This gets into a discussion about what's
"Body Shop Safe" and what's not "Body Shop Safe", and to some level, you an use the term "Body Shop Safe" to also describe
"Fresh Paint Safe".
The reason painters tell you not to wax fresh paint is for two reasons which are connected...
First, there's not a single paint manufacture that I know of that recommends sealing, (that means applying a substance that coats over and protects), fresh paint. This is where you'll find people that will argue with you but unless they work for the paint manufacture, then what they post is their
opinion, not an
official recommendation of a "Paint Manufacture".
Second, painters will tend to follow paint manufacturer's recommendations because they respect the paint manufacture but also to insure you don't mess up their work. The idea behind
NOT sealing fresh paint is to let it outgas completely. This is where some will argue that modern paints harden through
chemically curing or catalyzing, and not via
solvent evaporation. But again, if the person making the recommendation does not work for the paint manufacture, then what they post is their opinion, not an official recommendation.
The clear layer of paint is still mixed with solvents, also called reducers; these are used to custom thin the paint to the painter's preference, to the sprayer and to the climate and/or paint booth. After spraying, some of these solvents will evaporate off.
After the solvents evaporate off and the paint dries to dust-free, that the surface of the paint is now cured and/or hard enough that if air-borne dust lands on the paint it won't stick to the paint.
After another day or two, maybe longer depending upon the the shops normal practices, the paint can be sanded and buffed if that's part of the package.
Whether it's sanded and buffed or turned back over to the painter, at this point the painter will say something like,
"Wait 30 days before applying a car wax"
This is a generic way of saying,
"Wait 30 days before using any product that can seal the paint to allow any and all solvents to outgas or evaporate out of an off of the paint"
Now this is where some people on discussion forums will want to start to argue and stay you can apply brand X because it's not a wax, or you can use anything because the paint is chemically cured, or you can wax the paint because you can't seal a clear coat, or fill in the blank...
The bigger idea is to not apply any substance that creates a barrier coating over the surface that could "potentially" lock or seal in the solvents and prevent them from out-gassing or evaporating.
This is where the term
"Body Shop Safe" or
"Fresh Paint Safe" comes into play...
A product that is "Fresh Paint Safe" is also "Body Shop Safe" and Meguiar's Ultimate Quick Detailer is not "Body Shop Safe". Think about it, they show it in a video
"REPELLING" water! The ingredients that make this product repel water
coat over and bond to the paint and thus seal the paint from water and in the same way could
"potentially" seal in or lock in residual solvents.
That's the best, most detailed explanation of the what, where, why, when and how of this topic...
After posting this some people will chime in and argue one of the above points and/or say they used this product or some other product on their "Fresh Paint" and nothing bad ever happened.
So I will point out, I never posted my opinion or recommendation in the above, just explained in detail what's going on and why you're told not to wax your paint and how that relates to other products that you would not call a "Car Wax" but have the potential to do the same thing a car wax would do.
Make sense? :laughing:
I wrote a very detailing article on this called
"Paint Needs To Breathe" in 2004 and to date, no one has ever challenged the theory I presented and it explains all of the above in detail.
