1999-2009 [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
Y'know what? Birds DO eat stones! Well, very small stones & gravel, sand, grit, that kinda stuff. The smaller the bird, the smaller the stones. They settle in the 2nd chamber of the stomach, also known as the gizzard. There, the stomach muscles & the stones combine to grind up seeds & other tough bits the bird eats.
Y'know what else? Different paints offer varying degrees of durability. The most durable paint I've found is polyurethane powder coating. It's a process where dry paint pigment is electrostatically attracted to the surface being painted, & then fused in an oven into a uniform, attracted-to-metal layer. Some car manufacturers are using a similar technique to apply their spray-on paints, in an effort to reduce waste & pollution. But even the best DuPont Imron doesn't hold up as well as powder coating does. The problem is, powder coats tend to show poorly on large, flat surfaces. The paint on our cars is reasonably durable. We're not talking about the Flake-O-Matic paint jobs GM gave their cars in the '80's. Chips happen. It's not a defect! Get a bottle of touch-up & protect what's exposed.
Here's a pretty good description of how different paint colors affect durability (I've edited out the color names, since they don't mean anything in the context of Saab's colors; the original's linked below):
"Color and styling choices can have a significant impact on finish life. Paint is a composite material in which the pigment holds the enamel together. Clear-coat-only has very little durability. Rust will appear under the clear coat in under a year.
"That doesn't mean that more is better, though. Heavy multi-coat finishes have a greater tendency to chip than do single color paints.
"Some paints, particularly neons, are particularly susceptible to chipping. That's because the additive which creates the neon effect undermines the composite structure of the paint. What's more, neons tend to fade after a year or two.
"While hi-gloss metallic colors offer many years of service, the most durable colors are, surprisingly, in our core color palette - Red, Blue, Green, Black and White."
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My 2nd-Favorite Bicycle Builder
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