Posts from — January 2009

It’s a New Age for Refinish
Years ago, when many of us first got into the collision repair business, 90 percent of the colors we dealt with were direct gloss formulas, with no clear involved. When we repaired a panel, we finished to the nearest edge, and considered the job done.
Today, that’s no longer the case. When you look at current OEM palettes, just about the only direct gloss colors left are gloss white and a handful of reds. Nearly everything else involves a base color—which can be solid, metallic, or tinted clear—with a clearcoat over the top. And that’s not the only thing that has changed.

Blending basics—your keys to invisible repairs

By John Hristias, PPG Industries Australia
The difference between OEM painting conditions and procedures and those used in the typical collision shop have never been as great. OEM metallic and pearl paints are typically waterborne, as opposed to the solvent-borne paints used in collision repair. Many modern assembly plants have used electrostatic spray to apply metallics, which can polarize the metallic materials, and thus change the reflective qualities. And to reduce the amount of topcoat color required, many OEMs now use a colored undercoat, or colored primer, under the actual color. Final color, then, is the result of the undercoat showing through both the topcoat and the clearcoat.

In addition, OEM pigment choices tend to be extremely broad, compared to the range of colors carried in most refinish systems (for example, 50 yellow OEM pigments, compared to the four carried in most premium refinish systems). And regardless of how the vehicle was finished at the factory, color is quite likely to have faded a bit if the vehicle is several years old, or has been continually exposed to the elements. Even armed with the more than 200 tinters that it would take to provide accurate matches to every OEM finish, a collision shop could still see some variability, just because of painting conditions. Little wonder, then, that edge-to-edge blending has, by and large, become a thing of the past.

Assessing the Situation

When doing the estimate on a damaged vehicle, it’s important to note that, when we talk about the “repair area” for a damaged panel, we are just talking about the area of damage itself. We need to consider the area that will be covered by the new primer coat we apply during the course of the repair. As the primed area will in most cases be several times larger than the damaged area, it’s important to allow for this, or you can seriously underestimate the time and materials that it will take to do the job.
Bearing that in mind, here are some things you should consider when deciding how far you should continue to blend a repair finish:
Mentally divide the panel being worked on into thirds (both lengthwise and heightwise). If a metallic or pearl color repair extends into more than two of those thirds, then you should continue the blend into the next panel.

If the finish being used is a solid-color basecoat/clearcoat, the blend can, in most cases, be restricted to the panel being repaired.
If a panel is being replaced, rather than repaired, then the color should be blended into the surrounding panels regardless of the color being used.
The Clear Difference. When we talk about blending, we’re talking about color only. The entire panel (or panels) should be clearcoated to ensure maximum durability of the repair.

The value of a spray out card

While converting recently to PPG’s Envirobase HP all seems to be going very well with the product. The colors are mostly good but there is the odd color that needs to be tinted. As I have discovered, I need to do spray out cards on all colors and check for a good color match. This also creates a color library and saves time tinting down the road when a color is not acceptable. Proper documentation is a must when tinting a color. I include everything I have done to the color so the next car I spray which is the same color, the color match is perfect. There are many popular colors out for 2008-2009 so doing a card is a must. I have seen my silver library grow and grow over the last month. I also have a lot of reds and blues which seem to be popular also.

One important piece of information needed to be added to the back of the spray out card is how many coats of paint you apply. Three is usually sufficient plus the control coat but some colors are low hiders so writing down this info is vital. I also write down what kind of clear coat I use over the Envirobase as we use two different types of clear. I do not seal the spray out card to test if the color covers well or not. This info is documented and kept on file for use at a later date. 

It is very important to get regular updates for your computer system as PPG is always updating their colors so ask your distributor for the CD if you have not received an update in the last six months or so. Another great tool is PPG online color library. These are the latest color formulas and variances. If your chips do not provide a close match then check the online color library to see if there are any more variances for your color you are about to spray. Chances are there will be at least one or more variances for you too choose from. So check your color using a spray out card and make sure you add it to your color library for later reference.