Just finished painting the last little bits of my old car. Got tons of rust and old paint off. Cleaned and cleaned and cleaned with various solvents. 2 coats of rust converter. 2 coats of rust encapsulator. 2 coats of epoxy primer. 2 coats of urethane primer/surfacer. And a final 2/3 coats of colored topcoat.
And of course, tons of sanding. This project deserves a PIT rant all its own.
I’ve babied it since I finishing the major painting about a month ago. Kept in the garage, avoiding extremes of temp, and particularly rain, dew, sap, bird doo doo, and any other stuff.
I can tell its slowly getting glossier and harder as time goes on.
I’ve finally moved the car back outside and will start putting things like doors and fenders back on.
My question is this: How long till that paint has cured/hardened as much as its going too?
Congratulations on painting the car! With all of the work you have put into it, its an admirable undertaking. I have painted a car and therefore have some idea of your labor of love.
Hell, get the thing out of the hail. If you can’t put it in a garage put some tarps over it. Anything. Don’t let all that work go to waste. By now it should be dry enough to cover it even if it isn’t totally cured.
BTW, what color? I always wanted to do Candy Apple Red.
If you recall correctly from where? If I recall correctly, it takes a couple hours. I’m getting my information from talking to an auto-painting professional earlier today. I’m painting my '67 Baja Beetle Lamborghini green tomorrow .
Actually, I’m pretty ignorant on this topic and I get the impression that the OP is using an entirely different type of paint than me, which would explain the wildly different waiting periods. I’m using base+clearcoat; you’re using something else, aren’t you, billfish?
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