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Archive for the ‘Automotive Paint’ Category

I have noticed that the first thing that a person notices is the color of the car am driving. People do not even notice the registration on the car. That’s why i have become so selective in choosing the cars that i drive. Selecting car paint colors for a full overhaul of your car is not easy though. These days, there are thousands of shades and variations of blue, Green, white, yellow and so on. You need to have a color code to define the exact color that you need.

I got these kind of challenge sometime back, i was forced to visit my local car dealer shop. I looked at the cars they had on display. Once i had identified the car paint colors i liked, i asked them to give me the numeric color code of that car, which they did willingly. They had to go to their computers to be able to identify that particular color code. I would not want you to go through the same process if you really do not want to.

You will realize that there are six basic car paint colors in the United States i.e. beige, blue, silver, Black, Grey and red. Variations of these shades should easily be found. Some of the car colors that have found demand in the States are Classic Black, White and Silver, orange power, blues and greens that give a sporty look, brown on the inside among many other shades. Blue is considered as classy as black while orange is the color of fashion.

Beside choosing a particular color for your car, you will need to either do the painting yourself or employ the services of a professional painter. This will cost a little more and at this point you should be better of having your job done by a paint shop.

Car scratches eventually appear in a way of almost every car owner. There are many methods of dealing with them however painting it over with an auto spray gives the best result. If you have enough experience you will be able to paint over even a big scratch but a beginner also can manage to repair imperfections on his vehicle. Here are the steps to follow:

First, it is necessary to clean metal from dirt and rust. Dirt is removed by washing the panel with soapy water. When dry, sand out the scratch and surrounding area with sandpaper. Then you need to apply putty on a surface. It should consist of two components (with a hardener). Do not choose epoxy putty otherwise, it will dry for 24 hours. Use rubber or thin metal pallet for alignment.

It will take 20 minutes to dry up with a temperature of 200C (392F). At this stage, you may also use auto filler primer that is specially designed to fill scratches and imperfections and perfectly replaces putty. It can be found in auto stores but if you are after budget repair – putty will work just fine.

Next step, condition the surface with sandpaper of different calibers starting with sharp and then moving to a fine one. The panel should be ideally smooth to the touch. To make it this way use ultrafine 2000-3000 grit sandpaper and running water.

Now it is time to apply a primer. When primer layer is dry, you can start painting. To make sure the colour will match your car, enamel should be selected under number specified in the service book of the car. If you will paint your car in garage, take care that dust and moisture in it would be as little as possible otherwise fine motes will definitely get on a fresh paint.

Use masking tape and thick paper to cover parts that are not going to be painted. Make several light applications of a spray paint on a surface. Paint is put in two layers. First – thin, second – thicker. Time interval before applying second layer is 6 to 8 minutes. Average time of drying is about 2 hours, and full fixing of paint takes 24 hours.

When paint is dry, you can remove paper and masking tape. If you notice some imperfections such as drips or rough edges, you can fix it using ultrafine sandpaper. When finished apply a top coat over the painted surface and let it dry. There is no scratch anymore!

If the scratch is too deep or too many, you can opt to spray paint the entire car with a new color. There are different types of paint you can use:

Water based, lacquer based and enamel based paints do not have the same pressure settings & spraying distance as each other. Due to their different base material composition, these paints come in varying thickness and viscosity. Hence, some training or trial and error might be necessary before achieving the texture results you want!

On any car, truck, or SUV, you have 4 layers that the scratch can go into. The Clear coat being the first, second is the color layer, third is the primer, and fourth is the steel.

No scratch is the same, each are different and unique in their own way. Sometimes a scratch is not really a scratch. If the object that has rubbed up against your car is softer than the paint on the car, it will put a special material on the paint surface. Leaving a mark that is raised above the paint, it is not gouged in to the paint itself. If the item is harder than the paint, the paint goes onto the item that hit the car.

Most marks that are left on cars, only scratch the clear coat and the color layer. When this happens you can usually get the scratch out with some buffing and waxing and a little sanding. If it goes any down to the primer and steel level, the scratch then becomes harder to get out and usually has to be professionally done. Most people make the mistake of taking the car to the mechanic to see how bad the scratch is but an experience person in the car field will tell you this, if you take your fingernail and go over the scratch at a ninety-degree angle, it will defect wither or not the scratch is setting at the clear coat and color level or if it is grounded into your vehicle. If the mark comes from rubber, plastic or another color of paint, you can rub it off with an aerosol tar or adhesive remover product.

When you cannot get the mark to come out you can try to remove it with acetone or lacquer (a basic acetone; aka nail polish remover) and a soft rag will get the mark off. If that stupid mark is still there you are going to have start hand rubbing and polishing. To repair a scratch, wash your car or the side that needs it, down with soap and water. When start drying the vehicle off, make sure that it is good and dry or this method given will not work. This is not going to remove the scratch, but it will make less or not noticeable at all.

Use black shoe polish to fill in the scratch, or any other color you prefer. Once you have put the shoe polish into the scratch, sand down the remaining material on the paint surface of your vehicle. Do not use a rough sand paper grinder. Use a two thousand to three thousand grit wet or dry sandpaper, depending on your preference. Place the sand paper in a bowl of cold water and add three or four drops of dish soap to the water to give it more slip and increase the corrective-ness of the cutting action to get what you need.

While sanding use a sixty degree angle and move up and down the length of the scratch. Stop after 4 or 5 sweeps to wash off the sand paper. You are going to do this until the bl! ack shoe polish goes away. Once the scratch is removed, let the sanded area dry and then look over the area you sanded for any signs of the removed scratch. If no signs of the scratch are there, you may paint over it with a clear coat. If you did not sand down to the primer layers you can buff the area with a rubbing compound and soft washcloth. Once the polishing and no signs of the scratch are there, you can seal the car paint with car wax.