Auto Air Colors' Custom Paints

The wild tech story on the following pages features Auto Air Colors' revolutionary new line of waterborne custom automotive paints, but first please permit us to present a brief historical overview of traditional paint's inherit properties.

As strange as this may sound, your grandma and custom paints have a lot in common. Remember at Christmas time, after dessert, staring into an empty shiny aluminum pie pan with grandma's famous raspberry goo smeared on the bottom producing a deep candy reddish purple color? You sat there mesmerized in a catatonic fantasy imagining how bitchin' your Stingray would look in a color like no other kid's bike. As time passed, so did your grandmother, but your love for candy colors never died.

Moving right along, in 1969 as a 13-year-old adolescent with hairy armpits and the complexion of a cheese pizza, you decided to ride the bus to the local automotive paint-supply store. As you walked into the place, a strong, harsh chemical fragrance like glue struck your flaring nostrils and instantly gave you a headache whilst you ogled metalflakes, candies, and pearls. After 15 minutes, a pleasant euphoria set-in and the pain in your brain faded away. The guy working at the paint store was cool and set you up with all the paints needed to replicate the intense candy colors of your deceased grandmother's Yuletide pastries. Intoxicated with the gluey goodness of acrylic lacquer, you re-boarded the bus and returned to your mom and dad's garage to custom-paint your chopped Stingray.

Life behind a spraygun started out great as you buzzed on coat after coat of candy apple red over a base of coarse metallic silver, but then your mom started screaming at you about the smell that permeated the kitchen and left her mouth numb. When dad got home from work, the two of you had a lengthy discussion. It was decreed, you can ditch church and paint while your parents worship.

On Sunday morning, once again, you buried the family garage in a fog of acrylic lacquer fumes, but this time events took a turn for the worse. The pilot light on your mom's gas dryer ignited the volatile paint fumes and a violent explosion leveled the garage and most of the houseOe you were reunited with your dead grandmother.

The moral of this story is not that traditional paints are dangerous and should be banned, but they are definitely on the EPA's hit list and if it has any say, they will be banned. This said, we can now bring the focus to our featured product.

Auto Air Colors' custom automotive paints are the future, due to their waterborne base as opposed to traditional solvent-based paints. Auto Air Colors are non-flammable and can be used around pilot lights and other exposed flame sources without fear of an explosion. This means both DIY guys and shop owners won't be forced to experience the costliness and embarrassment normally associated with shop-fires, explosions, or harmful fumes (half the painters we've known are no longer with us). The VOC (Volatile Organic Compound n synthetic organic compounds which easily vaporize and are often carcinogenic) content for Auto Air Colors is 0.01. When used in conjunction with the required urethane clears, produced by such quality manufacturers as House of Kolor, PPG, or Dupont for a topcoat, the VOCs are reduced considerably. At this point in time, without having very much experience with Auto Air Colors, it is hard for us to say or to give an absolute 100 percent recommendation to our readers when it comes to long-term reliability or provide a toe-to-toe comparison with traditional custom paints. We can tell you that we are conducting in-house feasibility studies as well as staying in contact with other custom painters who are currently using Auto Air Colors. For a more in-depth look at Auto Air Colors visit its website at www.autoaircolors.com and feel free to share your Auto Air Colors, experience with us.