Notice what is missing in this paint, or why Bentley paint > all others

stuart hicks said:
Rolls Royce sent me out to Santa Barbara last year for the launch of their new car. The paint was not as flat as your Bentley Picture. I wonder if their painted in different places?



With different companies now owning/operating the two firms, I'm pretty sure that they ARE painted in different places. Now that Rolls Royce is owned by BMW, maybe the quality is slipping a little.
 
I don't think quality is down but The Germans love orange peel. A BMW Designer told me once it was to cover any slight imperfections in the metal. The metal is as straight as any i've seen but these people have a higher standard than even their customers.



I remember when the X5 was being launched there was a big controversey over this semi glossy metal on the running boards. Some executives were afraid the reflection would show imperfections in the metal. I thought they were crazy but they pulled these running boards for the first year until they got every thing straight.



Most Of all BMW's worldwide are diesel and most have non-metalic paint. So I think their just not into the beauty element of a car as much as they are the practical and the performance.
 
Seeing your picture made me want to look into the Bentley process a little more. I was reading a small article on BBC News about the Bentley production process. It looks like VW changed the painting process from a hand spray paint to robot spray paint. No other details in the article on that and I'm not sure what year VW made the change. Article has a brief overview of the Bentley process, it's not in-depth, but it's OK:



http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2570109.stm
 
geekysteve said:
2003 Bentley Arnage, 5,100 miles:

This was our test vehicle - we had it for a few weeks...it's amazing how badly swirled it was.



Steve-I had a couple of customers who bought their Arnages through Overseas Importers, and both of them had massive rotary buffer/wool pad induced swirls. On one of them, even the stainless trim around the windows had buffer marks! I also had a ton of dried, white wax residue to clean up. :angry



It is a real shame when you have master craftsmen assemble and paint the car and then let some poorly trained make ready guy go hog wild with a buffer and wool pad on the car.
 
The funniest part is we called the shipping company to make sure that it was OK for us to wash and detail the car, and they told us not to wash it - they didn't want us to risk harming the finish!



I laughed and said something about it already being massively swirled and in bad need of a good detailing...she said, "Our drivers take them to the car wash, so the car should already be clean."



Rather than argue or try to explain what swirls were, I said "thanks," and washed it anyway. :D
 
geekysteve said:
The funniest part is we called the shipping company to make sure that it was OK for us to wash and detail the car, and they told us not to wash it - they didn't want us to risk harming the finish!



I laughed and said something about it already being massively swirled and in bad need of a good detailing...she said, "Our drivers take them to the car wash, so the car should already be clean."



:scared You can just rock me to sleep tonight!
 
Thanks a lot Scott, we all feel real good about the paint on our cars now. :) That is amazing paint though, thanks for the pictures.:cool:
 
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