Check your other post, I pasted a link to DuPont.

all depemds on the paint and cure time, temps and humidity etc etc

I dont have a paint shop I just paint in my garage when the temps allow. So I usually wait 3-4 days before I wetsand the finished product and polish it.

After polishing, I clean it with soap and water and allow it to set for at least 30 days to gas out and cure before I seal and wax the paint. some guys like to wait like 3 months. I say leave it out in the sun a few days and seal it after a month

actually, what it depends on is the reducer used in said paint. it's the reducer that determines curing times. in the body shop trade, the reducer they use depends on the project that is being painted. if it's warm weather like in July, and they are painting a whole car, they will use a slow to medium drying reducer. if they are only painting say a fender, then they will use a fast drying reducer. this means they can paint the fender at 9am, and the customer can driver the car home at say 5pm. If you try to paint a whole car with fast drying reducer...well, it either has to be chilly in the paint room, or else you have to pretty much run around the vehicle in order to get the clear even before it dries on you.

when I paint bikes, I use nothing but fast drying reducer. I absolutely LOVE this method because 1) you can lay the clear on heavier with less chances of runs, and 2), you can be wet sanding in less than 12 hours. the last bike I painted...the one I used as an example in the "how to fine tune your paintjob" thread, well I was wet sanding that about 5 hours after I painted it.

IMPORTANT: if you need to give it another coat of clear or two, DO NOT use compound to remove the orange peel. use wet sandpaper only. if you use compound, which contains chemicals, you will need to thoroughly wash down your parts before spraying clear.....where if you just wet sand, you only needs to wipe it clean and spray.

as for the 30 days to 3 months that Hardly mentioned....well, I guess everyone has their own way of doing thing, but I have never waited nearly that long. all my work has been more like 3 days max after the clear is laid, and I am all wet sanded, buffed and waxed and out enjoying my ride. I am not saying that info is wrong because there is no harm in taking up to 3 months to do everything, but I do know for a fact, and from experience, that it all can be done in 3 days just buy choosing the right reducer for your paint. with a fast hi-temp reducer, you can paint, wetsand, re-clear, wet sand then compound and wax, all within a 3 day period, and be perfectly fine. it has to be fine because there is not a body shop in the world that will take 30 days to 3 months to finish your paint job. most will just tell you to wait a week or so before waxing, and that is just to cover their butts because most people can't tell if the clear is cured or not....but in a week it surely is.

all this dragged out stuff and info saying to wait these long periods of time...well, imho, it's all "inaccurate" and mostly comes from individuals who "think" this process will yield better results. you know...so they can brag that their paint job took them 3 months to complete, which somehow makes it more special. I don't know of any other way to call it besides "misinformation". but hey...like I said, there is absolutely no harm in taking that long, but it really doesn't have to, and if anything, it just leaves more time to scratch the paint or have some other mishap before the job is actually done.

if your a good painter in a booth I agre a fast curing clear is great

for me I prefer a med or slow hardener. I have had a couple runs due to my poor lighting. When allowed to lay flat in the sun the runs do flatten out and disapear.

Mojoe is right on the cure times before seal and waxing. for me I am used to painting with rattle cans and have been told when using other paints the longer you can wait the better. The paper work say you can dust fre the paint after 4 hours with the activator I used.

tip: if you are doing smaller parts like fairing and such, and happen to get a run, there is another way to get rid of that run...if you are brave.

I did a paint job on a bike I restored for an ex a few years back...some of you might remember that sky blue gs500 I posted pics of after the restoration. well I had a run on the gas tank, a good one right on the top of it, so I set it over a sheet of plastic and "sprayed" the run right out of it. this basically meant I filled up a 1quart spray gun and literally flooded the tank with clear. I sprayed on so much that it was running off the tank almost like I was spraying it down with a water hose. what this did was removed the run from the top, but gave me a whole lot of little runs that were dripping off the bottom of the tank. once it set I just took a sharp blade and shaved off all the drops that were hanging. once it was done, you never would have known there was a run at all. mind you, I did get some "waves" and orange peel out of the process, but those were easier and faster to sand out than to scrape of a big run, sand, then clear again.

but this is something that takes much practice. my dad showed me how to do it. basically you "flow" out the run. I got lucky on a bike gas tank. I would never try it on a car fender or something like that, but my dad would.

Alright its been almot a week I think I'm gunna sand and compound now

go for it....and post up some pics to let us see how you're doing. :

will do