When I bought my truck there was a big dent over the driver side front wheel well and someone keyed the crap out of it on the passenger side. The dealer (Freedom Ford) took care of it all, no questions asked. Last Wednesday they took the truck, fixed the dent and where it was keyed, you can't tell it was ever there. I was amazed because the dent was pretty rough and now it's smooth as glass over it. I was just wondering, how long should I wait before I can wash and wax it?

The dealer said I could wash it that night if I wanted but they wouldn't recommend it because the paint takes a long while to dry. I want to do the entire detailing process on it with the clay, the three steps from Meguiars and some wax. I'm just antsy to get out there and make it look like a mirrior but I don't want to harm the paint.

- Chris

 

You can polish the paint, but you should wait a minimum of 30 days to put any wax on it. I would check with the painter to confirm, as he knows what paint he used. The reason you can't wax right away is because it will seal the paint and prohibit the solvents from evaporating. I would also avoid clay on the fresh paint area, but it seems unlikely that you would need to clay that part anyway.

 

Yeah, I was thinking atleast 30 days myself, it's what I've always heard for waiting to wax after painting. After it came out of the body shop the guys that painted it said a week and it kind of threw me back and I wanted to ask if you guys knew any different.

- Chris

 

I'd say 2 weeks before you wash it and 30 days min. before waxing.

 

Generally speaking, that's what the majority of the paint manufacturers will say however; I've heard from several folks (including paint company reps and a tech-school body shop manager/professor) that 60 days is a more realistic number.

RP

 

I went ahead and washed it the other day, used that Meguiars Gold Class Shampoo & Conditioner on it. Meguiars was one of the only soaps that I could find in the store that did not have any kind of wax in it already, but that's only a secondary reason I went with it. Just looking at the pictures of peoples trucks on here after using Meguiars and hearing from RockPick on a lot of their products it seems like the best stuff out there.

I made sure to go real soft over the painted areas softly rubbing them and just let the water slowly stream out of the house to rinse it off. That stuff is outstanding, made an awesome improvement on the way the truck looked, I just can't wait until I can go full force with the rest of the Meguiars products, I already know it's going to look like a mirrior.

- Chris