Paint differnces among car brands.

[Stepinfetch]

I am just curious to ask. What car brand has the best paint over all in these classes? Even when it comes to time period, do new cars paint improved over cars of say early 90's?

Durability
Tendency to create swirls easy
Apperence/Shine
Ease to work with

I have a Dodge Stealth, same as the 3000gt, so im not sure what company painted it (probbly mitsu). Am I working with easy paint? In my experience my Dodge paint is very soft and easy to create swirls as apposed to my dads 1998 explorer or 2005 Aveo.

Thanks,

~Stepinfetch

[Murr1525]

Well, these new Japanese paints seem fairly soft, easy to swirl, etc. I dont know how far back them being sof goes.

Of course that has its good and bad points.

[buda]

A great many myths about paint floating around the detail business.

Let me help you understand it abit.

In the past paints were low-solids with a great deal of solvents in them. When the government started to crack down on solvent ommissions in to the atmosphere, paints went from low-solids to high-solids and less solvents, so in a word with more solids the paint could technically be considered softer. But the key word, is technically.

This does not mean that you can make fingernail marks in paint. Paint is hard. The polyurethane clear coats used today have chemically curing resins that when mixed together form a new molecule. In other words when a paint mixes the clear he puts in hardners right before he plans to spray the clear and when he does and the paint dries it is hard.

That said, you do not have higher quality paints as you have, say, higher quality shampoos. For example, the gallon of Sam's Club hair shampoo is full of fillers; waxes, and a lot of "****." Whereas the salon shampoos are acid-balanced and only contain the best ingredients and that is why they cost so much more.

For example, Glasruit; Akzo-Sikkens; Herbert Standox are much higher quality automatic paints than say Sherwin-Williams or DuPont.

The Japanese play games with their cars. The best cars they make are sold in Japan. The next best quality car they make is exported to the USA or made here; next is Europe and then the bottomline line production is sent to the Third World countries. For example, in the Middle East and South America Japanese cars are not considered high quality at all. They are considered junk cars.

If you want to get more definitive paint information go on line to some of the paint companies and log-in to their question and answer sections.

But for the record, I personally treat most paint systems on most cars the same and train people to deal with them the same.

If you know what you are doing; have the right tools; pads and chemicals and can diagnose the problem then you are OK no matter what car you are working on.

Regards
Bud Abraham
DETAIL PLUS SYSTEMS

[STG]

Originally posted by buda


The Japanese play games with their cars. The best cars they make are sold in Japan. The next best quality car they make is exported to the USA or made here; next is Europe and then the bottomline line production is sent to the Third World countries. For example, in the Middle East and South America Japanese cars are not considered high quality at all. They are considered junk cars.

Regards
Bud Abraham
DETAIL PLUS SYSTEMS

I'm sorry, but I don't believe that for one second. Manufacturers do make market-specific cars, but they do not produce the same vehicle in different quality levels for different markets.

There are Hondas made in America that are EXPORTED to Japan.

Volkswagen makes certain models in Mexico for worldwide distribution that are made only in Mexico. Try and buy a German built New Beetle or Jetta.

BMW and Mercedes manufacturer certain models in the USA for worldwide distribution.

When Volkswagen built their Mexican plant, the workers there had absolutely no conception of quality control. Golfs and Jettas built there were supposed to be 100% equal in quality to VWs produced elsewhere. They were not, so VW delayed production for months and fixed all the problems before resuming deliveries.

Kindly provide some basis in fact for your theories as I have never heard or read anything similar. It's an urban myth.

What do you think goes on in these plants? Quality control inspectors "grade" each car as it comes of tyhe line? Yeah, the stamp each one "prime", "choice" , "good" , or "dog food' and send them off to different markets basec on ther number of defects?

How in the heck would you go about making different quality examples of a certain model in the same assembly plant? Make the good ones from 8:00 AM to Noon, recalibrate the computers, robotic welders, paint booths, etc. to low quality during lunch and crank out **** in the afternoon????

Guess what, you can't. The Japanese play games, but it's not in the quality of what they produce. They play games with protected markets and imports.

Try importing cars to Japan. The Japanese will tell you they are free traders. They will point out there are no import tariffs. Then, they tell you that importerd cars must go through many, many detailed inspections that effectively double the cost of the vehicle by the time it gets to the dealer.

The perception in Japan is that products for the domestic market are the best is fostered by both government and industry - often as an reason to keep out "inferior" foreign competitors that would come to market at much lower prices.

Years ago, Japan barred imported American apples (in a move to protect government - subsidized Japanese farmers.) The reason given by the politiians was that the Japanese have very delicate stomachs that couldn't handle "inferior" American apples.

[Meguiar's Car Maniac]

Nowedays, the nano technologies like PPG’s cerami-clear is more scratch and chip resistant than conventional and clear-coated finishes. Thus harder...
This added protection gives the owner a little more piece of mind knowing that he is most likely not going to leave cobweb effect or micro marring on the finish when washing/drying or applying/removing any product. However, the tricky point is buffing with a rotary due to the ultra-thin clear layer.

STG with your post in the main lines; this said some high end vehicles have a 'better' clearcoat.

[STG]

High end models do have better paint. I was replying to the notion that Japanese manufacturers keep the "best" of one particular model at home and send seconds or thirds overseas.

For example: Honda Civics that score 98 -100 in quality control stay in Japan, 95 - 97 are exported to North America and below 95 go to India. No way!

I like the paint on this!

[sneek]

wow that car looks like it doesn't even have paint, it looks like 100% staneless steel!

[STG]

It's 100% aluminum. Kirkham Motorsports builds Cobra replicas in a former MiG factory in Poland. They also make a Willys in aluminum.

Carrol Shelby has purchased replicas from them and branded them as his own with CSX serial numbers.

When the Kirkham brothers started out, virtually all Cobra replicas had fiberglass bodies. Since the originals had aluminum bodies and the Kirkham cars duplicate the originals very closely (except that they are actually straight and use better materials and aerospace manufacturing methods), leaving the bodies unpainted was a great marketing move.

Soon, the raw aluminum was brushed out. Then, different levels of polishing was applied. Soon, the prefered finish on a Kirkham was brushed/polished bare aluminum.

Check out these cars:



The stripes and meatballs (racing number roundels) are all polished.



The stripes on this one are mirror polished - looks like chrome!



You can have the WHOLE BODY polished to look like chrome. This one has satin polished stripes.

[STG]

The Kirkhams also built a 1940 Ford roadster with a Ford GT drivetrain for Ford's SEMA display in 2005. The body is bare COPPER, brushed and polished.

[sneek]

wow i wish my paint looked like that!

Wow stg do you like not sleep or something? its pretty late, i am only up because i am writeing an essay on the old man and the sea