Most people who are not really into the details usually just specify a kind of “grade” of paint when they send their cars in for repainting. Most people who want their cars to look good usually specify “2K” paint, but many don’t really look at what exactly is being used to paint your car.

Nippon Paint is a big name when it comes to household paint. They’ve also been in the OEM car paint supply business for a really long time. If you’ve bought a car from Proton, Perodua, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Naza or Kia, there’s a good chance that the paint on your car is also from Nippon Paint Malaysia. Now, they are going into the refinishing market, which means aftermarket auto refinish paint.

Marketed under the Nax Premila 2K brand, there are a full range of products under the brand ranging from putty, primer, basecoat and top coat. Nippon Paint says Nax Premila 2K has high tinting strength on colour tinters comparable with competitors’. The flexibility of a 1K or 2K basecoat system, the ability to mix 1K or 2K binder, and the ability to match more colours from the colour tinters range. There are currently about 500 colour formulations in the Nax Premila range and Nippon Paint Malaysia targets to roll out 1,000 colours by December this year.

Basically when you send your car in for a full re-spraying, there are a few steps involved. It is best to have any trim, decals, emblems and anything else similiar removed from the car body. The car will then have to be cleaned properly to remove any wax, grease or contaminants from the old coat of paint.

Of course please remember where the emblems were located so the car will be returned to its “original” state – there are way too many BMWs on the road with the car model on the left instead of the right hand side of the boot!

Damage like this are easily fixable as only the paint is damaged.

Your body panels will also have to be repaired. Fenders, rockers, quarter panels, joints, and other areas will have to be checked for rust. If there is rust, the rust will have to be removed.

Accident damage – a really bad dent and paint scraped off until the bare metal is exposed. It is better to replace the entire fender instead of repairing it.

Minor damage such as small dents can be fixed by pulling the dent out, but if a body panel has been really heavily damaged, it is better to just replace the panel rather than knock it back into shape as the repaired area may start to rust in the future, despite anti-rust treatment.

Other small imperfections in the surface of the body can then be filled with putty. Nippon Paint has two products for this – Nax Universal Putty and Nax Filling Putty, both of which are made from polyester. The Filling Putty is apparently of a better grade and provides excellent adhesion.

Next, we apply the primer. Nippon Paint has the Nax 2400 Urethane Primer. Urethane-based primers are quite common in 2K paint jobs. Primer essentially ensure your total paint system adhere firmly to your car (a binding layer) and has other benefits such as increasing entire paint durability, and adding extra protection for the car body. There’s also the Nax PP Primer which has good adhesion characteristics for PP materials such as your car bumpers and spoilers.

Then it is time to add the basecoat paint. Basecoat comes in Solid, Metallic, Pearl or Crystal colours. Last coat is the Nax 9600 2:1 2K Clearcoat. During the whole process from start to finish it is important to have a dust and dirt-free environment so that dirt or dust does not get trapped in the paint.

The various coats will be mixed according to the manufacturer’s specs with recommended thinners or hardeners. Sanding down after Primer coat is important to ensure a smooth finish and better adhesion. This step will help to give the paint a better appearance and also prevent defects such as orange peel.

If you are interested in giving Nippon Paint Nax Premila 2K Auto Refinish a try, you can check out a list of paint shops that deal with Nippon Paint after the jump. Remember to ask for Nippon Paint Nax Premila 2K Auto Refinish when you ask for a quote as they may have other brands in stock and most people usually only ask for colour.
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