During the winter season for car refinishing and surface painting processes it is important to be aware of how cold conditions affect the work. The 360 Zolutions team of experts would like to offer some basic tips on how to carry out refinishing work in cold conditions.
After our 4 golden rules for car refinish in winter, we are back with some more ideas that will help to make your bodyshop workflow much more efficient and help you tackle your work below freezing temperatures. Continue reading and discover our tips for car refinishing in the winter season:
Low Temperature Car Refinish
When car refinishing we must be careful with low temperature. It can produce high film thickness which that produces issues like solvent popping (tiny points caused by solvent evaporation) and orange peeling. The only way to fix these painting issues would be to remove your new paint and start from the beginning with the whole project. There will also be issues with drying as car paint takes much, much longer to set in cold temperatures and is far more likely to drip and run.
A Warm Auto Spray Booth
The ideal temperature for auto painting falls between 20 and 25 degrees celsius, a temperature range we only experience for a few months out of the year. The perfect solution to such a problem is an insulated, heated, with LED optimized lighting, heavily ventilated and humidity controlled paint booth.
We have to be sure to stress the importance of a well-ventilated garage or auto finishing shop. You can end up with tiny auto paint dust particles in your brand new paint and paint fumes are, of course, extremely dangerous and flammable. Wearing a dust mask or breathing mask is also mandatory.
Be Careful with Condensation
For a perfect car refinish, specially when cold temperatures are hitting, we must be careful with condensation. For this purpose, we would recommend you to let the car warm up in your garage for at least four or five hours.
Also, it’s equally important to make sure your paint, primers and surfaces are all stored at the right temperature and aren’t allowed to freeze. We always recommend to have a paint mixing room, that are normally a good option for that purpose. If car paints get cold the viscosity will increase and cause numerous issues with both painting and drying. Furthermore, these mixing rooms also ensure a healthy enviroment for operators thanks to the included air exhaust system and can be totally customizable and adapted to your bodyshop availability.
De-Icing Salts
Its really important to use the right de-icing products to make sure your vehicle is very clean before painting. Salt residue is very difficult to see as it can leave an almost invisible layer and can cause paint defects. Our advice is that after cleaning the vehicle with a conventional silicone remover, be sure to use a water-based silicone remover as well. This will make the difference.
Warm up compressed air
Finally, for improve you car refinish, we would really recommend you to warm up the compressed air. In fact, there is equipment that can help you to warm the compressed air coming from your spray gun. Keep in mind that due to the compression, the air will naturally drop to an even lower temperature, so having this kind of heaters is a must in the winter season. If you are planing to improve your painting installation, don´t forget to ask about heating systems.
That’s all for now! Do you have any other advices that may help to achieve the perfect winter car refinish? Contact our team for any doubts, we will gladly help you.
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