Taking care of new paint

[TNMom]

Last week, someone not paying attention hit my husband on his way home from work. He is fine, but the car isn't. State Farm has been out and looked at it, and we took it to the auto body place this morning. I'm not sure how long they will have it. When we get it back, I'm wondering what is the correct way to take care of the new paint?

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Taking care of new paint

You can apply something like Deep Crystal Polish or M07 Show Car Glaze, but that's about it for the first 60-90 days until the respray has out gassed and fully cured. At that point feel free to use any paint cleaner you may need to remove swirls that the body shop will likely inflict on the finish. Then wax with your wax of choice.

Keep in mind that it's a body shops job to fix the damage and apply fresh paint. They'll buff that new paint with a rotary buffer and a wool pad to bring up maximum gloss, but in the process they're very likely to create some holograms, which will then most likely be concealed with a glaze or pure polish. That's fine - body shops are production repair shops, not detailers. Big difference. You've already shown your ability to create a high gloss shine (yes, we have video evidence proving this!) so once the paint has cured you'll need to work your magic on this car too. Since you made red look so fantastic, silver should be a piece of cake for you!!