shadyraven

True or false: Curing paint via heat is better than nature drying?

Audi Junkie

Plenty of heat is applied at the paint shop. "Curing" is a myth.

shadyraven

What do you mean?

Skibum the Original

i believe he is refering to "baking the paint"

shadyraven

Correct. Is baking better than natural drying. Body shop said it isn't.

meem

who say that it's critical, especially if you plan to drive the car a lot immediately after the painting has been done, since baking the paint toughens it.

FishBulb

Most ofhte aluminum alloys for panels have an age response (get stronger) during hte paint bake cycle as well. But you can only do that once. Multiple times will soften the panels.

Eddie Man

on the characteristics of the paint and under what constaints are present. Really important to follow the paint manufacturer's recommendation. Natural, baking, UV-curing are some of the drying/curing techniques.

Check out this past article for some industry discussion.<ul><li><a href="http://www.asashop.org/autoinc/march2001/collision.cfm">http://www.asashop.org/autoinc/march2001/collision.cfm</a</li></ul>

A4sp

The paint is baked to accelerate the drying process. If the paint is left to air dry in the spray booth, you loose the use of the booth for 8 hours. Depending how clean the work area is, you also risk dust particles settling on the paint. If you accelerate the drying you reduce this risk and get more use of the booth. The paint is still curing for the next 12 days regardless. Baked or non-baked the paint has the same degree of hardness. It is reccommended to only rinse the car in those 12 days, no soap.
There are one component paints that require baking to activate the hardener within the paint, i.e. exhaust and engine paints. This is different to body work painting.
Joe Friday.

shadyraven

Thanks!