DeBeer® Refinish, a Valspar Automotive brand, has introduced a groundbreaking toner technology to the automotive collision repair market that solves a common refinish headache — multi-stage, transparent red candy finishes. ABRN conducted an interview with Paul Goedhart, Global Director of Color Technology - Valspar Automotive, to learn more about this new advancement in color match technology.
ABRN: The new DeBeer Metallic Bright Red toner achieves color match on any OEM make and model with a transparent or candy red effect in less steps. How does this technology work?
Goedhart: The traditional process to repair a candy is a cumbersome four-step process. First, spray a sealer — often black or gray. Then, spray over that with a silver and hint of red toner. The resulting color is now a pinkish-silver that doesn’t offer much hiding power. An intermediate layer with red translucent is sprayed over top of that, followed by a clearcoat. Because each layer changes the color effect and increases darkness, mottling and cloudiness often result.
With our DeBeer Metallic Bright Red toner, we’ve combined the first two steps. Thus, we’re are able to recreate OEM candy reds in fewer steps — three steps to be exact and that’s it.
We’re starting with a tinted red effect undercoat using the Metallic Bright Red toner. This first layer immediately gets the painter close to the vehicle’s original color. Second, we apply the translucent layer. It’s also tinted with a hint of red toner plus binder, which is how the candy effect is really achieved. The third and final step is the clearcoat.
ABRN: What has been the response from collision repair shops so far?
Goedhart: As vehicle owner demographics shift, automotive OEMs are looking to specialized coatings and colors to meet the wants and needs of the changing consumer. From Kia to Fiat to Ford and beyond, OEMs are looking for new colors that satisfy the desire for mainstream and scalable customization at a reasonable price. These are also the colors that everyone wants, like Ford’s Ruby Red Metallic and Chrysler’s Inferno Red Metallic — colors that Millennials have brought back to life but are some of the hardest to recreate and ensure hiding during the refinishing process.
We’ve been working directly with OEMs to solve these and other color problems for the refinish market; that’s where the struggle is for color match. As an OEM-approved refinish coatings company, Valspar Automotive works closely with the automotive manufacturers and the industry to find optimal solutions for these future needs.
The new patent-pending DeBeer Metallic Bright Red, available in solventborne and waterborne technology, is a great example. With this new toner technology, we’re giving shops an easier way to achieve OEM candy red color repairs with ease; saving resources like product, application time; and, most importantly, improving success and customer satisfaction.
The feedback has been great in the European market and repairers of all sizes see this toner as a miracle-worker, eliminating mottling and cloudiness often associated with repairing OEM candy reds and simplifying blends.
U.S. customers are now starting to see DeBeer Metallic Bright Red in distribution channels and in our Color Focus formula software since late August.
