Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

[Chuck S.]

Those that missed the History Channel's Modern Marvels program that took viewers on abbreviated tours of the Ferrari, Porsche, and Bowling Green plants may not know that assembly workers in Bowling Green's paint area have to take a "cleanliness test" before being admitted to the environmentally controlled, clean-room paint line.

The program showed a supervisor administering a "cleanliness test" to one of the camera crew in an clean anteroom to the paint area. After "suiting up", employees must "shake" their upper body and clothing over a pre-primed test panel (black). The supervisor then sprays the black test panel with white color...if there's any fisheye or trash on the test panel, it's obvious, and the employee is not admitted into the paint area. Makes one curious about the disposition of the used test panels...they didn't say if the used test panels were reclaimed or simply discarded.

The guys that painted at Saint Louis would be astounded at these measures...of course, they probably all died early from painting under imperfect conditions. The stuff Bowling Green uses these days would have killed unprotected human painters in the Saint Louis paint shop quick...everything is painted by robots now.

[Dick W.]

Re: Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

And I understand that the paint line at BG is one of the most antiquated that GMAD has. Imagine the newest and best!

[Terry M.]

Re: Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

Some of the paint used at Bowling Green is water based. I can't imagine that is as harmful to people as lacquer. On the other hand isocyanurates are deadly, but have low VOCs so the EPA loves them.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

It seems like JohnH said they have waterbased primers. As I understood him, they were working on waterborne clear, but as of recently, it was still catalyzed isocyanates.

In BC/CC systems, it's really the clear catalyst that is the killer. In the aftermarket, PPG's base coats aren't even catalyzed. I suppose that's because they don't need any durability; the base coat is almost instantly protected by the clear.

PPG's aftermarket single stage acrylic urethane is catalyzed by the same catalyst as the clear (DCX61), and should be treated as highly toxic if you're painting it yourself. Ideally, you should have supplied fresh air into a full-face mask and wear a protective suit and gloves. I wish I had a dollar for every painter that didn't follow those guidelines.

In fact, I've never seen a painter use anything more than a respirator: Watch these TV shoes like Overhauling and Pimp My Ride...nothing but respirators in the booth; it's like watching one of those WWII production documentaries where the guy is operating a turning lathe without any safety glasses.

[John H.]

Re: Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

At least 70% of domestic U.S. assembly plants use waterborne basecoat, which requires that spray booth temperature be maintained within +/- 1*F, and humidity within +/- 1%, and every inch of the miles of paint piping (plus all the fittings, valves, pumps, tanks, and filters must be stainless steel); the 30% that don't soon will, due to the VOC regulations. Nobody has yet come up with either a powder or waterborne clear that works, so the clearcoat is still 2-component, and contains isocyanates, thus fully robotic spraying.

There's a LONG list of prohibited substances posted and enforced in any modern assembly plant paint shop, including many common deodorants and ladies' cosmetics which contain silicone, which is the ultimate disaster in a paint shop. Wearing any of those substances is grounds for discharge.

A modern assembly plant paint shop is cleaner than most hospital operating rooms, has better air quality (and positive pressure), and an assembly plant paint shop is the most expensive real estate per square foot on the planet.

[Kevin M.]

Re: Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

Wow I always thought the deodorant contamination in the paint booth was a myth. John what was the first big recall blamed on deodorant contamination.

Kevin

[Christopher R.]

Re: Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

I got a Chevy Cobalt the other day for a rental car. Paint on that car was spectacular. Thought to myself that if GM is painting their low end cars this nice, imagine what the high end ones are like.

[Chuck S.]

Re: Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

Chris, I haven't paid much attention to Buicks and Caddys lately, but for a Chebby, I would presently assume your experience was some remarkable set of production coincidences.

If your experience means that some Cobalt paint engineer has finally been successful in eliminating the heavy orange peel and low gloss apparently inherent in virtually all OEM low VOC clear, the General clearly needs to identify this individual and increase his/her responsiblilities.

[Lyndon S.]

Re: Current Corvette Paint.: An Interesting Fact.

That is the truth, the new Malibu that I looked at also had a HEAVY dose of ORANGE peel in its paint.

[Chuck S.]

Ah...Das Uber Camry!...

Exactly...the new Malibu is my latest data point; my wife just took delivery of her LTZ built at the Fairfax plant (Kansas City). From the time the order was accepted by GM, until the car was built, was 2 weeks and 2 days. Even after three weeks of combined rail/truck shipping time (groan), delivery was still under SIX weeks.

Fairfax has to be a huge plant. They also build the Saturn Aura and other epsilon chassis models there (G6? CTS?). The Malibu was only released for sale in November, and VIN serials are already over 90000. My dealer said Chevy had only seven days supply in December. We're beginning to see the Lutz' effect...I hope he's training some proteges.

I understand retiring Wil Cooksey's Bowling Green replacement will be an assistant plant manager from Fairfax. I don't remember the name yet, but I'm sure we'll all become familiar with it in the future.

[George C.]

Re: Ah...Das Uber Camry!...

Paul Graham is the new BG plant manager.

[Terry M.]

Things that make you go: Hmmm.

And Wil Cooksey came from Fairfax. Now two Corvette plant managers in a row from Faiurfax.

[Jack H.]

Gee, and Will was 'just' broken in....

After YEARS of tight budgets and not traveling to meet/greet his international customers, Will made the trek to the 24 Heurs du Mans endurance race last summer to put in an appearance and address European customers. His talk was SO POPULAR at GM France's Corvette Corner track side site, they had to juggle Will's schedule to carve another 1-2 hours in for him to return and pick up the Q&A session where he'd left off!

Hopefully, his replacement won't be drinking from a fire hose and WILL take the time + $$$ to schedule public appearances with Corvete owners outside North America before YEARS elapse...

[Chuck S.]

Re: Gee, and Will was 'just' broken in....

As assistant manager at a plant as busy as Fairfax, he's probably already been "drinking from a fire hose" daily. BG will be like a vacation; he will only have to build about 50000 cars a year (add in the Z06, ZR1, XLR).

Besides, Cooksey & Co. has the plant lined out and running smooth for the C6...He'll have a couple of years for PR before the C7 begins to spool up.

[Terry M.]

Re: Gee, and Wil was 'just' broken in....

The settlement for the work stoppage late last year indicated that Bowling Green will be building Solstice(sp?) and Sky as well as XLR and Corvette on the same line beginning in 2012. Do you think integrating all those models onto one assembly line won't be a challenge? The fire hose is ready and waiting.

BTW: It is Wil -- with one L