Ok well now you know what she looks like. I have a few simple questions: 1. With new paint, is it bad to let it be dirty overnight. It has some stuff on it from driving and I didn't wash it off last night. Just wondering if since its new, it will be effected more. 2. I bought some tire shine, armorall, some meguires soft car wash, and some meguires carbaouna (sp) wax, also meguiares. Will this all be fine? Or did I maybe not buy good stuff... 3. for drying I bought that soft fabric stuff, that feels like thin leather. Whats it called... Well I am sure you guys know what I mean. Is that the best thing for drying? I think that is it for now. If you guys have any more tips for me. PLease fill me in. Thanks.,

no tire spray for at least a week

go to a body shop supply store and get the propper wax for a fresh paint job

Oh yeah, huge white car tip, go get a bar of magic clay!!!!!!

trust me, you will be thankin the jamon8ster after you get a little rail dust on that white paint.

buy the way you car looks GREAT!!!
for some reason camaros look great in white

leave it nice and clean like you have it
no stickers, pinstrips and racing strip needed

Its good just the way it sits

I would honestly call chris and ask him what to use.

But heres what i did. I washed the car with a light amount of soap and water. Then i just used spray detailer to keep it clean until about 3 months later when i was able to wax it. Spray detailer and microfiber towels will be your best friend with that new paint.. thats what i use

Thanks, I will lool into the spray detailer. I think I know what you mean. I used that kinda stuff back when it was stock. It is like a soft way to wax it. You sorta just spray it on, and microfiber it off... Is that they kinda stuff you are talking about? If not, I am total newbie when it comes to this, so talk to me like you are explainting it to a person in the special olypics... hehe, jk, but honeslty please be specific. I don't even really know what "detailer" is...

Sorry. I will call Chris today, that is a great idea.

Looks good Dennis! I bet you are just tickled pink!!!!

haha.

Yeah you could say that.

Now all i need is to get these pipes to shut up. I better go update that thread for some ideas.

Awsome paint job! Yes, no waxing for at lease 2 weeks. Tire shine will not affect anything....now that its all painted.
1st off let me ask, who ever painted it, did they wetsand it and wheel it? Sometimes to get the clear on the car nice and straight (orange peel they call it) Some people wetsand it then buff it to a nice shine. Although white is alot more forgiving then black is!
But back on topic, Yes the microfiber clothes are great! Now that your all fresh and new dont be afraid to wax the wheel lips, and the bottom side where the body wraps around. I like the new Ice wax by turtle wax.
But....wow your car looks really really good.

it doesnt look like there is any orange peel to me

i cant wait to see some daytime pics of the car outside though

Thanks, I will look into it. I will take pics of all the products I bought yesterday, and you guys can tell me if they are OK. I tried getting pretty good stuff.

I will not wax it for 2 weeks, no problem.

But can I wash it gently, to get crap off? I would assume I can and should.

Oh and the car is going to get buffed in teh spring, when I decide oh if I want black pockets or not. So far I realy like the white ones.

Well thanks for the compliments. This thing has been a long time comin'

yes you can wash it but only with a VERY soft cloth, and dont push down too hard. It all depends on the clear that was used, if it got really hard right away or if its going to take a week to fully get hard.
But yes you can wash it, No power washer, light spray of water, very soft cloth, and mild soap.
Your good to go.

wash it only for 3 months with soap with NO wax in it at all

no waxing for 3 months at least, the paint has to breath still, no spray detailer none of those kind of products just soft washing and that's it. Besides it's winter where you're at...put it in storage and leave it until spring that's what i did with my camaro, no worries on paint swirls before wax or anything

I agree, no waxing for 3 months. Don't use any products that contain any type of wax. New paint needs time to breath. By waxing your car too soon, You will trap solvents under the paint. This will show up down the road as small or big blisters. I have a few books on how to paint cars and all of them say not wax your car for aleast three months. By the way, How often do you use your car? When I had my '69 painted 3 years ago, I did not wax it for a year. The reason, It never saw any weather. If you only drive your car in nice weather, store it in the garage, and wash it with water and a little bit of soap you will be fine.

yeah, I know I should just store it, but I need want to tune it and take care of all the bugs duting the winter, so that in the spring, I am not in the stage I am now. There is no way I am just shoving it in the garadge and waiting till Spring. I will just wash it with some soft soap and thats it. I am not driving it through the snow or anything, just around the block and stuff, as I try to detail the motor and work out some bugs, as well as finish the interior.

I am probably going to buy a full mufflex exhaust, and moddify it and my sphoon x-member so that it all fits. I am just going to notch the member and dimple the y-pipe. Right now the car is just asking to get pulled over.

Also the weather is still nice. Next week it is supposed to hit 60!, and tomorrow is supposed to be 50. I will lock it up when we have highs of 35 or lower.

nice tip. thanks. I def will not be driving it a lot, and i might get into the habit of washing it when I get home, no matter what. water and soft soap. Since I don't plan on taking it out very often in the winter. Right now it is only going out to show frineds, and to set my speedo, maybe go get dynotunned in a few weeks, stuff like that.

One thing you can use, which is safe, is any good polish (meguiars, wizards, car brite). Polish will still let the paint "breath" unlike wax. You can use as much quick detail as you want....there is nothing in it that will harm the paintl. Trie dressing shouldn't cause any damage either....now...if you were to put tire dressing on BEFORE a paint job...that would be a huge mistake. BTW, the car looks great

I see alot of talk about not waxing and letting paint breath and such but there different kinds of paints and they cure very differently.

For example. Arylic paint dries and cures quickly to lets say the one stage enamel I am using to paint my car.

Laquer paint also is very different.

Before you listen to general consensus try and research your type of paint perhaps in a few I will post the pros and cons in a seperate thread.

base/ clear needs to breathe nelapse.

most polishes from meguiars also have waxes in them. you need to talk to a body supply shop if you feel that you "have" to use something on it in those first 3 months

I am quite aware. All I was saying is that some paints cure quicker than others which would mean using wax would be okay.

However, depending on what kind of paint you have, you can buff it with special polishing compounds any day of the week. You can pretty much buff anything but enamel.

We paint cars......we wait 1 week, Then the clear has had enough time to dry. Been doing it for 20 years. Do you know that the clear we use anyway, gets pretty hard. We have had and do have a lot of cars. Now we have a 72 Trans Am, 71 Firebird, 69 Corvette, & my 87 Trans am.
We have a dealers licence and buy wrecked cars then we sell them. We prep, paint, & clear. Then the next day we wet sand, wheel, and wash it. Wait a week detail it and wax it up and ship it down the road.
Books might say 3 months, but thats an awfull long time to wait.

It's an aftermarket paint job so it wasn't baked like a factory paint job would be, which is why it needs to outgas for a period of time. Who painted it? That's who'd I'd ask about how long to wait before waxing, etc. I know when my RS was painted a year ago I was told not to wax it for 30 days, wash only with clear water and a lambswool wash mit, and that's it. Yes, a quick detail spray is fine, but be careful of polishes. Meguiar's makes a couple of pure polishes that contain no abrasives or cleaners, and those are fine to use. Meguiar's also some makes some cleaner/polishes in varying degrees of aggressiveness - do NOT use these (or anyone else's for that matter) until such time as the shop that painted the car tells you.

Take back the chamois you purchased for drying and get a couple of waffle weave microfiber towels for that purpose. Keep in mind that fresh paint is quite soft and even using the microfiber towels with the quick detail spray can easily cause fine swirl marks in the paint. Not such a big deal since they'll polish out pretty easily in a couple of months when you can safely do that process, plus white hides a lot of those type marks. Just be really, really careful, but don't overstress it too much - a good polish job in the spring and she'll look even better than she does today.

HEY!!!! There's a rule of thumb around here that when you get a fresh paintjob, you cant post the same pics up that you already did when making a new thread......more pics damnit!

so if the parts are baked, you dont hafta wait?

My car is in the shop right now, having some panels repainted. I was thinking about asking the shop to bake them.

Thanks!
Bill

A professional body shop will most definately use abrasive polishes after a fresh paint job. How else do you "rub out" a paint job. All of the "do not use this" talk is merely rubbish. To do an effective rubout after wet sanding the clear coat, you buff the entire car with an abrasive polish to give it that beautiful gloss.

There are so many misconceptions about this topic. Also do not forget some reputable body work shops also has the heating room to make a car after a paint job. If memory serves me right I believe 180* for a few hours?

I am good friends with the guy who painted the car, he said with the paint he uses you can wax it the next week. But the car still hasn't even been wetsanded or buffed so i wouldn't worry about it just yet

Very nice Dennis! The car came out damn great! Is that shaved markers I see?

Spike - I saw those too!!! Nice choice on shaving those Dennis, someday I will shave mine too, But for now I will live with dark smoked ones I have.

Yes, but once they're done (assuming they've done a decent job) there should be no need whatsoever for the owner to immediately polish the car again in a week. I think we all understand you don't just spray and walk away, but that really isn't the question here. As with anything else, there's a limit to how much buffing you want to do on fresh, soft paint. And yes, I do mean "soft" as it relates to a fully baked and cured factory paint job. There's a huge difference.

But that still is not the same level of "baking" as a factory paint job and there is likely still some cure time that should be allowed before waxing.

Different paint brands and formulations will also have their own specific requirements not only when shooting but in proper care immediately following the spraying. That's why I suggested he ask the shop that painted the car - they should (if they're worth anything) know how best to deal with the fresh paint.

Spike-Z: Yes those are totally shaved off marker lights. If you look closely there are also no locks. And no antenna hole. Also there is no gas door.

Gotta love a clean shave.

Def makes the nose look smoother. Just an idea I had and it turned out great. Thanks for noticing.

As for all this talk about what I should do with the paint... Here is how it is goin' down:

The car was dirty after driving it home, so I washed it yesterday with meguier's soft soap. I used a new soft mit and barely pressed down. Then rinsed it. As for drying I used that chamoise (sp) cloth that is really soft. Took a while, but it worked fine. The car is in the garadge now and chillin there for a while. I am waiting to install my 4" mufflex system, since the dual 3" dumps are calling too much attention to the car.

The paint looks great and I can't really see any marks on it from the wash at all. And in the end the car is still going to be getting buffed in the spring ANYWAYS.... With that said, not all I have to do it decide on the headlight pockets. There is a poll on my CD site.

I will take pics over the weekend, hopefully I will have my new grill by then. I will take a video too. Not sure if I will have sound though. (don't know much about my new digi)

I also need to detail the interior, and then I can have pic of every angle and it will still look great. Thanks for all the compliments by the way, I have def never had anything like this b4.

it looks great dennis the white does look good. and i really like the shaved sidemarkers i wanted to do that but you better hope cop doesnt notice it.

I am fully aware this thing is a rolling ticket. Thats cool though. I came to terms with all my issues the day I starting deciding it wasn't going to go back togeather stock anymore. Maybe one of these days I will make a thread about all the things I hope cops don't notice, hehe. Till then, thanks for likeing the mod. I thought it would smooth things out a bit. Also the painted handles is supposed to give the illustion that the handles are gone. A mod that I still have the kit to do, but decided not to go with due to the high amount of driving I want to do in this car. Also it will keep me off the track. So I figured, no locks and white handles is a good median between stock and full blown shave.

the car looks great ,i love white hardtops , and the wheels look great .

Thanks, and thanks for commenting on the wheels. They really look good in the day time with sunlight. The cream white color of the car and the gunmetal grey is a real nice offset from the paper white and black rims some guys do. I love it. As for the stick out, I am getting used to it, but don't worry, I will be getting 315s and shaving the spacers after I center the axle.
The way I see it is I will:

-center the axle, and measure how much room I have to play with under there (with 335s)

-Take that distance and leave maybe a 1/4" of space and shave the remaining amount of space off the spacers.

-Live with the stick out for a month ans see how I feel. After all that it should be flush with the otter most lip. Then if I still don't like it, get 315s and re-measure, and re-shave. Then they will be tucked under.




But back to the paint. Thanks for the nice comments.

well i'm the guy who did the paint, and thanks for all the compliments guys, dennis as for all the questions on the paint...wash it whens it's dirty(what your using is perfectly fine) and the chamois really won't hurt the finish...the clear i use (dupont chroma clear) is pretty durable once fully cured, usually within a few weeks. but i wouldn't wax the car at all...it will just make the sanding much more difficult for me come spring. wait till it's sanded and buffed then you can wax it all you want 2-3 times a day if you want. lol j/k, hope you enjoy it dennis

it's hard to tell since it's white, but how's the orange peel?

as with any paint job there is some orange peel....it is absolutley impossible to paint a car without getting any....not so much the flat surfaces as the sides. but the peel is very minimal and will be sanded and buffed perfectly smooth

yea thats understandable...it took some work (due to the lack of craftsmanship on a lazy painter) to get mine to where it was at.....still with a white car, it will be so hard to see, and the fact that it's minimal is awesome too - good job

Chris, great to see you on here. i washed her 2 days ago. Thats all. I am def not going to wax it. I am pretty much not driving it for another week at least, while I toss on my mufflex y and 4" catback. Then she is off to the dyno for tunning. I will wash it again after that, then she will not be driven at all till the weather gets better. I have plenty of little things to keep myself ocupied (interior) over the winter.

Also Chris, a lot of people that see the car in person LOVE the white pockets. While guys online all keep telling me to paint them. Think its cuz how the camera makes the color look? It really does look GREAT in the sunlight.

Anyways, I guess I got all the info I needed to know, no wax for a long *** time, and only use soft soap and be careful. Now I just have to learn how to bend plexiglass in an arch to make clear mudflaps....

LOL.....no no no.....no mud flaps

Well not mudflaps per-say. More like transporting paint protectors. I am going to be making what the vette guys allways use on the way to shows. You know those little black clips that teachers use to hold stacks of paper togeather. Black with little chrome handles that you squeeze. Well anyways, i have seen some vette guys cut and bend plexiglass to the right shape, and the clip it onto the rear lip when driving to shows. Then when they get there, they clip them off and toss them in the trunk. When it is time to go, they clip them back on. After spending almost 4 grand on paint, I am not gonna let my 335s mess it up. For short trips to 7/11 and ****, I will leave them off, but anything long, I am going to to clip them on. It is just a plain smart idea to take care of the paint.

Anyways, I will post pics when I have figured it all out. I bet home depot has some, and it will probably bend with some motivation from a propane torch. When I have the right arch, I will cut to the right shape. Then head to staples for my little black clips. Pretty sure it will work out just fine. Then when i tuck the wheels more and get 315s, all I have to do is trim the plexi.

I will look for pics of what I mean, if you are still not getting it.

This will depend on whether they baked it now not, but I was told by my painter not to wash the car at all for 2 weeks and by many professional detailers and paint care buffs not to use wax or any kind of sealer for at least 6 months or the paint will not cure correctly.

well they might be right, for the paint that they use. But as been stated before, not all paint is created equal. The guy who painted my car, Chris, definetly knows what he is doin. I bet knows best for my car. A simple wash, with "soft soap" it has no waxes in it and such, pretty much made for this specific purpose, will not hurt my car. It is just a soft sud that carries away any dirt that got on the car when driving it home. As for 6 months, damn that is a while! I will not use wax on my car for probably 4 months, since it is winter and the car won't really be driven. If it was spring i would wait 3. Again, 6 might be for some special paint. I just got some "normal" stuff here.

removable mud flaps are a great idea, i dont know why anyone would freak out. i wish i could get some for my car, these cars seem to kick up dirt and pebbles and whip them to your quarter panel no matter how slow u go. that crackling sound makes me cringe

i have the tech sheet in front of me for the clear i used. it says cure time at 70 degrees is 24 hours sand and buff time is 24 hours, and lastly time before waxing 30 days

They are other alternatives to mudflaps. When i autocross i use a clear adhesive ( borrow from a Z06 driver) and put it on the rear quarter.

I ll look and see if you can get any online

hey bud, what happened to the lambo doors?

Oh man, the lambo doors are a looooong story. But to put it in a nit shell, the body shop (Chris, aka, IROCKnIROC) just didn't feel like the way I installed them made them very stable, for one and two, just couldn't get everything to line up right. The higes were in fine for a car that was tossed togeather in my garadge, but when it came time to have panels line up and toss thousands of dollars in paint on it, it wasn't worth the risk of having the doors vibrate, and hit the fenders and so on. If I had been more carfull with the install, there is a chance that it would have been just fine. Also the car is leaning more and more in the direction of becoming a daily driveing kinda car, and I thought it would just get annoying after awhile, not being ablto to open the doors all the way. Anyways, I didn't wanna mod the fender's skin just for the doors to go up, so I called Chris and took his advice to ditch them. It sucked really bad, cuz I worked so hard to get them on there, but a lot of work doesn't make it good work. So I bit the bullet and took his advice to go back to stock. I am very happy that I did now that I see how easy it is to get in. Before I had to squeeze in, now I can use the doors like stock, its great.

Anyways, thats the deal with the lambo doors... MAYBE, a big MAYBE... someday I will try again, and this time find a way to do it without having to cut the hinges off, and without having to have the door almost not open. BIG MAYBE. (most likely no)

good choice