

Why Do Manufacturers Use Water Based Paint These Days and Can You Use Any Car Care Product On Them?

X1 car polish for the miniI think the first thing we need to establish is what exactly is water bourne car paint and why did car manufactures have to switch from using solvent based paints to water bourne paints. This has to be answered before we can think about what is the best car polish to sue on your new car.

For those of you who are technically minded, water-based paints are made up of acrylic resins and these resins are carried using water.  This is where it differs to urethane paints where solvents are use to carry the acrylic resins. This greatly helps reduce the legal limits of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) contained in products used to paint cars. So great for the environment and this is the fundamental reason that manufacturers switched to water based paints – reduce those VOCs!!!!

Why Do We Need To Reduce VOCs in Our Environment?

Why do we need to reduce the VOCs in our environment? Well. Lots of things let off VOCs and this includes paint thinners, petroleum and household paints. As plastics age, they release VOCs and even certain plants release VOCs. But, it is believed that we need to limit these VOCs in our environment as they contribute massively to pollution. So the natural switch is to convert to water based car paints instead of solvent based car paints but are there any other advantages to switching to water based car paints?

Well, firstly, they are non toxic as they only release water while they are curing on the car. This is on contrast to solvent based paints which release VOCs (as discussed above)

Secondly, they are easier to use. Solvent based paints have to be mixed with the right percentage of certain chemicals as well as have hardeners and reducers added. There is none of this with water based paints as this type of paint can be used straight from the  spray gun so not complications there.

Also, it is argued that water bourne paints win hands down to solvent based paints because whatever system you use, you need to apply several layers of paint to the one car. When using urethane paints, the timings between layers is critical because trapped solvent may be released into the upper layers, causing ‘solvent pop.’ This problem is totally eliminated when = water-based paints are used.

Another two plus points that spring to mind are that with water based paints, you do not need anywhere near as much colour pigment (in comparison to  solvent based paints) AND you do not need a primer as you can spray the paint directly onto the aluminium or metal car body.

x1 classic carIs There a Downside To Water Based Paints For Cars?

The only downsides to water bourne paints are that solvent based paints DO carry the colour pigments better than solvent based paints so there the spraying equipment is slightly different for water bourne paints. Also, water bourne car paints take longer to dry.

As to the question “What car care products and car polishes can you use on water based paints?”. the simple answer is any high quality good car polish or wax or car shampoo is fine for both – our X1 car care products are used extensively on both and the results are the same with no adverse affects.