I have had this primer on my hardtop, for the last 35 years; it’s never been washed. Just dusted or wiped down with a damp towel.
A friend of mine had a dark gray/black primer pickup. He would spray WD-40 on it and wipe it down after washing gave it a semi-gloss look. Always looked pretty good and clean. Your mileage may vary!
Because the hot sun can dry the water spots quickly which can bake the water mineral deposits into the paint.
Obviously no plans painting it without some type of soda blasting to completely strip the body to bare metal to rid the WD40 residue. Still some risk of repainting issues.
Wash it and then rinse it thoroughly keeping it all wet then get in and hit the highway until dry… No water spots.
Probably not IMHO completely if he’s done it that way for years and with sun exposer WD 40 ( petroleum base) permeates the paint. It only takes a tad for the paint base to not set up right for the top coat and cause bubbles / wrinkle due the a chemical reaction. ( not adhering together.) Top coat is only as good as the bottom coat.
If you've rubbed down your car with something oily like WD-40 for years, there's no guarantee that was and grease remover will catch everything. Especially in hard to reach areas. An acquaintance bought an early 70's muscle car nearly 2 decades ago. It had heavily dulled paint, but otherwise looked good. He rubbed it down with transmission fluid and it gave it a bit of a shine. I don't know if any of the guys that owned it after him tried to paint it, but I feel for them if they did.
From the webbs. Any resemblance to a live idea or a dead one is purely coincidental......... "To prevent water from beading on car paint, you can add a wetting agent to the water. These agents, often found in car wash soaps and detail sprays, lower the surface tension of the water, allowing it to spread out more evenly instead of forming beads. This can help prevent water spots and make the drying process easier. Here's why and how it works: Surface Tension: Water molecules are attracted to each other, creating surface tension that causes them to bead up on hydrophobic (water-repelling) surfaces. Wetting Agents: These additives reduce the water's surface tension, allowing it to spread out and wet the surface more effectively. Sheeting: When water sheets off a surface, it flows off evenly, rather than forming individual beads. This is desirable in some situations, like when drying a car, as it reduces the chance of water spots. Examples: Many car wash soaps and detail sprays contain wetting agents designed to promote sheeting. In addition to using wetting agents, you can also take these steps to prevent water from beading and potentially causing spots: Dry the car thoroughly: This is crucial, especially after washing or rain, to prevent water from evaporating and leaving behind mineral deposits. Consider a water softener or deionized: These can help remove minerals from your water supply, reducing the likelihood of water spots. Apply a hydrophilic coating: While most coatings are designed to repel water, some are specifically designed to be hydrophilic (water-loving), encouraging sheeting."
1960 Hello, My brother was a stickler for what he wanted in our 671 powered SBC 1940 Willys Coupe build. We did some minor sanding and prepping on the whole body. But, it was in fairly nice shape when I discovered it in the backyard of a neighbor’s yard. I had seen it walking to school and when my brother said he wanted to get a coupe to finish our gas coupe/sedan project, well I piped up… there is an odd looking coupe sitting in some weeds of a backyard about a ½ mile away. He jumped at the mention of an odd looking coupe… So, we drove over to the house and the old lady owner said it was her husband’s car, which had not been driven for years. Yes, she wanted to sell it and gave us a deal we could not pass up. But, we had to take it away, that day. We took out the long tow rope (a dock line from a large container ship) and attached it to the bumper brackets. I pulled and he pushed/steered to get the coupe out of the weeds. Once it was on the driveway, it rolled fine down to the waiting black Impala. Since we were just getting started, we tied the large rope to the rear axle for the trip back home. I steered the coupe and he drove the Impala. We had to cross on major street and then it was several blocks to our house. Jnaki The first thing he wanted to do other than washing it was to clean it out. The interior was in great shape and so was the faded black body. So, we spent a couple of days prepping the surface for some type of red primer paint. Once the red primer paint was finished, it looked great. Now, I wanted to paint it silver. But, my brother said yellow and we talked about how there were no silver hot rod willys coupes around our cruising areas. He wanted a yellow coupe, as he said there were no yellow coupes for the racing class at Lion’s Dragstrip. (Our friend’s Oldsmobile powered 34 Ford Coupe and a ton of others were painted black.) So, the final decision was to keep the red primer paint until we got the coupe running well and we were close to the national record for either the B/Gas or C/Gas class. Note: We towed it to Lion’s Dragstrip and got classified into the B/Gas class with a 6 Stromberg powered 283 SBC motor. Our friend was in the A/Gas class, with his modified Oldsmobile powered coupe. But, countless trips to Lion’s Dragstrip, sitting in the pits, racing in class eliminations and staying late afternoon or night with the consistent moisture rolling into the pits was the normal thing for weeks. As our Willys Coupe was in the red primer stage, we did not have to put on any wax. So, we just washed it with a chamois rag and wiped it off. The dust from the pits, the farmer’s field and surrounding dirt fields, as well as “stuff” in the air at the drags coated the red primer, but all it took was a wash with a wet chamois rag in the backyard. YRMV We even drove it two blocks to the power spray wash one time to get all of the stuff that we picked up racing, and cruising on the streets for the last several months. The spray wand got everything underneath and the salt water mist we picked up almost weekly at the drags. The red primer was just like it was when we first sprayed it on the body. All it needed was a wash and wipe dry. As we got into the next phase of the Willys Coupe build (671 SBC 292 c.i. blower spec parts), we now were talking about finished paint and full upholstery in the cab and trunk.
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