How long does car paint take to dry? The right choice of enamel

2024 Author: Erin Ralphs | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-19 11:41

One of the types of bodywork is painting car parts. Depending on the conditions in which the painting work takes place, enamel is selected.

For a quality repair, you need to consider how long car paint dries, its cost and the durability of the coating it creates.

What car enamel is for

The average life of a car is 10-15 years. In order for body parts to retain their qualities and appearance, they need protection in the form of enamel. It creates a layer with a thickness of 80-190 microns. This is enough to protect the metal from exposure to the atmosphere.

In addition, the paint layer gives the car an attractive look. To prevent the body from corroding, it is first coated with a primer layer containing phosphoric acid. It can help prevent rust. In addition, the primer is the link between metal and paint. The thickness of the primer layer also determines how long the car paint dries.

Varieties

To paint the bodies on the conveyor, enamels are used that are not used in repairs. The factory paintwork is of better quality than the one obtained by restoring the part. The following enamels are used to protect the body:

Alkyd. Previously, they were used only for painting cars on the conveyor and were not used for repairs. To dry these enamels, you need a temperature of +130 ºC. In a car service environment, this is not possible. Currently, this type of enamel is used for repairs. It is used with the addition of an additive that is a catalyst. This additive (IZUR) turns the paint into a polymer coating. Alkyd enamels are the most inexpensive of automotive paints.
Acrylic. These materials contain, as the main component, acrylic resins obtained in the process of oil refining. How long does acrylic paint take to dry? There are two varieties of these car enamels: hardening at high temperature for half an hour and drying at ambient temperature for 3-4 hours. The former are used on the conveyor, the latter are used in automobile workshops. In addition to enamels, there is acrylic lacquer. It is used to protect nitro paints.

Nitro enamel. All cars with a metallic or mother-of-pearl effect are painted with these paints. They create a very thin layer, so they are not suitable for body protection. From above they are covered with 2 layers of varnish.
Water-based paint. This variety is the most harmless. For its use as a solvent is usedwater. It dries for a long time and is the most expensive car enamel on the market. Despite its environmental friendliness, it has not been widely used.

What to consider when choosing car enamel

Dedicated car repair shops like to work with materials from one manufacturer. Each painting system has its own characteristics:

use of certain solvents;
our branded hardeners and thinners;
different modes of applying varnishes and paints;
different drying modes.

Being accustomed to working with certain materials, the car painter knows how long the car paint of the selected manufacturer dries.

Before using the new system, a person must undergo retraining. If he uses old methods when working with new materials, then this will result in financial losses.

Masters in garages use what is available in the car market. These are materials of low and medium price categories. Such as "Vika", Mobihel. Dealer shops and serious car services paint with expensive materials: DuPont, Standox, Sikkens. These enamels give predictable results.

How to paint the body yourself? How long does car paint dry in the garage

For painting in a garage, you need to create the minimum necessary conditions:

Ventilation. The garage has a small cubic capacity of the room, so without an exhaust hood there will be a thick fog of solvent and paint. The hood must be installed indoors from below, andairflow from above. In this case, dust particles will not rise into the air and settle on freshly painted parts. To reduce the amount of small debris, the walls and floor are filled with water.
The compressor must not only create the necessary pressure - 8 atm, but also have the necessary performance. If the performance is below 240 l / min, then the air will be enough to paint one part only. You need to consider how long the car paint dries between layers. In order not to buy an expensive compressor, you can install a receiver in which air will accumulate additionally. It can be made from an old gas cylinder or a piece of large diameter pipe.
For the garage, you don't need to take an expensive Sata airbrush. Enough inexpensive Chinese pistol. The main thing is to pay attention to its principle of spraying. The spray gun must be labeled HVLP. This will allow you to use a low capacity compressor.

For drying parts, it is better to use PKN spotlights. They will create sufficient lighting during painting and a high drying temperature. How long does car paint dry in a garage? It depends on the power of the spotlights, which can be 1000-1500 watts.

Preparation

Before you start painting, the part must be prepared. For this you need:

Sand and degrease the surface.
Apply and dry primer.
Sand the primer with P600 grit sandpaper.
Paste over the element to be painted to varnishand the paint did not get on adjacent parts.
Degrease the surface.

Before applying paint, you need to carefully inspect the surface again, put on a disposable painting suit, which reduces the amount of dust in the painting area.

Budget coloring

Sometimes a car enthusiast has to touch up local damage left by tree branches, children in the yard, pebbles flying from under the wheels of the car. For this, there is no need to resort to serious and expensive repairs. It is enough to use spray paint from a can.

Such car enamels are acrylic and based on nitrocellulose. There are also aerosol primers and varnishes. How long does it take for car paint from a spray can to dry? This will depend on the number of layers applied as well as the ambient temperature. At a temperature of +20 ºC, the drying time of one layer will be about 15-20 minutes.