To add another voice to the con-
version, we talked to Douglas Albin of Bodyworks Collision Center in Murietta, California. His shop, which grosses about $250,000 a month, has been using waterborne paint for about five years. “I converted before it was mandatory,” he said. “I want- ed to be ahead of the curve.”
Initially, Albin was using a wa-
terborne paint from his long-time supplier. And he stuck to a process that required multiple coats. “When water-based paint came and we made the change, I was only get- ting through two to three cars a day with a $100,000 full-downdraft, 30- foot booth with mixing room,” he explained. “Then I noticed a big dif- ference in the actual manufacturers of the paint. When I first made the transition, I was literally putting on five and six coats and waiting 20 minutes between coats for it to com- pletely flash. Now I paint 12 cars a day, without a $15,000 retrofitted jet dry system. So we mastered it really quick,” said Albin, who DuPont Cromax Pro.
now uses
to acrylic enamels, then to base coat/clear coat—this transition from solvent to water is a baby step com- pared to the days of spraying lac- quer.”
Cox decided to make the jump
to waterborne paint just recently as VOC requirements began to get tighter. “Everybody’s kind of wigged out over water,” he said. “I was one of those guys—why fix something that’s not broken? But we have some compliance issues with re- gard to the state of Indiana for VOC compliance and overspray contain- ment. And we thought, well, if we’re going to do this, let’s go ahead and make our transition to water- base paint, so when they walk in the door, they see we’re proactive. “In all reality, we’re probably four to five years away in this part of the country from any sort of mandate. But I would say embrace it. The time factor and the coverage of the base coat is so much better than solvent, and there is so much waterborne product being applied at the OEM level, it gives you a lot better chance to hit color matches, because you’re putting water against water.”
The Don Ayres Honda Collision
Center, located in the area of Fort Wayne, Indiana, is another top-tier production body shop that recently switched to waterborne and does about $2 million a year in total sales. Manager Kevin Cox agreed that painters will need to get used to the new paint technology. “Painters need to learn a little different tech- nique,” he said. “Both my painters spent two and a half days at a Du- Pont training center. And then Du- pont was in here for one full week after with both of them. But the transitions that the industry went through in the days of lacquer, then
Cox doesn’t think there is a huge amount of risk in making the con- version to a waterborne paint sys- tem. “I would think any jobber in a given market who is representing any of the Big Three, if they’re tran- sitioning a shop to water, they’re not going to set that shop up for fail- ure,” he said. “And the manufactur- ers—be it BASF, DuPont, whoever it is—they’re walking on top of each other to get the business. They’re not going to shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to support. “Cost, for most shops, will depend on what they go with. We went with a blower system with a stainless- steel fan about 12 inches in diam- eter and about 8 inches deep. We spent maybe $5,500. It’s air driven, so we did have to run some air lines to it, but it wasn’t any big engineer- ing feat. “ You do have to get a new gun; there’s a couple out there to choose from.
When Speed Is Less Important
Brian Ferre, a long-time profes- sional painter and instructor at LA Trade-Tech, worked in a volume body shop when waterborne paint was first introduced and now is in- volved in training young painters to move into body-shop jobs. In his arena, speed is not so important, but technique and quality are.
“My advice would be not to be
scared of it,” Ferre said. “If you’re an open-minded professional painter, the transition will be no problem at all.” Through his teaching, Ferre has had experience with a lot of different paint formulas. “I’ve paint- ed with pretty much all the water bases; teaching wise, I try to shoot pretty much everything I can get my hands on,” he said. “All the water- borne products, across the board, the technique for the painter has to be very even. It’s almost like paint- ing custom paint jobs, where you have to be on your game a little bit more to make it even. The DuPont brand, I would say, is pretty goof- proof, even for a student.”
Water-based paint also offers cer-
tain advantages to a custom shop, where speed is not the primary consideration. “Another advantage,” Ferre said, “is your clear has bet- ter adhesion. So you can leave the base coat open longer than you can a solvent-based paint. There’s a certain window that you have to hit to clear coat solvent-based paints, and that window is open longer with water-base. You can leave it open and come back on top of it later, and you won’t have any adhesion prob- lems later on.” According to sources at DuPont, painters can wait up to 72 hours before applying clear.
Ferre also noted that water-based paint is now often used on race cars. Although the paint itself is not light- er, the thinner waterborne paint film adds less weight. “Racers are very conscious about adding weight,” he said. “So racers like it.”
VISIT US ONLINE AT
WWW.FLHRH.COM I FLORIDA HOT RODS & HOGS I JUNE 2012 23
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48