>>> PAINTER’S CORNER
LEARNING CURVE BIG STRIDES FOR AUTOMOTIVE PAINTERS
BY ROS MACDONALD
W
hen asked how collision repair has changed over the last two decades, most members of the industry will simply respond with, “how hasn’t it changed?” Automotive coatings are just one of the industry verticals to have been uprooted in recent decades. If we flip back the calendar thirty years or so, manufacturers were just beginning to use base coats and clear coats, which provided new and vibrant colours for painters and consumers alike to enjoy. Collision repair centres followed suit by implementing the two-stage process— a method initially reserved for high-end repairs. Prior, the norm was to use single stage materials, including acrylic enamels that would leave young painters today scratching their heads in confusion. “Now, we use tri-coats that give brilliance and depth to the colour,” explains Danny Marques, chairperson for the Automotive Collision Repair Department at Okanagan College. There has also been significant progress in the technology used to match paints. Today’s scanners—spectrophotometers—take an image of the car’s paint colour and create a paint formula based on the scan—a far cry
from manually matching with a spray card and squinted eye. “A painter still needs to assess whether or not that will be accessible to use, but the support from the technology is much better,” said Marques. In 2007, the government created legislation around the use of pollutants in auto painting, prompting the collision repair industry to switch to water-borne paints. Fortunately, the water-borne paints also reduce clean-up time, cost of disposal, and solvent waste. “Changing to waterborne paints was a challenge at first, but once we made that transition, we never looked back,” said Vince Gareau, owner of CSN L-Jay Autobody in Alberta. Today, automotive painters are far more aware of health risks associated with their professions—and act accordingly. “I still remember the days where painters were wearing dust masks with cigarettes poking through the masks while they painted,” explains Scott Kucharyshen, head of Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Autobody Program. Without the proper personal protecting equipment, hazardous chemicals in automo-
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Today’s scanners—spectrophotometers—take an image of the car’s paint colour and create a paint formula based on the scan—a far cry from manually matching with a spray card and squinted eye.
Another key step in meshing with modern automotive painting was getting down with the downdraft paint booth. In comparison to the cross-draft booth, which pulled air from the production floor, the downdraft paint booth pulls air from outside and down, attracting any debris and dust down and away from the painted part.
