wood.eric•1mo agoMost Upvoted

I was dead set against using waterborne paint, but now I'm a convert

For like 10 years I swore by solvent based paint, thought waterborne was just hype. Then I had to do a pearl white on a 2022 Ford Explorer at my shop in Austin and the solvent was giving me nothing but trouble with the metallic laydown. Switched to the waterborne system my rep had been pushing, PPG Envirobase, and the match was spot on first try. Has anyone else had issues with solvent fading or tiger striping on newer factory colors?

3 comments

3 Comments

cora5181mo ago

You gotta give waterborne more credit @piper779, the newer systems just lay down so much better for these tri-coat colors. Solvent might be simpler but it can't touch the match quality on modern pearl finishes.

piper7791mo ago

Stick with solvent, waterborne is just more work for no real gain.

the_wendy1mo ago

Not gonna lie @piper779, I was kind of on your side for a while because I hate extra steps and waterborne just feels like a hassle. But hold on @cora518, let's not act like solvent is completely useless for everything. I mean yeah, modern pearls and tri-coats are a PAIN with solvent but how often are you really spraying those? Most of my daily work is solid colors and metallic grays where solvent still looks just fine. Switching whole systems over a few tricky jobs seems dramatic to me.