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This would be amazing if you could do it on a car that already is completed, and could be any make/model including old cars. The trick is that the machine has t

This would be amazing if you could do it on a car that already is completed, and could be any make/model including old cars. The trick is that the machine has to know exactly where the surface is, and that would presumably need high precision scanning.

the_pwner224 5y ago
Layers of clear coat are applied after the paint layers. To repaint / modify a car you would need to first sand away the clear coat, then apply paint over the existing paint and do color matching (paint fades over time in sunlight; clear coat reduces but doesn't stop this, so a human must blend between the freshly painted area and the existing paint), then refinish with new clear coat. All of this is very labor intensive and requires human experience and judgement. Actually putting the new paint down is a small part of the process and there wouldn't be much to gain by automating it. For things like putting stripes on the car, as shown in the video, vinyl decals are a much better option. A lot can be done with vinyl wraps and decals. Applying them takes some time and human expertise to evenly stretch the vinyl and apply it without bubbles/creases/warping, but the process is very straightfoward compared to painting - you just clean the car and stick on the vinyl with the help of a hair dryer / heat gun. Even for changing the color of your entire car I'm pretty sure wrapping comes out to be cheaper than a good paint job just due to the huge amount of human labor that painting requires (also automotive paint is expensive). And there are some really beautiful colors/effects available in wraps. And a full vinyl wrap is removable - just peel it off - so you can 'undo' the 'repaint' if you use vinyl. However for decorations like stripes, if you've left the decals on for a few years then it'll look ugly if you take them off since the decals will stop the paint under them from fading but the rest of the car's paint will continue to fade from sun/UV exposure, so you'll see the decal's shape 'imprinted' into the car's paint.
- joshjdr 5y ago
  If only they could invent a robotic sanding process…
  - injidup 5y ago
    Of course your response is sarcastic. It amazes me that people on this forum routinely claim that there are certain things onöy a human can do well. Robotic sanding and milling is certainly trivial for today's automated systems to achieve. There are YouTube videos going back to at least 2017 https://youtu.be/H2Sf4uu-JLM https://youtu.be/H2Sf4uu-JLM Whether it is cost effective for a small body shop to have one is debatable but the technology exists.
    - robbrown451 5y ago
      "It amazes me that people on this forum routinely claim that there are certain things only a human can do well" Not me. In fact, I'm pretty sure your comment was written by a robot. :)

the_pwner224 5y ago

Layers of clear coat are applied after the paint layers. To repaint / modify a car you would need to first sand away the clear coat, then apply paint over the existing paint and do color matching (paint fades over time in sunlight; clear coat reduces but doesn't stop this, so a human must blend between the freshly painted area and the existing paint), then refinish with new clear coat. All of this is very labor intensive and requires human experience and judgement. Actually putting the new paint down is a small part of the process and there wouldn't be much to gain by automating it. For things like putting stripes on the car, as shown in the video, vinyl decals are a much better option. A lot can be done with vinyl wraps and decals. Applying them takes some time and human expertise to evenly stretch the vinyl and apply it without bubbles/creases/warping, but the process is very straightfoward compared to painting - you just clean the car and stick on the vinyl with the help of a hair dryer / heat gun. Even for changing the color of your entire car I'm pretty sure wrapping comes out to be cheaper than a good paint job just due to the huge amount of human labor that painting requires (also automotive paint is expensive). And there are some really beautiful colors/effects available in wraps. And a full vinyl wrap is removable - just peel it off - so you can 'undo' the 'repaint' if you use vinyl. However for decorations like stripes, if you've left the decals on for a few years then it'll look ugly if you take them off since the decals will stop the paint under them from fading but the rest of the car's paint will continue to fade from sun/UV exposure, so you'll see the decal's shape 'imprinted' into the car's paint.

joshjdr 5y ago
If only they could invent a robotic sanding process…
- injidup 5y ago
  Of course your response is sarcastic. It amazes me that people on this forum routinely claim that there are certain things onöy a human can do well. Robotic sanding and milling is certainly trivial for today's automated systems to achieve. There are YouTube videos going back to at least 2017 https://youtu.be/H2Sf4uu-JLM https://youtu.be/H2Sf4uu-JLM Whether it is cost effective for a small body shop to have one is debatable but the technology exists.
  - robbrown451 5y ago
    "It amazes me that people on this forum routinely claim that there are certain things only a human can do well" Not me. In fact, I'm pretty sure your comment was written by a robot. :)