Auto Painting in Seattle, WA

We spray Glasurit by BASF. It is the waterborne system BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Audi, Porsche, and Volkswagen approve for their own certified networks, and several of our manufacturer certifications require it specifically. It is not the cheapest paint on the market and that is not an accident.

Waterborne, which matters more in this climate

Waterborne basecoat carries far less solvent, which is better for the people spraying it and for Washington air quality. It also flashes by evaporation rather than chemical release, so ambient humidity genuinely affects it. In Seattle that is a real constraint, and it is handled with controlled airflow and booth conditioning rather than by waiting for a dry week, of which we get few.

Matching a color the weather has already changed

Your paint code is the formula from the day the car was built. Since then it has lived under Pacific Northwest rain, road film, and whatever sun we get, and the pigment has shifted. So the process is: mix, spray a let-down panel, evaluate it against your actual vehicle in daylight, adjust, repeat. Tri-coat and pearl finishes take the longest because the middle coat's thickness changes the final color, so the sprayed panel has to be matched by film build as well as by formula.

Then the color is blended into the adjacent panels and the clear carried to a natural break, so the eye never finds an edge.

Where paint is judged

Not under an auto body shop's booth lights. Vertically, in daylight, from about six feet, by someone who owns the car. A customer with a high-end sports car told us he trusts nobody else with touching up its finish. That is the standard we are aiming at on every panel.

Free estimate at 11514 Lake City Way NE, or (206) 495-4774.