one. You put your hand inside a Ziploc plastic bag and lightly run your fingers over the paint. Roughness to the finger tips, like little pimples, indicates that the finish would benefit from claying.

I'll try that out, thanks.

 

a) New cars-
Paint curing process; new cars go through the painting and baking process without any of the rubber, plastic, and cloth components installed. This is why they can expose the cars paint to such high temperatures these high temperatures and special paints used at the factory level ensure the paint is fully cured by the time the car leaves the assembly line.

OEM water based paint and its clear coat are cured at high temperatures; sometimes as high as 300oF in multiple oven zones where the paint is baked with radiation and convection heat so that 90-95% of the paint systems out gassing has taken place, the additional 5-10% will cure within 2-3 days and the vehicle’s paint can be waxed the moment it is rolled out of the manufacturing plant.

PPG and Fallon Infrared developed a compact drying oven that uses infrared heating and convection to remove water and solvents from paint, while keeping the surface temperature below 150º F. It reduces the dehydration cycle from 11 minutes to 90 seconds or less.

By not applying some sort of paint protection soon after purchase the customer is actually damaging the paint surface instead of helping it. Salesmen that advise a customer not to wax a car for 6-12 months are relying on old paint methods and are misinformed about the latest paint technology. The new paints are catalyzed (a chemical reaction cures the paint) lacquers and enamels needed time for the solvents to release, with modern water based paints this is no necessary.

This is a huge problem in dealerships because customers tend to take the advice offered by a salesman who usually knows nothing about paint, rather than a trained paint professional. This goes a long way to understand why fairly new vehicles paint surfaces are in such bad shape even after a relatively short period of time.

Cosmoline is no longer used as it is not environmentally sound; apart from that it is much harder to remove than the shipping/storage wax modern car manufacturer’s use. A large percentage of new vehicles, both domestic and imports have either a shipping/storage wax applied (5:1 emulsion of paraffin and synthetic wax) which effectively ‘seals’ the paint surface more than a polymer due to its formulation.

Place your hand in some paraffin wax; once the wax has dried (approx 1.5-2 hours ) you'll notice that your hand starts sweating profusely because the pores have been ‘sealed’ by the wax, these coatings are applied within one to three hours after the vehicle is assembled, and after the painting process is complete, this protective sealant coating (sealant means what it says, it really does seal and protect the paint from the environment, a lot different from the detailer’s polymer ‘sealant’)it should only remain for 90 - 120 days maximum; otherwise it becomes very difficult to remove (Auto International’s AutoBody Prep - http://www.autoint.com/)

 

are you sure they don't use cosmoline anymore? 6 months ago i had a tour of the bmw prep center and they showed us how the cars come in w/ cosmoline and then showed us the drive-thru cosmoline removal machine. the car goes thru like an automated carwash and is washed with a very high temperature solvent to remove what they said was cosmoline.