Automotive sets the trends

Automobile manufacturers have discovered the colour of the original paintwork as a selling point – a current trend that is having a growing effect on car refinishing. Because whatever the finish, be it a tinted clear coat, time-consuming 3-stage applications or a special paint with new pigments, the bodyshop needs matching product systems and repair guides for expert repairs.

“Car marques are setting a variety of trends,” says Frank Barduna, Head of Technical Training Spies Hecker EMEA. While Nissan catches the eye with its special colour KAB Ultimate Silver Metal, Ford is relying on its Hot Magenta. Toyota, Porsche, Opel, Renault and other manufacturers, on the other hand, are underscoring their brand images with effect paints using special Colour Stream pigments. “We’ve geared ourselves to these new trends with precisely adapted repair solutions.”

Expert repair of tinted clear coat

For Ford’s current Hot Magenta colour, Spies Hecker has come up with a special mixing colour of the Permasolid HS Automotive Top Coat Series 275. A HS clear coat tinted with mixing enamel HG 743 facilitates the flawless repair of this series colour.

Repair of 3-stage effect finishes

Car manufacturers are increasingly achieving very special effects with three-stage finishes. Two such examples are Toyota with its White Crystal Shine and Audi with its Misano Red. “Repairing such paintwork is much more elaborate,” the Spies Hecker expert stresses. After application of the ground colour, a second, translucent Permahyd pearl effect base coat is sprayed. Finally, as the third stage, the clear coat is applied. Permahyd Special Additive 9007 can be used to stabilize the first film of base coat.

Special paint with special repair methods

Thanks to Spies Hecker’s close ties with the automotive industry, the Cologne-based manufacturer of refinishes delivers high-speed and spot-on solutions. Taking the example of Nissan GTR with its special colour KAB Ultimate Metal Silver, Frank Barduna explains: “Because of the special aluminium particles that are employed here, we had to add a special new pigment for the refinish.” The “multi-film” effect colour in combination with a scratch-resistant clear coat calls for a special refinish process.

For the repair of this special colour, Spies Hecker has developed a readymix colour and uses Permahyd Special Additive 9016 to adjust the viscosity. For any blending-in work or colour harmonization, Permahyd Blend-in Additive 9017 is employed. Contrary to the usual sequence of coats, substrate pretreatment is followed by a film of clear coat on the sanded surfacer or sanded original paintwork. The sanding work is also subject to special instructions. Permahyd Base Coat Series 280 Nissan KAB Ultimate Metal Silver is applied in 1.5 coats in a single spray operation. When the base coat has flashed off, Permahyd HS Diamond Clear Coat 8450 with its enhanced scratch resistance is applied.

Special paint with Colour Stream pigments

For the repair of effect paints, the special mixing colour WB 880 from the Permahyd Series 285 is used. This product is employed for certain colours of car makers Toyota, Porsche, Lada, Opel, Lexus and Renault.

Automotive sets the trends – Spies Hecker responds early on to the latest developments in series production so that it can offer bodyshops optimal solutions for car paint repairs. For each paint system, Spies Hecker supplies specific repair instructions and Technical Data Sheets, which can be downloaded from the Web at www.spieshecker.com/tds.

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