Las Vegas, Nevada — “Every single vehicle, every single make, every single model,” is the sentiment passed from Mike Anderson regarding his views on researching OEM guidelines for cure times and painting around ADAS sensors.
Anderson, an expert consultant at Collision Advice, shared his findings during his presentation, “OEM Procedures form a Refinish Perspective,” from the Global Finishing Solutions booth at SEMA. He said his concern lies in the misstep of repairers in that they may be missing vital instructions during the refinishing process of repairs.
“I don’t think anyone’s ignoring them on purpose,” Anderson told Collision Repair, “I just think they’re so focused on the body repair side of things that the paint and adhesion procedures fall by the wayside.”
Anderson showed examples from several OEM documents that gave a wide range of curing temperature and time requirements he says he feels are not being taken into account by many repairers. He also reminded us that the temperature in curing booths must be set to the air threshold requirements—not to be confused with the metal temperature thresholds.
Not only do the specific requirements for curing times and temperatures have a wide range, but the repercussions for missing them do as well. Anderson warns that while the effectiveness of paint and adhesion could be jeopardized, further damage could occur to the vehicle’s electrical systems. When it comes to EVs, this could mean completely killing the central battery.
“Every electrical vehicle you paint, you need to look for those OEM procedures,” said Anderson. “You could be inadvertently damaging the battery.”
Along with curing procedures being a hot issue, Anderson also spoke to the process of painting near ADAS sensors. Again, he gave examples from official OEM papers—all of them having unique instructions when painting near the sensitive systems. Anderson worries that as repair shops continue to learn how to work with ever-increasing ADAS systems in vehicles, the correlating refinishing guidelines will once again be missed.
With ADAS technology and curing guidelines alike, Anderson strongly advises that repairers remember to look for OEM procedures when refinishing.
“That’s why I’m encouraging and raising awareness that repairers research these OEM refinishing guidelines because things have changed.”
