Proper Booth Housekeeping Leeds To Dust Free Paint Jobs.

Lately I have been a little more vigilante with my house keeping in our paint booth. Its not that I have been slacking off but recently I sweep a little more, wash the booth out at least twice a day and change the floor filters twice a month. I have started writing on the booth door with a water pen, the times that I change the floor filters. In addition to that information, I write down when I wash the booth coating off the walls and when the roof filters were changed. This is really starting to pay off when I see the end result after the vehicle is painted. Very limited dust in the paint and a great looking final result. If I’m happy then I know our customers are happy.

Another important step I take when painting the vehicle is tacking the panel after I apply sealer and also tacking the final coat of base while blowing at 15psi. I blow the panel/panels while tacking with an approved waterborne tack rag. This blows the fine particles away from the panel if I miss a pass with the tack rag. With any water system, you need to be sure the water is completely dry before blowing and tacking before clear coat is applied. I have seen instances where the water is still not fully dry and I have tacked the panel leaving my finger print streaks in the panel/panels. This is not easy to correct so make sure your base is dry before you blow and tack.

In addition to sweeping and washing the floor every day, I check the Quad jets for any build up of dust or overspray that has settled in the jets. I wipe the jets out with thinner and then let them blow with no vehicle in the booth for five minutes. Its simple little steps that will get minimal dust in your paint work. Sure you are going to get the odd speck or two but if you are vigilante like I am, you will be very happy with your final product, as will your customers.

With the water borne product you need to make sure you are doing your housekeeping. Lots of air movement in your booth means you are bound to kick up dust. Take the steps everyday to make sure you are producing the best quality paint jobs possible. Good luck and let me know how you are doing with your water system.

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.

Estimate refinish times will not change for waterborne paint

I have been reading a lot of articles across the internet lately and I came along a great article talking about how the two major estimate programs will use the same refinish times for water borne base coat as they used for solvent base coat. Apparently both companies have done independent studies on water base and have concluded the times will remain the same. For me as a painter this will increase my productivity as water borne base is faster drying than solvent base coat.

Canada’s two main providers of estimating systems have concluded that the refinish times in their databases do not need to be adjusted for waterborne basecoat. Mitchell International has performed studies comparing the two systems. Mitchell has studied the effects of waterborne paint systems vs. solvent borne paint and concluded that our current published labor times were in line with the actual time spent performing the required tasks for refinish with either system.

Audatex reports that its refinish times are suitable for either refinish method. Rick Turri, an Audatex executive, says in the latest edition of Audatex Directions: “Audatex around the world and specifically in North America has sufficient data to provide assurance that the refinish times in the estimating system apply to both waterborne and solvent-based refinish systems.”

In the booth air is used to dry the water base so the more air flow used to dry the base, the faster it will dry. I use a hand held Iwata air blower for one or two panel repairs and I use two blowers on a tree stand for larger refinish jobs. Proper heat and sufficient air flow lets me not leave the paint booth between coats of base. So the moral of the story for the flat rate painter is water borne is faster so more money goes into your pocket.

Waterborne Paint and the Future

In my opening post I would like to discuss new technology that is moving in and taking over old technology. What I speak of is new waterborne technology that all body shops will need to convert to by the proposed date of January 1 2009. The move to waterborne will require careful planning to ensure that the quality and productivity of the paint repair operation is maintained with minimal interruption. This new technology is not really so new in fact it has been around a lot longer than you might think it has. The PPG water based paint has been used at the factory level since 1992 and is the very first water based paint. I know you have heard many stories that other paints were the first to invent this product but this is just not the case.

Over the past decade manufactures have come to see this waterborne technology as the way of the future and have made critical strides in the color match pigmentation. Any paint company can offer a multitude of products and services alike, but when it really comes down to it, color matching is the most critical issue to every refinish painter anywhere in the world. Let’s face it, if the color does not match we tint and tint until we get the color perfect. This is time consuming and frustrating as well. PPG has set the benchmark in refinish color match technology with the Envirobase HP waterborne paint system.

Why is this you may ask? PPG achieved its cutting-edge level of color matching by drawing on many of its world resources and research centers in Milan, Italy where it is made, Stowmarket, UK, Whittier California, Allison Park Pennsylvania, and Cleveland Ohio. PPG’s global waterborne platform team shared a primary focus, advancing color match to meet or exceed is most discerning customers. Color experts in our PPG labs in Europe and the U.S. worked in close contact with car manufactures and pigment suppliers to create precise OEM matches of some 19,000 prime color formulas dating as far back as 1986 as well as variant formulas from 1996.

So as you can see this is not new to some and new to others. PPG has in my opinion the best waterborne paint system on the market today and will lead all others in this field. I have personally sprayed the new Envirobase from PPG and it is not only faster than solvent but has a better color match since approximately 70% of OEM colors are waterborne. This is why trying to match solvent to existing factory waterborne paint can be a nightmare. We now can match waterborne with waterborne and leave the stress and headaches behind us forever. One last thing I need to mention is all PPG color decks are manually sprayed by a human and what you see on the color chips is what you get on a spray out card. You will no longer need to do a spray out card to see if your manually sprayed card matches those dyed color chips those other paint companies supply you. With PPG’s Envirobase you just look at the color chip, if it matches the vehicle you go ahead and spray the vehicle, no wasted time and material.

To sum it all up, waterborne may be new to our customers but it is not new to us!! Stay tuned to the next article where I will discuss the equipment necessary to convert with confidence.