Chromax Pro Initial Thoughts
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Hey, I wanted to give a quick breakdown on how our week of Dupont Chromax Pro conversion went and my initial thoughts.
You can see some pictures of my setup here -> http://www.refinishnetwork.com/user-tools/photos/84-justin-jimmo/album?albumid=232
So to start of with the good things I’ve got to say I was really impressed with the primers & sealers, they lay down and cover better then any I’ve used before. The clearcoat I’ve been spraying is pretty nice (LE5400), holds its gloss really well, goes on alright and drys quick. I haven’t really used anything in our downdraft but the 5400 seems fairly productive to use in a booth without a makeup unit.
The computer system is a bit finiky and I’m not quite sure what to make of it yet. We were provided with a spectrophotometer that reads color, however I bitched enough until we were able to upgrade to the newer one that reads flake size. I’ve read and heard alot of good things about the machine, also I’ve heard terrible things about Dupont color match so I figure we should take advantage of any color tools that are available. Its a neat system but seems much more complex compared to BASF’s. It shows a library of color chips on the screen and compares it to your scanned color, then provides an numerical indication (target value) on how close the match is. The way colors are selected seems ridiculous to me, its hard to explain but in a nutshell you have to click alot of buttons to find the computers best selected match rather then it doing simple calculations and providing it to you. I’ve yet to really get a feel for how accurate the system is for color matching, however in this very slow week where the rep was doing the colormatching we had one redo and another that took several hours of tinting…so not off to a great start in that dept.
The basecoat does cover extremely well, however we are Valueshading the undercoats. If we were valueshading under BASF it would likely cover in 2 coats for the most part just the same. The basecoat has blended out very easily and has a really nice look to it. I’m impressed with how easy it is to get a nice even looking metallic color however I’ve been spraying under fairly easy conditions, and not to challenging of colors…but still gotta give some credit. They call it Coat and a half, I mean its still two coats the way I look at it. It is nice that you can spray it back to back and just walk away, but i seem to be going back in and touching up areas after (might chaulk it up to user error or poor prep tho in all fairness).
Lastly the support we got for the switch was a bit mixed. The training center was a pretty good experience, learned a fair amount and the instructor was quite knowledgable. The support we got in the shop left quite a bit to the imagination. I heard so much BS from them it was unreal, and we got a different awnser from each person. A few guys were extremely arrogant and talked down to the shop staff, myself included so needless to say i was not impressed and expected a higher degree of professionalism. But at any rate I tried to take any advice they provided and sort out the good from bad. Generally I’ve always looked forward to seeing my paint reps…..but ya, i don’t think thats going to be the case anymore. I guess i’ll have to contact my BASF,PPG or Sikkens reps if they haven’t disowned me yet. :chair
But to sum it up, the system seems pretty good provided color matching doesn’t prove to be an issue. I miss my spray out deck, its 2.5k to buy one from Dupont, we’ve started our own spray out library so we’ll see how it goes. I’m hoping the new spectrophotometer solves some of the issues people have been complaining about regarding color, but I guess time will tell. Keep ya’s posted.
Glad to hear it has been a relatively positive experience so far. The pic of the computer software looks like it has been updated since I used DuPont. But I do agree, the system did seem nu-necessarily complex/time consuming. We had pretty good luck with the camera (provided it was used properly and within reason).
Too bad about the reps, the DuPont reps here were extremely professional and helpful.
Thanks for sharing, and keep us posted as you go Jimmo!
I feel the same about their reps
I have not sprayed Chromax Pro, but I did use Standoblue (Standox water) and was not impressed. I understand the systems are VERY similar. I like the concept of the wet on wet application, but didn’t find it practical. PPG and Sikkens both offer water options that you spray similar to solvent. They arnt quiet as fast but the color match/blend-ability makes up for it. One problem I ran into with the wet on wet systems like Standox and DuPont is something as simple as a dirt nib in your base becomes a huge deal. You can’t just hit it and spot some base in that area, Once that stuff flashes the blend lays out like dog shit. It makes it a huge process just to fix such a simple defect. It’s just not user friendly, I couldn’t even imagine trying to do an over all with one of the wet on wet water systems.
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