Have you ever wondered about the how and why of modern automotive polishes work and why there are so many choices available.
Car Scratch Remover – Discover What You Need to Know About Polishes and How to Remove Car Scratches
January 28th, 2011 
admin Have you ever wondered about the how and why of modern automotive polishes work and why there are so many choices available.
What Are the Different Types of Paints to Use on Your Car? Learn How to Spray Paint
January 26th, 2011 admin There are three basic kinds of paints which can be used to paint cars Enamel, Urethane and Lacquer, but for home users to understand these kinds easily we can further divide them into many like Acrylic Enamel, Urethane, Acrylic Lacquer, Base coat/Clear coat, Water-based, etc, which you can use to paint your cars. Every kind has its own good and bad effects. Brands also matter a lot because they give us reliable guarantee about the product.
There are quite a few types of Enamels. Most people in the industry don’t like Enamels although Acrylic Enamel is the best of the worst. This type of finish is Good but not Excellent as it can dull after a few years and cannot be Buff Polished properly like Acrylic Lacquer. If you are going to paint your car go for Acrylic Lacquer it’s easy to Spray on and if you get a run, a quick rub down and Blow in another coat of paint . It dries very quickly and you should get a Gloss of the gun, if you don’t when it’s fully dry after a few days a quick Buff over will give you a fantastic finish.
Most professional can spray urethane paints. If you’re sending your car to a shop for painting, then by all means have them use urethane paint as it produces an incredibly tough finish-some people don’t like the slightly plastic appearance, however, so look at samples before you commit. If you’re spraying the car yourself, then only venture into urethane paints if you have the proper safety gear (an exterior forced air respirator mask with air pump-great for general use in the shop). Urethane doesn’t run or sag as readily as the enamel, dries faster, and doesn’t attract insects as much as enamel. Enamel is cheaper, less toxic while spraying, and can be kept in the spray cup longer (has a longer pot life).
Base coat/Clear coat painting is more difficult than acrylic enamel. The most difficult is putting on the clear coat without runs and getting it just right. 2-3 coats of basecoat should be sufficient for coverage. Be sure to allow the solvents in the paint to “flash-off” between coats to prevent drying problems.”Flash-off” is the evaporating of the solvents in the paint. 5-10 minutes between coats is recommended based on temperature. A hazy finish means the paint has flashed-off.
Water based car paints are the paints which use water as an solvent and are less toxic and therefor easy to use and most favorite by the manufacturers and home users. The draw back of water based paints are that they do not give very glossy look like enamel.
By: Mario Goldstein
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Applying Touchup Paint: 2 Tips for Better Results
January 25th, 2011 admin Have you ever tried to repair some small rock chips and scratches on your car using the factory touch up paint but found that the paint was too thick and blobby and sometimes the color didn’t even match? Here are a few tips for applying touch up paint and achieving much better results.
First, do not use the brush that comes with factory touch up paint. The size of this brush is more suited for painting toenails and fingernails than it is for repairing minor paint damage on cars. Instead, go to a hobby store and buy some very fine tipped touch up brushes that hobbyists use to paint model cars. Shake up your paint thoroughly and then dip one of these fine tipped touch up brushes into your bottle or two of paint. Just use enough to wet the tip of the brush. Now with a steady hand touch the center of the rock chip or the scratch. If it is a rock chip, just apply the minimum amount of pain necessary. One of the most common mistakes people make when repairing rock chips is that they apply too much paint. With touch up, less is more!
If you are fixing a scratch do not apply your paint in long strokes. Simply stroke the scratch about 1/8 of an inch at a time and connect these short strokes of paint together slowly. If you make a mistake just use some automotive paint thinner to completely wipe your scratches and chips clean and then begin again.
Another problem that causes people to become unsatisfied with their touch up work is that they expect nearly perfect results. This is often possible with solid colors like red white and black. You can achieve very good results with a fine tipped touch up brush. However there are certain colors which are extremely difficult to repair. These include silver, gold, light metallic green, and light metallic blue. The metallic content of these paints causes the touch up paint to look at different color depending on the angle you look at it. You can certainly improve the scratches and chips appearance from a direct angle, but from other angles you will find that the paint looks either darker or lighter. There is simply nothing that can be done about this. If the improvement I touch up offers is not sufficient, you will have to pay a body shop to repaint these panels.
So remember these two simple things. First, use of very fine tipped touch up brushes do your touch up work. Second, if you have a light metallic paint job set your expectations accordingly. And one final tip: don’t attempt to repair anything larger than 2 inches in length. Beyond 2 inches, as a rule of thumb, and it must be set to a body shop.
By: Bob Keppel
About the Author:
Robert Keppel is the creator of the ScratchOut kit, a premixed chip and scratch repair system manufactured by Applied Colors. Applied Colors distributes paint touch up systems worldwide from their base in Portland, OR.