Paint quality and processes

[elFranZ]

AkzoNobel made his way to McLaren mostly because they're able to cover the entire bodywork with no more than 1-2 Kgs of paint. If you ever tried to apply a chrome paint on whatever, you should also understand why the guys are clever, very clever.
Here some interesting facts:
http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport ... 27211.html

[Nando]

when discussing the finer technical points of their paint job :why not cover the car in film instead of actually painting the thing? With ´that approach at least you get a nice surface finish and you have a defined thickness to it..
I´d imagine mclarens chrome looks is an applied film isn´t it?

Yes it´s film on most parts of the Mclaren. I read an article somewhere not too long ago about how they managed to keep the car fresh, they said they used film on some parts.

It was because some races are just weeks apart so with stone chips etc they cover it with a chrome film.

[Nando]

Pretty sure that is orange peel though. Tells me they were not painted by a person but rather a robot.

This is something not to say when talking about Ferrari No robots there. The orange dominance could simply come from camera processing. It's not the first time I see similar shots here, but the real thing is always Red.

Orange peel has nothing to do with color.

[Nando]

it's the texture of the carbon fibre underneath, not orange peel. They're not going to use bodyfiller just to get the paint spot on

Nose cone does not have this effect. I remember a close up shot of last year´s car of the nose and it did not have this effect.

I think it´s orange peel due to quick evaporation of thinner or simply a conscious technique for whatever reasons.
To much paint i don´t really believe in as paint weighs and you don´t want more paint then you need.

Teams shave grams everywhere so having the painter slap on too much paint seems highly unlikely.

[elFranZ]

Pretty sure that is orange peel though. Tells me they were not painted by a person but rather a robot.

This is something not to say when talking about Ferrari No robots there. The orange dominance could simply come from camera processing. It's not the first time I see similar shots here, but the real thing is always Red.

Orange peel has nothing to do with color.

Sorry Nando, completely misunderstood your words.
Can you explain why do you think of a robot? I always imagined every bodywork part being hand polished before going on track, or am I missing something?

[Ray]

I´d imagine mclarens chrome looks is an applied film isn´t it?

You'd be surprised : it is a paint developed specially by AkzoNobel

Not to be that guy, but that looks very, very CG to me. Nothing about that looks real at all.

[Nando]

Sorry Nando, completely misunderstood your words.
Can you explain why do you think of a robot? I always imagined every bodywork part being hand polished before going on track, or am I missing something?

No worries,

Yea i don´t know for sure but usually when you see (what i believe here is orange peel) Orange peel it´s a robot that has done it.
Buy a new BMW in black and it´s a mess up close. Get your car painted by a person and it´s smooth.
Due to sanding it down and other stuff a robot can´t do.

[bhall]

It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that Ferrari's F1 cars are painted by robots. I know that's the case with their road cars.

They may not serve up the prettiest finish - which is certainly true of Ferrari road cars - but robots can achieve a uniform paint distribution that humans simply cannot match. That means no excess paint/weight.

[flynfrog]

It wouldn't surprise me at all to learn that Ferrari's F1 cars are painted by robots. I know that's the case with their road cars.

They may not serve up the prettiest finish - which is certainly true of Ferrari road cars - but robots can achieve a uniform paint distribution that humans simply cannot match. That means no excess paint/weight.

no way it takes a ton of time to train a robot. A paint spray operation is highly depedent on geometry something as complex as an f1 car would not be worth the time to program.

[raymondu999]

They may not serve up the prettiest finish - which is certainly true of Ferrari road cars - but robots can achieve a uniform paint distribution that humans simply cannot match. That means no excess paint/weight.

Frankly, it's not that hard nowadays. What they do is give the paint a positive charge - they stick a big positive charged needle in the spray gun - and charge the surface to be painted negatively. Naturally opposite charges attract and the paint sticks better to the surface up to the point when it's dried. But there is an added bonus - the paint particles will repel each other in flight and ensure that you get a nice, evenly spread out finish.

Of course if you have a dud of an employee who is only spraying the paint in one section then that section will get the bulk of the paint, but let's assume we have a reasonable employee in charge of the painting.