Brand New Paint - Maintenance - When to wax?

[Nick1994]

Well my step mom was a genius and T-boned some guy (low speed) and messed up her car. It's a 2010 Pontiac G6, it got both new headlights, 1 passenger fender, the hood was repaired, a new bumper, new condensor, and the steel bumper underneath was replaced. Actually my dad fixed it since he works at a body shop. The original paint on the hood, roof, and trunk were faded badly. While it was in the paint booth my dad had the painter paint the roof and trunk lid.

All OEM parts, thanks State Farm!

Now it looks like a brand new car (well, I haven't seen it in person yet) but we'd like to keep it that way.

How do we preserve the paint to keep it looking good? How soon can it be waxed?

 

[raytseng]

call the painter and ask what they say

 

[JHZR2]

I've read wait a month for low temperature baked paints to cure.

 

[walterjay]

Wait a month. Use a regular wax without cleaner on the new finish.

I can't believe the paint was that faded on a 2010

 

[NHGUY]

That's cheap paint for a 5 year old car to have degredation like that.Oh well,nothing lasts like it used to.

 

[The Critic]

Before you think about protecting it, you're probably going to need to do some additional texture-matching and compound and polish the paint to a higher-level than the shop left it.

Best advice is to speak to the shop, but generally 30 days. There are some fresh-paint safe products that you can use in the meantime, such as Meguiars M305.

 

[Trav]

Call the painter, only he knows for sure what was used on the car, there is no definitive answer.
A high solids clear coat that was baked could be fully cured in as little as 180 min a low/mid solids clear air dried up to 30 days. If he used single stage (some painters mix clear with base, its not bad, some paints work really well this way) then it could be up to 3 months.

 

[daves87rs]

In AZ heat, not surprised.

Last 2010 G6s were built in like april of 09...so more like six years.

Bet it never got waxed and sat in the sun all day....

I've seen brand new cars get bad within a few years with real heat and no care....

 

[dishdude]

Originally Posted By: daves87rs
In AZ heat, not surprised.

Last 2010 G6s were built in like april of 09...so more like six years.

Bet it never got waxed and sat in the sun all day....

I've seen brand new cars get bad within a few years with real heat and no care....


Negative Nancy up there has no idea what the Phoenix sun is like, besides nothing lasts like an '88 Aries K.

 

[Nick1994]

The car was first registered September 2009, and the paint was fading summer of 2013. It was waxed twice in it's life before it started fading and has never been garaged. Garbage GM paint.

 

[dishdude]

GM paint is generally pretty good, it's very resistant to chips. Red fades quicker than any other color.

 

[Delta]

Originally Posted By: NHGUY
That's cheap paint for a 5 year old car to have degredation like that.Oh well,nothing lasts like it used to.


That red on those generation GM's didn't hold up well. Our 08 Equinox had been getting a coat of sealant every 4-5 months and it still was getting faded in the hot Mississippi sun. Cars either rust in the North and fade in the South/Southeast.