Three Layer Paint

[CeJay]

Just visited the smash repairer where my car is (after being rear ended). Have found out my car has a "three layer paintjob" (bayside blue) and that it appears the car will take longer to paint etc. First thing I knew about it, I thought mine was normal. Anyway can someone explain to me what a three layer paint job is? Or some links I can look at, as they gave me a quick explanation, but I would like to find out more.

thx

[frogman]

Sorry to hear about your car..

Without getting to technical,

Most normal metallics & pearls ( & some solid reds, yellows etc can be too) are a 2 layer... That is they have a base coat & a clear coat. The 'base' part is just the colour, with the pearl or metallic already suspended in it. This is followed by the clear for protection & gloss.

To get a very bright or 'clean' colour, they usually have to be very transparent. This means that they don't cover very well & reqiure several coats. So to achieve coverage without putting 1000 coats on, paint companies developed a 3 layer system. First, to get coverage, you put on a 'ground' coat, which would be a solid(no metallic or pearl in it) colour. Then you put on the pearl or metalic colour with the 'flake' in it. This is then followed by the clear coat.

As for Bayside, I havn't painted it, wouldn't have thought it was a 3 layer, but could be.

Yes, 3 layers are harder to repair. After colour matching, you either have to try to blend out the ground coat without getting a shadow, then blend out the colour/flake without getting a shadow... or... colour match it perfect & paint the whole panel... or a combination of the two... or... yeah... 3 layers can suck!

Some paint companies are now able to do bright clean colours as 2 layers as paint tech evolves. For example, I painted my brothers car in Mazda Velocity red (on the rx8 etc) From the side the colour is nice & bright, but when you get it out in the sun on the right angle the pearls really stand out. PPG & Spies Hecker only had 3 layer formulas, but Standox was able to do it in a 2 layer with their new pearls (it still took 6 coats to cover,... & was expensive...)

Hope this helped, & your car comes back good as new.

[CeJay]

thanks for the info, gives me a better idea of what's involved