Emissions laws will affect paint colors

[73EStroker]

My painter up here in -------> last week attended a meeting of his autobody repair shop association he belongs to in British Columbia. They were informed that paint as we know it (in all of Canada and I believe California for now) will change from the petro-chemical based product to something called Water Base paints. Apparently the fumes they give off are nasty when one totals the number of body shops in North America using these products every day so hence the change to these water based products. Now everyone might say "so who cares" but what I was told is that the colours will only go back for the last 20 years as they won't be making the correct tints to get (for example) the high impact colours. So my body guy has ordered a half gallon of everything for me in case of some repair work they may have to do. This change is supposed to happen some time in the end of 2009. This will creep up fast. Worth some thought here folks.

[elitecustombody]

bunch of tree huggers think that waterborne garbage will fly, they tried this before in late 80sand early 90s,remember Ford Taurus,Chevy Corsica,Beretta ,having major paint issues? there were few more makes and models ,some of them were Mopars like Shadow,Sundance, the paint would come off in large sheets

[Chryco Psycho]

this is why I need to order the paint for my Chall right now anyone have $2000 I can borrow

[4Cruizn]

this is why I need to order the paint for my Chall right now anyone have $200 I can borrow

For how long??   

[sleepychallenger]

what about our more common colors like my burnt orange, will it affect us i need money and quick, how many gallons paint a car?

[bb71challenger]

The retarded tree huggers need to quit going after the small fish and start aiming their sights at big industry. Factories and the like spew far more crap into the atmosphere than all the freon or body shops combined 

[70_challenger]

I think people might be getting a little more spun up than necessary.  The auto industry has been painting with water-based paints for years.  After some initial problems, it has come a long way. 

I'm not sure where the information came from about certain colors not being available, but that sounds suspect to me.  Since the only difference between solvent-based and water-based paints is the carrier for the pigment, I don't know why certain pigments would not be available anymore.  I would imagine that color libraries will be the same that they are now.

http://www.eastwoodco.com/jump.jsp?itemID=1496&itemType=CATEGORY&iMainCat=688&iSubCat=1496
http://www.autoaircolors.com/
http://vocuspr.vocus.com/VocusPR30/Newsroom/Query.aspx?SiteName=DupontNew&Entity=PRAsset&SF_PRAsset_PRAssetID_EQ=103358&XSL=PressRelease&Cache=False

Don't worry, bb71challenger, the regulatory efforts for VOC affects all industries.  But this thread was just about bodyshops.

-Tom

[Moparpena]

Here in Finland, body shops use water base paints now.

[NoMope Greg]

I was thinking the same thing about color libraries.  If you can go to Home Depot and get a can of house paint mixed up in the 1000's of colors you see in their color libraries right there at the store, not to mention computerized pigment scanners, there doesn't seem to be any reason they can't do it with automotive paints.

[73EStroker]

I don't know why the colours would not be available. That was the message I got- "only going back 20 years"

I would imagine that someone would get close to the older colours but maybe not exact. Look at how many shades of PPink everyone has seen and also the same for the ol' B5 Blue. One has to ask though - why would the paint company want to spend gobs of time mixing a recipe for 4 guys who may want to paint their cars Curious Yellow or Sassy G.G. over the next 5 years. There is some economic factor applied here as well guys/gals. Same thing is happening for the companies that make fenders and quarters - lotsa money invested, small return, big gripes because of the prices they have to sell for. I say throw some caution in here and buy your paint soon. I spent $3200CDN just to purchase all of my paint products. Putting it on was way more.

[70_challenger]

I am certainly no paint expert, but I think you might have the answer to your own question there. 

The reason there is variance in the paint color for any given paint code is that each paint company has their own 'recipe'.  In other words, a color like my Hemi Orange is made up of 'x' units of red, plus 'y' units of yellow, plus 'z' units of some metallic base.  Sort of like the earlier comment about Home Depot paint mixing, you know?  So my Sikkens EV2 looks a little different than Dupont EV2.  That situation happens today with solvent based paints.

I would guess that the color matching is a result of computer color analysis, not a result of a bunch of lab time or anything.  They already know the 'recipe' for their base colors, and they work from there.  I don't see the analogy to sheetmetal, which involves developing new tooling and such.  But we certainly all know the current paints, and if using them puts your mind at ease, then that is priceless! 

-Tom

[Rare_T_A]

I've sprayed water base primer and it worked real good. The nice thing it can be sprayed over pretty fresh paint and there is no lifting.

[ViperMan]

The problem with the older paint jobs wasn't the paint - it was the materials used between the substrate (metal) and the paint itself.

The restoration shop I worked at out of WyoTech used water-based paint.  He said that it's a little tougher to learn because it doesn't lay right at first - it smooths out as it cures.  The tendency is to use more paint to start to make it look right wet, but then you get runs.  I think he was right - the guy went through three painters in the 5 months I worked there.  Nobody could seem to get it right.

I think the way certain pigments, and especially things like flake and pearl, suspend in the water-base is different than the solvent-based.  But I also believe that, if this news is true, companies like PPG and HoK will be more than ready with new products and technologies by the time this becomes official.

Also remember, R-12 refrigerant was banned years ago by the Federal Government, and you can still legally buy it today.  So I wouldn't go worrying TOO much. 

Jeff