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The First Paint Shops
when body shops first started popping up, automobiles were finished with multiple coats of shellac, a labor intensive method that was also slow and not very durable. The resin was made from the residue that an insect called a lac left on tree branches! The coats of shellac could take days to dry before the next coat could be applied, and the UV rays of the sun soon caused the simple resin chemistry to disintegrate. -
The First of Many Quantum Leaps in Refinish Paint Chemistry Occurred.
Early motion pictures (celluloid film was also made by boiling plant fibers down to a sticky resin.) In either case, the chemistry allowed paint companies to make a lacquer resin that dried quickly, was much more durable than shellac in the sunshine and could soon be created in colors other than black. However, it dried so fast you couldn’t brush it smooth; it had to be sprayed. Also the first spray gun was invented. -
Brilliant shades
the colors of the time were exotic, Tutt explains, with two, three and even four colors on the same car, as well as painted birds and butterflies on some Lincoln models. -
The New Duco Paint
pyroxylin colors debuted at the New York Auto Show on GM’s Oakland Motor Car Company’s cars, known as the “True Blue Oakland Sixes.” -
Market Crashed
colors got dimmer, more depressing, in somber greens and grays. And when cars were colorful, fenders were often painted black in a melding of the practical and the aesthetically pleasing: Dinged fenders could be easily and cheaply painted with asphalt paint, saving on repairs. -
Body Shops Entered the Next Revolution with Alkyd Enamels.
Alkyd or synthetic paint resins were still made from plants found in nature (sunflower oil, soybean oil, other vegetable oils) but were extracted and combined with much greater chemical skill. The big advantage to auto refinishers was that the enamel resin dried slowly enough to form a nice gloss. -
Downtrodden Economic Times
Despite the downtrodden economic times, saw the addition of metallic paints, which were first made from actual fish scales and reserved only for the very rich. -
After World War II
The 1930s and 1940s saw a rise of chrome trim and single-color cars, Tutt says, especially after World War II when new innovations brought us sun-resisting clear coats for metallics to help them stay bright and not yellow. These coats helped protect bright shades from fading, another pro for consumers who wanted their cars to last. -
The next change in auto refinish came with the invention of acrylic lacquers.
This new type of lacquer still had to be buffed to a gloss but was much longer lasting in the sunshine. Auto paint by these days routinely contained special “metallic” or “polychromatic” reflective flakes made by Alcoa Aluminum in several sizes that gave a snazzy sparkle to affordable cars like Plymouths, Fords and Chevys. -
Darker Shades
the year of the Bicentennial, the year of the decade when the most popular colors were red, white and blue (separately, not combined on one car in some kind of flag thing). -
SCAQMD passing a rule
the SCAQMD passed Rule 1151 aimed at minimizing the amount of VOCs pumped into the Southern California atmosphere. Many shops remember Rule 1151, as this was the impetus for high-volume, low-pressure (HVLP) spray guns. The original rule called for anyone spraying anything within their jurisdiction to use spray equipment that had at least 65 percent transfer efficiency. -
Rule 1151
Rule 1151 was amended to control the VOC content of both basecoat and clearcoat finishes. Prior to the amendment, the paint shops within the SCAQMD could “stack” the two coatings to achieve suitable VOC levels. Original rules said that the basecoat and the clearcoat together could have no more than 3.5 lbs. of VOCs per gallon of paint. The new rules call for the clearcoats applied within the SCAQMD to have no more than 2.1 lbs. of VOC and the basecoats to have no more than 3.5 lb./gal. of VOC.