How to Tell if New Paint is Fully Cured

L

Lonnie

Well-known member
What prompted this topic is a warning from the Ford Motor Company to the owners of new Mustang GTD Dark Horse cars NOT to have them detailed for at least 30 days. Why? To let the custom paint fully cure on the carbon fiber panels. If covered with Protective Plastic Film (PPF), as many owners plan on doing, it may cause the uncured paint underneath to wrinkle.
In the article it said that good detailer should be able to tell if the paint is fully cured. Which, of course, leads to my topic subject line question:
How do you tell if new paint is fully cured???
Not being trained in auto body repair or painting, I can "guess" one method is to smell the paint. If still smells like paint solvent chemicals, it is still gassing off and NOT fully cured. Not sure of any other methods or emperical tests that can be performed, but in layman's terms, "The nose knows".
Any thoughts on determining if new paint is fully cured?
I do think it is an important question to ask a vehicle owner of a vehicle you are about to detail if any area has been repainted recently and when that was done for the very reasons mentioned above.
 
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Some autopians I consider reliable say they don't wait to PPF, or do anything, these days, and they claim it's never bitten them.

As per what Lonnie posted, I wait until I can't smell any outgassing. Always over a month, maybe (usually?) longer.

Not that I've ever dealt with CF!
 
Accumulator:
That sentiment about "when can I wax or seal (or apply PPF) to a new car paint" seems to be a hold-over from the old days of single-stage (non-clear coat) paints.
Today's paints are supposedly "cured" at the factory during the manufacturing/assembly process, which is why Ford issued its warning about the Mustang GTD custom paint.
That was one of the underlying reasons Meg's developed Mirror Glaze No. 5, New Car Glaze as a breathable glaze/sealant for new paint. I don't know if it is still being made; my bottle is probably 40 years old! (Hey, you are not the only "accumulator", much to my chagrin and my wife's distain of such car-care products taking up basement shelf space that probably will never be used. It is a fine line between collecting and hoarding and "what is one man's junk is another man's treasure". But I digress.....)
But I am with you: if it smells like new paint, be careful how you clean and detail it.
 
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Lonnie said:
That was one of the underlying reasons Meg's developed Mirror Glaze No. 5, New Car Glaze as a breathable glaze/sealant for new paint. I don't know if it is still being made; my bottle is probably 40 years old!
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No, they don't make it anymore, the only glaze they still make is #7. There was another one in the low numbers, #3? And then there was #81 Hand Polish, I still have a bottle of that although I threw out all my other 80-series products because they were all watery and there are much better products today.

My #5 turned to chewing gum in the bottle and I threw it out, I thought I had a picture of it but I can't find it.
 
Lonnie- Critical diff here is whether we're talking new FACTORY paint or new Post-production paint.

And we generally assume that cars don't get any post-production paintwork at the factory when somebody notices an "oops!". I've had a number of vehicles, bought new, that had a *lot* of paintwork redone before they were shipped the Jag being the worst). Yes, very disappointing.
 
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