Refinish paint brand Standox has issued some practical tips on the repair of vehicles that have a tinted clearcoat finish.

Expensive effects and special finishes specially developed for certain car models are becoming increasingly popular with car manufacturers, but repairs of these special colours can be anything but routine. Deep, richer, tinted clearcoats are becoming increasingly popular in automotive refinishing because of their brilliance and depth of effect. Repairs with tinted clearcoats have to be carried out with a special two-layer application process. Kevin Welling, Training Academy Manager for Axalta Coating Systems explains how to achieve a first-class finish on these repairs. 

Step 1: Use spray out cards
The tinted clearcoat acts like a varnish, the more that is applied, the more it covers the substrate. This means the number of spray passes, and the resulting layer thickness, has a direct influence on the colour, the brilliance and the depth effect. For the repair of cars with tinted clearcoats, Standox recommends the production of spray out cards, which are used to determine the number of spray passes of the tinted clearcoat required to achieve the best match.

Step 2: Sand filler and repair area
Proceed with the preparation as usual. Apply a Standox VOC Filler, choosing the right filler colour level from FC1 – FC3, based on the recommendation in Standowin iQ. Sand the filler with P500 to P600, and the blend-in area with P1000 to P1200.

Step 3: Apply Color Blend
Apply Standohyd Plus Color Blend to the blend-in area on adjoining surfaces or onto the adjoining body part.

Step 4: Basecoat application and flash off
Apply one coat of Standohyd Plus Color Blend to the blend-in area. Spray Standohyd Plus in 1.5 coats on the repair area of the still wet Standohyd Plus Color Blend. Aim to achieve a uniform and cloud-free surface. Then let the basecoat and Color Blend flash off sufficiently.

Step 5: Application of the tinted clearcoat
Prepare two spray guns with a tinted and a non-tinted clearcoat in order to be able to work quickly. Use slow hardeners or thinner combinations. Apply the tinted clearcoat to the part that is to be repaired and spray beyond the fade-out zone of the blended-in basecoat. 

Step 6: Blending into the non-tinted clearcoat
Apply the non-tinted clearcoat to the remaining surface of the adjoining part and overlap into the still-wet tinted clearcoat. Dry according to the Technical Data Sheet. Depending on which Standox VOC Clear is selected, it is advisable to apply an additional coat of the non-tinted clearcoat over the repair and the tinted clearcoat. This makes polishing out imperfections such as dust inclusions and blend in zones of the clearcoat easier.

The Standox Standothek Special Colours offers detailed instructions on repairs such as these. It can be downloaded from the Standox website, www.standox.co.uk/standotheks, or a hardcopy can be ordered, free of charge, from the Standox webshop, www.standoshop.co.uk.

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