The Auto Body Blog

22 responses so far ↓

• 1 Donnie Smith // Apr 12, 2008 at 7:53 am

  I look forward to reading your blog. Please let me know when you post a new blog. I am aCollision Instructor that enjoys networking with other people in the collision industry. Be sure and keep me posted.

• 2 mike // Apr 12, 2008 at 9:25 pm

  Hi Donnie, wow I did not think someone would find my new Blog so fast. Either way I am sure glad you found me and I look forward to sharing with the world via my new website.

  I am a paint sales representative now and work with a jobber who sells PPG hence the blog headers. I am truely excited to launch the new waterbourne product as I know PPG has an awesome product, makes it a true pleasure to stand behind a proven product like PPG.

  I look very forward to conversing with you here Donnie as we share and help as many as we can.

  Have a fantastic day,

  ~Mike.

• 3 Robert Greer // May 10, 2010 at 7:46 pm

  Hi mike iam not happy with cromax pro.the gm told the dupont rep if Robert is not happy he is not happy and we will make a change.I need to be convinced that enviro will work .what’s the issue with reds and dark greens not covering:blending silvers/light beige met/Tri coats.also what’s your opinion on my tool thanks

• 4 mike // May 17, 2010 at 6:25 pm

  Hey Robert, the Thumb Gun is great. Saves time and saves product. I love it !!!!!

  As for the Envirobase HP, some reds have mostly T445 Magenta which is transparent. These reds need the proper shade of sealer and then they will cover in three coats plus the control coat. I just sprayed WA721H which is mostly T445. I had no problems covering in three coats. Job looks great.

  You will have no problems with those silvers/light beige metallic colors. You will use T490 and spray on your wet bed, then you will apply your fist two coats of base and blend out your second or third coat depending on coverage, then you will control coat out further then your last coat of base and you will be fine. NO ISSUES. Tri coats are a breeze, just sprayed 37J today and it looked awesome, I know you will love it once you get all the tricks down pat. I still have all my hair!!!!

  So I know once you start using it you will never want to use any other water borne product.

  Please let me know what you switched to and if it is in fact PPG, then I will be happy to help you out if you have any questions or concerns.

  Thanks,

  ~Mike.

• 5 Emet // Nov 11, 2010 at 6:42 pm

  recently we switched from dupont solvent to martin senior solvent ,the color match is horrible ,we are now considering ppg waterborne. not sure which is better ppg water or dupont

• 6 mike // Nov 11, 2010 at 7:46 pm

  Hey Emet, I would try them both and see what works best in your shop. I know you will love PPG Envirobase HP once you try it.

  Please let me know how both products work for you and what paint line you decided to use.

  Thanks,

  ~Mike.

• 7 Sarah Noe // Jan 7, 2011 at 3:43 pm

  Hi Mike!
  My name is Sarah, I am the affiliate manager for Merchant Express. Our company is a high-tec credit card processing firm and we have just begun to launch our affiliate program. Seeing as though our payout per lead starts at $11 a lead and people who might need to process credit cards likely visit your site, we were hoping that you might want to get involved in the affiliate program. Would you be interested in setting up a call with me to talk more about it?

  Thanks, and have a great weekend!!
  Sarah

• 8 mike // Jan 13, 2011 at 6:30 pm

  Hi Sarah, thanks for the phone call the other day. I am looking forward to working with you and your team. I hope we can help other business with their credit card processing needs.

  I look forward to a solid partnership with you and your company.

  Cheers,

  ~Mike.

• 9 dale79 // Apr 21, 2011 at 9:35 pm

  I have been researching waterborne paint for almost a year now and thinking about switching over to PPG envirobase waterborne paint. The problem is I don’t know much about this product and the different spraying techniques. So I guess I’ll start asking the basic questions. What is the control coat? what is it’s function? I have have spraying solvent basecoat for 10 years and this new technology is very confusing. Any help getting me started with the transition would be very helpfull. I have been spraying dupont for the past ten years but word of mouth is PPG envirobase once understood is very easy. My paint gun is a iwata lph-400 lv extreme series.

• 10 mike // Apr 21, 2011 at 10:17 pm

  Hello Dale, to answer your questions in regards to PPG Envirobase. It is a very easy system to use indeed. A control coat is the final drop coat that is applied when spraying metallics or the top coat of a tri-stage. It is applied using lower pressure than what you apply the first two or three coats of base, I use an Iwata W-400 LV and I spray my control coat at 15 psi. It’s purpose is to make the metallics lay down evenly and orientate perfectly eliminating any blotchy look or what we call mottling. With the application of the control coat you will never see blotchy looking finishes again even with golds and chunky metallics.

  The control coat is NOT applied to solid colors so two coats of solid color and then blow dry and then it’s time to clear coat. The best thing in my opinion is the tools PPG offers you. A touch mix screen which makes mixing the base coat very simple. A chromatic color deck which is so simple to use, I love the fact that all the color’s in the decks are in order, white’ are all in with the White’s, Black’s are all with the Black’s and so on.

  Another key feature of the system is anti-settle toners which need no mechanical agitation, just hand shake and pour. No need to wait fifteen minutes when you run out of a tinter, just shake the new tinter and pour away.

  There are many more great features to list so if you need any more help, please feel free to leave another comment/question and I will be happy to answer.

  Thanks,

  ~Mike.

• 11 Donnie Smith // Jul 15, 2011 at 9:48 am

  Hi Mike, I was not sure how to send you a private message so I decided to ask you in this comment. I have written a few e-books and offer an affiliate program with it. I am in the process of making banners and other tools, but thought you may be interested to add a link or banner to your site. To learn more about the product visit CollisionBlast(dot)com/to/dsmith and more information about the affiliate you can visit CollisionBlast(dot)com/to/affiliate-program

  If you feel this may be a fit for your site, I invite you to give it a try. Thanks, Donnie

• 12 Deven // Jul 20, 2011 at 11:03 pm

  I am the painter in a shop in Saskatchewan and our shop has been spraying Enviro for 3 years. Just curious about what kind of guns you are using. I would like to buy something newer. We have the Sata 3000 HVLP and RP. What do you see out there performing the best with the ppg product. We are using the 700 series clears. Thanks.

• 13 mike // Jul 21, 2011 at 11:41 pm

  Hey Donnie, sorry for the slow reply. I am interested in checking out your affiliate program. I will e-mail you directly as per details.

  Thanks for keeping me in mind for the program.

  ~Mike.

• 14 mike // Jul 21, 2011 at 11:46 pm

  Hey Devin, for me personally I LOVE the Iwata W-400LV. It sprays Envirobase beautifully. It has a nice wide fan and is very light which is important for arm fatigue. I would ask your rep to bring you one in so you can demo. I use a 1.3 mm tip for the base and the same tip size for the clear.

  I have three of them and absolutely love the gun.

  Give it a try and tell me what you think.

  Cheers,

  ~Mike

• 15 Johnny // Nov 14, 2011 at 5:36 pm

  Hi from France to Mike
  I’ve been in Calgary for a while and it’s a nice place to live in and work in body shop
  I don’t know that much about PPG waterborne except for their high end clear products
  As for me I ‘m used to Spies Hecker which is getting a brand new waterborne base this year
  I know that in Canada painters just switched these last years into waterborne and sometimes it’s a little bit rough but you’ll be used to very soon and won’t want to go back to solvent borne, waterborne paint really gives a high end refinish

• 16 Mark // Dec 17, 2011 at 7:35 pm

  Hi, I was wondering if you have any tips for blending tri coat whites. Ive been spraying ppg envirobase for about 8 months now pretty much love the product I just have a few issues blending some silvers and have a real annoying problem with the white pearls. I sprayed 37J today and blended out the ground coat real nice into the door everything looked good but as soon as I put the first coat of pearl down it showed a dramatic difference in color I could see exactly where the groundcoat stopped. I have had this issue now two or three times in the last couple weeks and just want to fix the problem. Usually have no issues anywhere else just the middle of the door area. Fenders and hoods I can hide it in body lines. Any advise please let me now. Thanks.

• 17 mike // Dec 22, 2011 at 12:55 am

  Hey Mark, thanks for the question. You mentioned you blended out the ground coat. Did you blend it out using T490 mixing the ground coat 50/50. I put two or three coats of the ground down and then mix the color with T490 50/50 and blend it out past where I stopped the last coat of color. That will hide the the blend out and you will not see where you stopped the last coat of ground. Please try that out and let me know what happens.

  Thanks Mark,

  ~Mike.

• 18 Mark // Dec 22, 2011 at 9:42 pm

  Thanks for the response mike. Yeah I do mix the base 50/50 with 490. It seems to really be more of an issue in the cases where the ground coat is alot whiter than the car. Just kinda at a loss I have pretty much tried everything. The only other thing I have not tried was mixing groundcoat and pearlcoat 50/50 to hide the blend transition. This was a solution I was told before while using standox solvent based paint. It worked good with solvent but I dont know with the water. Thanks again for the input. Any other suggestions let me know.

• 19 Shane // Feb 21, 2012 at 6:21 pm

  Hello Mike
  I just wanted to know if they make any single stage water base paint yet?
  Thanks Shane

• 20 mike // Feb 22, 2012 at 1:04 am

  Hi Shane, not that I know of, but I will check into it for you and email you back once I find out for sure.

  Thanks,

  ~Mike

• 21 Deven // May 8, 2012 at 9:49 pm

  So I just learned recently that i dont need to scuff new oem parts before sealing them. Is there people out there having problems with adhesion with just spraying sealer over unscuffed oem e-coat? Im nervous to try it. Would really speed things up tho!

• 22 mike // May 9, 2012 at 12:17 pm

  One word of caution here Deven, the OEM primer MUST be wax and greesed removed before sealing unsanded factory E-Coat.

  I used to just seal the inners without scuffing them but ALWAYS sanded the outsides of the parts, especially on front end parts where rock chips become a factor. I guess I was too chickin to just spray unsanded OEM parts !!! Most OEM parts are rough straight out of the box so I always sanded them down before I sealed and painted.

  Thanks for the comment Deven,

  ~Mike

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