When was the last time you had thought about your car paint?
The fact that painting and coating are responsible for adding that ‘bling’ to your car should be enough to stress why automotive lubricants and paints are crucial for your vehicle, especially when you live in UAE. Dubai’s dusty, hot weather can significantly affect your car’s paint and make it dull. So what will you do to protect your car from heat, dust, and water?
Today, we will tell you all about automotive paint and coating and its roles in keeping your car looking brilliant and polished.
Let’s dive in!
What Are Automotive Paints?
Everyone wants a shiny new-looking car but doesn’t know what factors to consider for automotive paint.
Automotive paint is a distinct kind of paint made as a compound mixture of specific products where a specific product plays its own respective role. Unlike other generic paint, automotive paint and coatings are meant to be on the car’s body for its lifetime.
How Is Automotive Paint Made?
The automotive paint is made up of five main constituents:
- Pigments: Give color to the paint
- Thinner: Levels out the consistency of paint. Waterborne paints replace some paints that use volatile organic compounds such as hydrocarbons which are harmful to the atmosphere. It’s either an organic solvent used to reduce the viscosity of the paint for better application.
- Binder: Binds the pigment and thinner, often referred to as resin
- Extender: Larger pigment particles added to improve adhesion, strengthen the film and save binder
- Additives: Used to adapt the properties of the liquid paint or dry film
Types Of Car Paint Chemical
1. Urethane
Urethane car paint is the durable car paint option out there. It’s highly resistant to chipping and can counter fading for ten years or more. Urethane paints dry quickly and do not tend to run. Due to its greater quality, urethane car paint is more costly than enamel paint and is often considered an excellent alternative to lacquer.
2. Acrylic Enamel
Enamel paint survives a long time since it produces a robust and hard shell over the whole of the car. It is not recommended for a DIY car painting project.
3. Acrylic Lacquer
Lacquer was the first car paint and remained the only option for several years. The pros of this paint are that lacquers are the most accessible paints to apply, and they have a high gloss. The cons are that the color fades quickly, especially when exposed to UV lights which makes it not a suitable choice for the hot weather of Dubai.
Types of Car Paint Material
There are two types of car paint material in the market, i.e., waterborne and solvent-based. Both of them have distinct qualities. Let’s take a look at them:
Waterborne Paint |
Solvent-Based Paint |
|
| Waterborne is typically made from acrylic resin (water-based lacquer) or an acrylic urethane (sold as water-based polyurethane) | Making | Solvent-based automotive paint is usually made from lacquer, enamel, and urethane. |
| It is environmentally friendly and poses less risk to health | Safety | It can cause a high risk of irritation damage and even may lead to cancer |
| Low VOC of around 10% with a slight odor problem | VOC solvent | High VOC of approximately 84% with an odor problem |
According to the table, waterborne automotive paint is safer for the environment than solvent-based paint. This is why waterborne paints are getting more popular among automotive paint dealers nowadays.
What Are The Phases Of Painting A Car?
· Stage 1: Primer
Do you ever think about what is the base coat paint for cars? The solution lies right here! Primer is the first stage of the automobile painting procedure. The primer assists several purposes like leveling the body’s surface, overcoming manufacturing defects, etc. It also prevents the car body from rust, stone chips, heat differences, and UV lights.
· Stage 2: Base Coat
The second stage of painting the car is Base Coat. This process follows the primer coat, where visual properties and color effects occur. The base coat is generally of three types, i.e., metallic, solid, and pearlescent. These three categories differ based on paint quality. Solid paints have no sparkles, whereas metallic paint has all the shines and glitters you can witness in cars today.
· Stage 3: Clear-Coat
Clear-coat is the final part of the painting course where a translucent coating is out on the base coat, which comes in uninterrupted contact with the environment. This coat can be either waterborne or solvent. It must be strong enough to fight abrasion and chemically stable to withstand UV light.
Types Of Automotive Finishes
1. Solid Paint
It is usually applied in a single step. This type of finish comes in minimal shades. But if you are a fan of solid colors, this is the right type for you.
2. Metallic Paint
In basic form, metallic paint is color followed by an additional lacquer, also known as a clear coat. In addition, a small quantity of crushed metal is added into the paint layer to deliver a much more attractive shine than the basic solid paints.
The metal particles replicate more incident light than the solid color, leading to a better paint output than solid paints. Plus, it hides bits of defects and scratches from afar.
3. Pearlescent Paint
Pearlescent paints are the compilation of essential paint constituents included in the metallic paint where the metal powder is substituted with ceramic crystals, also known as mica. This refraction gives a deep color to the paint along with the shine. The exclusive property of mica is that along with reflecting the light, it reflects the light too.
The color fluctuates depending on how you look at it. The pearlescent paint has a clear edge over the metallic paint, visible if you glance at it in the direct sunlight.
4. Matte Paint
As the name suggests, matte paint does not offer shine but the classic looks of cars from the 1930s. However, it’s a lot trickier to apply than regular paint as you can’t buff out any imperfections.
5. Special Paint
It is not only one painting in particular but a mixture of multiple paints layered on top of each other. It is worth caution that although this effect is quite extraordinary, it’s hard to achieve the same shine that you get with metallic and pearlescent paint, and it goes without saying that it’s both costly to buy and repair.
How To Protect Your Car Paint In Dubai?
We know that weather conditions in the UAE can reach extreme temperatures throughout the year. During the hottest months, temperatures in Dubai can soar up to approximately 50˚C. Moreover, vehicles in the country get tested by the high humidity level in the atmosphere. Keeping that in mind, car tyres in Dubai are designed especially by using high technology and quality material that provides them greater density to run smoothly in the deserts of Dubai.
Car paint protection in UAE is crucial too. Especially keeping in mind the weather of Dubai. To guard your car’s paint, you need to use a nano-ceramic coating layer with a hydrophobic effect and reserve the condition of your car paint. It works best if you follow the two-stage coating rule, i.e., have a base coat applied with the color before the layer of clear coat is added. To protect the paint and give you a long-lasting finish for years of service.
Where To Find Automotive Paint Dealers In UAE?
Now that you have sufficient knowledge about automotive paints and coatings. So we think you can choose the right paint for your car in Dubai and maintain it in a better way.
If you need water-based automobile paints or quality car tires in Dubai, you may contact CTC, a popular Al Rostamani Company member – a trusted name in the UAE.
