Weight of a painted or wrapped car

has anyone ever weighed a f/c body before and after a paint job or after a body wrap? Just curious as to what the pound difference would be? I would think a paint job would be more of a difference than a wrap, but that's why I am asking this thread.

 

im just taking a wild guess but after painting cars and race cars for a very long time i would think the wrap would be lighter i know for sure its more durable

 

The difference in weight is about 25-30 lbs depending on the ammount of paint applied to the body.

 

When measuring the weight of paint, do you measure the inputs or the final product?
Obviously, when paint dries alot of the weight (liquid) evaporates leaving the solid paint on the car.
I have a VERY hard time believing a typical drag car can handle 25-30 lbs of paint... DRY
EDB

 

Thinking we would be able to remove a lot of weight before putting a third coat of paint on a funny car body, we scraped two coats of paint off of it clear down to the gel coat including rear and side window paint. We kept every piece, chip and flake and weighed it.

5.5 pounds.

There is no way a paint job is going to add 25-30 pounds unless you used stucco patch in the mix and put it on with a Wagner Power roller, heavy nap.

Where you pack on the extra weight is in excessive body work to make it look like a show car (bondo, etc).

RG

 

I have added as much as 35 pounds in a paint job on a comp car with no bondo.
All measured before and after the paint job on real scales. None of that NHRA track scales stuff.

I have seen a full F/C paint job as light as 6 pounds. But that is astoundingly light. Typical around 12-15.

(You like my new word- astoundingly?!)

 

ok so if a typical paint job on a funny car is 12-15 pounds? How much for a wrap on the same car? I am surprised the people who print and apply wraps haven't jumped on this. It could be a great selling point for their products. Dave Germain

 

i know a paint job does not weight 25 to 30 pounds where did you get that info at you must be weighing the can before you spray it ( lol )

 

Figure out how many gallons of paint you will be putting on your car.

 

As I stated, we razor bladed off an accumulation of two paint jobs down to the bare gel coat. Both paint jobs striipped at once were not thinly applied by no means.

12-15 pounds would have meant a paint job that was .050 thick.

 

funny subject
before we painted the new charger we inquired about paint weight versus wrap versus cost
martin senour told us after paint dried white weighed aprox 11-12 lbs/gal
i think they said this was the heaviest because of the most pigments

remember they usually want the car painted with some color before they wrap it

so i would best guess case you are talking 4 lbs give or take either way

 

I have razorbladed off many paint jobs. I can't seem to get all of the stuff swept up. I usually lose lots of dust and small particles. Generally one paound ends up in my nose, and the crevases of my arms and legs grab enough to give me paint splinters and some mysteries of where that came from in the shower. My guess is I only sweep up 3/4 of the total. Even though, that is still under 10 pounds for a full car. Not bad!
.050 with primer is actually fairly thin for one of my paint jobs. I have cars well over .125" thick.
I am going to guess in a friendly wager that your green paint job was over 10 pounds. The metalics need to be a little thicker, and heavier too.
Next time you need a car painted, send it on over.

 

i have been painting a long time and there is no need for a paint job to be an 1/8 thick hell even the old metal flake jobs werent that thick and i hose that shit on and its never that thick

 

wraps and paint

Ok, The actual material for digital print wraps doesnt weigh very much but the laminate to protect it adds some to it. So as far as weight is concerned its apple's to apple's.. Now it also depends if you are doing a full wrap, tip to tail, or a partial.. If its a partial a base color will be needed to complete the look so there goes any weight savings, but if its a full. the body prep is like paint prep-- needs to be relativly smooth and completely dust and oil free.
With a wrap , whatever you can design on a computer or photos, you can adapt to the scheme or design, As well as paint , if you can dream it, someone can paint it.. A paint job does seem to me to have more of the artistic touch , although the hours to duplicate a overlaped design with 4 layers of art work would be challenging to any paint ( But love those painters ) So I don t tic any body off!!!
Some advantages and disadvantages,,, If by chance you have a bad day and touch a wall or visit the beach, a wrap can be duplicated in sections to reapair the damage, paint also to some degree of difficulty. The disadvantage of wraps is they are flat prints put on curved surfaces, they dont distort but you will have seams in various places.. The better more experience wrap installers have less but even Blue Media's f/c from last year had seams-- Fantastic jos installing but some seams none the less. The shaps of f/c bodys doesnt help much..
My wife and I own a sign company, and have purchased with in the last year all the equipment and programs for the digital print system. We have wraped 6 differnt vehicles ( 2 completes and 4 partials ) Currently my partner and I own a alcohol f/c and are doing a partical wrap in which we painted the base black,,So much for the weight savings... So hopefully this helps in deciding which way to go---cost is just like paint --the more elaborate the higher the cost and durability is also avbout the same.. By the way Buzz and the brothers do some crazy paint work!!!! Thanks Mitch

 

Not to argue with anyone at all, but I have seen the numbers myself of a funny car body with no paint and a body with paint. The difference was about 25-30 lbs depending on the application and how much was used (this was a professional paint job by the way).

I would say the best way to find out is to just put the body up on a set of scales before you paint it and then do it again after.

 

removing paint

I noticed the talk about razor blading off old paint. I need to remove paint on a glass body and was thinking of using paint remover that won't harm the gel coat(if such a thing exists). Should i be scraping it off with a razor blade instead? I would think doing that would be asking for gouges in the gel coat. I would appreciate any comments on this , from people that have much more experience in this area than i do. Thanks,bob

 

Mark the "WOZ" turned us on to it. Depending on how the paint was applied it is possible it will come off in sheets when you scrape it. Ours did.

Use a window scraper from Home Depot and have about 50 blades on hand as it dulls them up. If you run across an area that doesn't come off I would recommend sanding that area instead of digging and gouging.

Do a sample area and see if it is possible. If it is, get a couple of your most trusted friends, hand them a scraper, turn on their favorite radio station, have their favorite beverage on hand and talk about the good ol' days while everyone gets to work.

Mark told me it is very difficult to stop paint removers from turning carbon and/or fiberglass soft because the remover will attack the resin.

RG

 

I have done quite a bit of fiberglass, and carbonfibre repair, "DO NOT NEVER EVER" use any type of paint remover/stripper you will never get the remover/stripper out of the fiberglass or carbonfiber, it will screw up any paint applied over it, plus it will weaken the resin, scraping, or sanding is the only way to remove paint, as for any gouges in the gel coat just feather edge it and apply some fill and sand primer to build it back up, it will be just fine.

 

the make a paint remover (stripper) for fiberglass the key to using the chemical strippers is not to let it eat down in to the gel coat use it to take off a few layers then take the rest of it off by sanding with a coarse paper then finish up with finer paper the best advice is if you dont know for sure take it to some one who knows how to do it good luck

 

With the ultra thin and sometimes non existant gelcoat on some funny-car bodies, you really need to be careful with paint stripper. There is fiberglass approved stuff, but even then. And some carbon epoxies REALLY don't like some chemicals. And there is no real explanation of why some don't mind one and hate another. You may not see the weakening of the carbon, but it can absorb some of the chamicals and not let the new paint sit down on it. Then you have to try and bake it out of there and that just gets to be a disaster.
We do it with boats all the time. Just pour on the paint stripper and watch it eat down to the gel and stop, but the gel is so much thicker in a boat, it has that protective layer before the glass/carbon.
I have done the razor blade deal many times and all but one paint job, it worked perfectly.