Even in an era when vendors are churning out fantastic finishes, along with mixing and measuring technology that essentially guarantees an exact color match, many shops still lose all of these benefits and cost savings because of the re-dos and other problems caused by poor prep work.
Fortunately, prep work — along with spraying technique, training and spray booth use, among others — is an area where vendors can provide assistance. Refer to the following steps, submitted by paint companies, to help your shop build a prep program that consistently provides the right preparation for top notch finishes.
Step 1: Prepare for the prepping
Many of the most vital steps that create a great finish are performed well before the finish is laid. The same can be said for prepping, where many of the most important steps are made before the prep work starts.
William Warner, Technical and Training Manager for Matrix and Prospray, says shops should start by making sure they allot sufficient time, space and planning to properly perform the entire repair job.
"In the front office, preparation begins in the estimate and selling phase. If each step isn’t properly accounted for, it has a snowball effect," Warner says. "I’ve seen this scenario many times. The body work gets delayed and then the paint job gets rushed to meet the delivery date."
Warner notes that some of the costliest mistakes are made well before a technician or painter even touches a job. He explains, "Overselling the job, by not setting realistic expectations, excluding a process (like blending) or promising the car too soon can put the shop and staff at a disadvantage."
Axalta Account Manager Ben Sampson similarly points out that the entire repair first needs to be addressed to build efficiency during the paint prep stage. Mapping a repair, he says, ensures there are "no surprises or extra repairs that can create unnecessary color match problems, for example, because a shop had to take care of damage at the end of a blend panel."
Sampson says shops need to address some prep issues at the front end of a repair instead of waiting till the vehicle is ready to be painted. Specifically, he says shops should perform color verification while a vehicle is still in the body department. "We teach our shops to check to see if a special toner is needed at the time of writing the initial estimate," he says. "That way they can adjust the estimate as needed and get product ordered so as not to delay the repair."
Sampson notes that shops also need to put SOPs in place that prevent substandard repairs from being pushed into the prep and paint departments where they can cause significant problems. For example, he explains that paint departments sometimes receive vehicles with deep scratches or pinholes and prep workers make the mistake of addressing these flaws with primer/surfacers. "Primer is designed to isolate the repair and create a uniform substrate, not to compensate for poor bodywork," says Sampson.
Sampson believes shops should institute an SOP that requires techs to repair these flaws using polyester glazing putty and powder guide coat. Shops need to determine who will do this work and stick to that program.
The task of preventing substandard repairs from making it to the paint department in the first place is a team effort between all departments, says Charlie Whitaker, Quality First Technical Advisor with Valspar Automotive. “Communication is not limited to the current workflow within the facility. We can take a proactive approach and work with and train the appropriate department personnel so that everyone has a clear understanding of the steps needed in order for that department to perform a repair that meets the shop’s standard level of quality,” he says. “They must work together as a team and be willing to acknowledge reviews and constructive criticism from their peers.”
Proper preparation is essential for a quality outcome, says Brian Calmer, product manager with Martin Senour Automotive Finishes. “Following recommended preparation guidelines can directly impact the overall project duration, paint adhesion to the substrate, coating durability and the overall finish - just to name a few,” he says.
Step 2: Setting prep standards
SOPs also should be created for the prepping itself. Akzo Nobel Technical Manager Fitz Moles recommends shop focus on building a "documented process that provides high quality, predictable results." This process should include easy-to-follow visual instructions for employees to use, paired with images of the right and wrong ways of completing prep work.
Once prepping SOPs are put in place, Moles says shops need to continually train employees and review their standards, along with instituting quality inspections before a vehicle moves to the prep stage and then again before the finish is applied.
Paint companies are well suited to offer terrific advice when creating prep SOPs since they know the procedures and products that work best with their particular finishes.
Step 3: Clean and orderly
One of the first prep SOPs shops create, according to these companies, involves proper cleaning of the vehicle and the orderly removal and storage of parts. Paul Evans, Zone Manager of Refinish Business Development Centers for PPG, recommends using a high-pressure washer with soap to thoroughly clean every vehicle (including the undercarriage) before it enters a shop. Doing so makes damage analysis more productive and removes many of the contaminats that can damage fresh paint.
After repairs are completed, prep employees should wash the vehicle again to remove any contaminates that may have been picked up in the shop. Damir Banusic, Global Product Manager for Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finishes, says shops also need to clean out the door jambs to make sure no dirt and dust remains. "Pulling the trigger on the spray gun and seeing all the dirt land on top of the repair is not a sight any painter wants," says Banusic.
Pete Mahoney, National Technical Manager for ChemSpec, reminds repairers to apply wax and grease removers, along with the appropriate pre-cleaner. Mahoney explains that any wax left on a panel ends up being ground into the surface during sanding, resulting in blistering and paint delaminating.
Evans notes that all cleaning should be done with clean, lint-free rags to avoid re-contaminating the surface. For best results, he says cleaning solvent should be wiped in one direction until dry and not be allowed to evaporate on the panel.
Most of the vendors ABRN spoke with named insufficient cleaning as the most common, most expensive prep mistake shops make. Along with creating flaws such as fish eyes, delaminating and contour mapping (that must go through costly re-dos), poor cleaning leads to over application of materials, including sealers, color finishes and clears. Note that clean surfaces save product and money.
Note also, vendors point out, that running an extra-clean shop goes a long way in providing uncontaminated surfaces. Warner says repairers could help themselves in the prep department and elsewhere by running cleaner, more organized operations. That means reducing clutter, storing materials and maintaining equipment — especially compressors, air lines, filters and lighting.
Step 4: Superior sanding
Following poor cleaning, vendors said the second most common prep mistake shops make is sanding with the wrong grit. Sampson says repairers often sand through E-coat on a new panel, then fail to correctly treat the bare metal. The result is paint blistering followed by rust.
Hans Kempf, North American Training Manager for BASF, says many repairers are still using 36 or 40 grit to remove paint from damaged areas when a gentler grade, like 80 grit, would do. Repairers turn to rougher grits to speed their work but risk seriously damaging the non-ferrous substrate used on newer, lighter-weight panels.
Step 5: Improved products
One of the best ways to deal with sanding issues is to make recommended grits part of your shop's prep SOPs. Next, make sure these grades are always part of your available inventory.
From there, repairers should begin examining the array of new abrasives and other prepping products constantly coming to market designed to make this work easier and less costly.
Sampson recommends new, flexible abrasive films that can offer improved sanding consistency. He also points to new blending discs that can produce a fast and uniform surfacing without removing the OEM peel from the clear. New ceramic clearcoat discs, he says, now can handle OEM scratch resistant and matte clears.
Sampson also recommends masking tapes designed specifically for waterborne finishes to prevent the edges from bleeding through.
Helping reduce the number of necessary prep supplies, Sherwin-Williams offers primers that include a guide coat, allowing repairer to see un-sanded areas and reducing the need to use a dry guide coat. ChemSpec offers fleet shops a new high solids epoxy for freshly sandblasted panels that eliminates the need for dual-action sanding after a single coat. AkzoNobel and PPG provide water-based, low-VOC surface cleaners designed to clean better than solvent-based solutions with no residue. Aerosol plastic surface degreaser and etch wipes are available from Martin-Senour, along with a spray gun and surface cleaner.
Notable here is that many vendors say customers sometimes aren't aware of these products, typically because repairers haven't taken the time to speak with them or because managers and owners don't communicate enough with their paint departments. That's a shame, vendors say, because just a few extra moments spent on these discussions can pay off substantially in efficiency and reduced costs.
Indeed, extra moments like these — combined with the same kind of attention your shop gives estimating, body work and painting — translate into flawless, efficient prep work. Your paint vendor wants to help take your shop to this level. Prepare now to begin working with them to make this happen.
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