If it is 2k acrylic paint with hardener, it should be touch dry within 1 hour and fully dry within 24 hours.
If you use paint booth baking (drying) to expedite the process, you can achieve the complete dry time within 1 hour.
But it is not recommended to wax/polish your vehicle until 30 days. Technically after the baking process, you can polish your car after 7 days, but it is always better to give more time because the more time you provide, the better it gets.
The above time frames were given based on professional experience, but how long does it take to paint a car depends on a variety of factors; hence it is challenge to give you an exact time frame.
Factors Affecting Car Paint Curing Duration
- Humidity – when the air heat is too high, the evaporation ratio of the water in the paint will significantly decrease. This will make the solvent evaporation rate slowdown, which will make the paint drying process slow.
- Airflow – (If you are not using a drying booth) – If your painting garage has good ventilation, which enables air to flow in, it will expedite the drying process of the vehicle.
- Type of the paint – You get cellulose paint, Acrylic solvent-based paints, Acrylic water-based paints, you name it. Each painting has its own drying time and curing process.
- The number of coats and the thickness – Obvious, isn’t it? If it is a single coat application, the drying time will be much quicker than a multi-coat application. The thickness of the paint layer also plays a significant role in the drying time; thicker layers taking a longer time to dry.
Does Repainting a Car Devalues It
The common perception is yes, it does. Buyers think that people repaint their vehicles to hide accidental damages and faults, which is true in most cases. The main reason is that the quality of the repaint is never the same as the initial paint. A factory repaint might cost around 5000 USD, and most people will spend about 600 -700 USD to get a shoddy job done; this is what devalues the vehicle, but if a car is met with an accident or if there is a dent, you do not have a choice. Still, you will have to repaint, or the exposed metal areas will cause further damaged by developing rust over time.
Can You Paint Your Own Car
The simple answer is yes, but the professional answer is better not. Vehicle painting requires professional skills; especially, you need to properly sand the surface, apply the primers (if required), smoothen the surface, and finally, apply the topcoat. If you do not do the preparation properly, you will not get the final finish. I do not think anyone wants to have paint bubbles popping out from their vehicles due to a bad paint job. If you’re going to try it out, I would like to recommend you first try it out by painting small parts of your motorbike or mountain bike.
Good luck !!