You either love matte finishes or you don’t. If you do, you may well feel the extra expense and hassle is worth it. But don’t be surprised if your car turns out to be difficult to sell on.
Acrylic Enamel Modern Painting Process
With a passion for cars it’s normal that you’d like to make an attempt to paint your car yourself. Although it can be a tricky task, with the right tools and tips, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t try to make an attempt to do it yourself. Whether you decide to paint your car in your home garage, or just want some tips at improving your technique for automotive painting courses, we’ve created a list of tips that will help you with the acrylic enamel modern painting process on your car. You don’t even have to have an automotive career to take on the task of painting your vehicle yourself.
Many choose acrylic enamel paint because it is water based. It will gives your car a bright and shiny finish and acrylic enamel is cheaper than urethane paint. Although urethane does offer the best finish, is industry standard, easier to apply, dries quicker and provides better coverage, it is more labour intensive than acrylic enamel. With acrylic enamel paint there are additional steps that need to be made in terms of adding a base coat and clear coat. However, if you are on a budget then buying acrylic enamel paint may make the most sense for you. When making the choice to use acrylic paint, you don’t have to worry about having to prep the paint, such as mixing in hardeners, as is necessary with urethane paint. All you have to do is add it to a spray-can and apply it to your vehicle. Since the drying time is also slower, you’ll only have to wait at least 24 to 48 hours in-between paint jobs before the paint is dry.
Prep and Painting the Vehicle
Start off by sanding the spot that you would like to paint with an orbital sander. If you will be painting the entire vehicle then remove all the rust spots and repair any visible dents. After all of these steps are complete, then make sure that you either wash or wipe down your car to get rid of all of the small dust particles and oils on the vehicle. Next tape over or remove any trim that can easily be taken off. Once the car is prepped and ready to be painted, all that’s left for you to do is to prime the vehicle’s surface. If you can and have the proper equipment, blow out all of the seams with an air compressor to remove any trapped water or particles.
Lastly is the paint job. This is the part that is the most satisfying, but can be the most frustrating if the prep part wasn’t done correctly. As acrylic paint dries fairly quickly, you’ll have to be efficient when applying the paint. When holding the paint gun, ensure that it is kept 6-8 inches away from the car’s surface. Once you’ve finished painting the area that you’d like to cover, leave the paint to dry for a minimum of 24 hours and then your car should be good to go. With enough practice you may even be able to do all of your other auto service technician tune-ups yourself!
Here’s a video that will give you a more in-depth look at how to efficiently paint using single stage enamel paint if you’re up to the challenge of taking on an at-home paint job!
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What’s solid car paint?
The vast majority of cars come with a ‘solid’ paint finish as standard, with metallic and pearlescent finishes costing extra (see below).
Solid paint is cheaper to produce and apply to a car when it is being built, and most manufacturers offer a limited selection of no-cost solid paint choices on a new model; options vary, but you may find a car has three solid paint options as standard (although some cars have only one free paint option), with red, white, blue and grey being common colours.
If you one of the standard paint options, there’s no reason at all not to go for it – but solid paint doesn’t draw the eye in the same way that a metallic finish does, and buyers on the used market may often favour a car with metallic paint.
Solid finishes are free because they’re simple to produce. There are usually only three layers: primer, paint and lacquer, with no metallic flakes added, for example. Many manufacturers now use a paint known as ‘two-pack’, which is simply the paint and lacquer mixed together.
It’s easy to repair damage to cars with a solid finish compared to those with metallic or pearlescent paint. Solid colours with small areas of damage can often be repaired with a touch-up pen in the appropriate shade, and car spares shop (Halfords, etc) can supply the right pen for not much money. More significant repairs are comparatively easy, too, as the paint dries out quickly with the aid of a simple heat lamp.
They may not be the most interesting, but solid paint finishes are certainly the cheapest and easiest to look after.
What’s metallic car paint?
A metallic paint has tiny pieces of aluminium powder mixed into the paint. The metal particles reflect light, hence the shine. Metallics look their best under direct, natural light, but even on a dull day they still shine.
Metallic finishes are often a cost option on new cars, adding anything from £500 upwards to the price of the vehicle, though metallic paint tends to cost more on larger and more expensive cars. Black Sapphire Metallic paint is £695 on a BMW 3 Series, for example, but £795 on a BMW X5 (prices correct as of August 2022). The same paint is a no-cost option on the BMW M3, though, while the latest Range Rover is offered with seven metallic paints as no-cost options (though there are also a number of ‘Premium’ metallic finishes for £865), so prices really do depend on what car you’re buying.
But while metallic paint may add cost the list price of a car, because around 90% of new cars are bought using finance, and PCP deals are a) by far and away the most popular finance package and b) based on a car’s depreciation, you may find that optioning a metallic finish doesn’t add much to your monthly repayments, as a metallic car may be more desirable on the used market, thus its depreciation may be a little less steep than a car with a no-cost solid paint.
Dirt shows more obviously on metallic finishes than solids, so you may end up cleaning your car more often. Be careful, though, as the paint marks more easily. Use a proper car shampoo – washing up liquid contains abrasive salts – and make sure there’s no grit on the sponge. Over-zealous polishing causes swirl marks and car wash brushes can leave marks, too. But any marks can usually be carefully buffed out.
Metallic paint is more difficult to repair, as achieving an exact match is tricky. Even manufacturer-approved body shops don’t make any guarantees.
What’s pearlescent car paint
The Fiat Electric 500 can be had in Ocean Green Pearlescent paint
Pearlescent paints shine even more brightly and deeply than metallics, but they tend to be more expensive, and also need more car taken of them.
Mainstream manufacturers tend to offer a limited range of pearlescent colours, but high-end brands often offer dozens.
The pearlescent lustre is created by ceramic crystals in the paint that both reflect and refract light. That gives the colour a depth that even metallics simply can’t match. And under bright light, lighter shades become iridescent, appearing to be different colours from different angles, sometimes to spectacular effect.
On the flip side, pearlescent paints are even more susceptible to marks, they’re even more difficult to repair than metallics, and special care needs to be taken when washing a pearlescent car, as they’re relatively susceptible to damage from tiny bits of grit that may be on your car-washing sponge.
