Ford put out a bulletin this week about being careful to avoid exposing their EVs and hybrids to excessive heat, which is causing concerns about the paint process in the collision repair industry. It will be interesting to see what's done to ensure proper refinishing if shops can't use the bake cycle on their booths at the temps they normally would.
if you ask me this is total BS.
when i bake a car it's at 145 for 40 min. in all reality the temps of the non exterior sheetmetal doesn't get that high.in my opinion they barely hit 100. the sheetmetal gets to 140 for about 15 min at most.
cars in the south regularly hit those temps and higher when they sit out in the sun all day.
I'm glad you replied. I thought it was interesting that, in the day and age of OEM repair procedures being emphasized (and rightfully so), that Ford would put out this statement. The statement itself is somewhat vague, and is likely a CYA move, as opposed to a "You must/must not fix the vehicle this way."
for the most part it's just CYA.
another angle i have heard in PPG paint school training some really high volume production shops bake at much higher temps with shorter baking times. this allows them to paint more cars in a shorter amount of time.
i have heard they bake at 175* for 10 min to heat up the metal then drop it down to 150 for 20 min. i have heard from others they start out at 160 for 5 min. then crank up the heat to 190 for 10 min. then drop down to 140 for another 5 min and they are done baking.
i have tried the 175-150 method and didn't care for it. it seems to solvent pop easier. and the clear isn't cured like i like it before buffing. it seems like the top is cured but the under coat still seems soft unless you let it sit for a couple of hours before buffing. in my situation this delay is counter productive. the 10 min shorter bake is wasted sitting around for 2 hours before buffing. i like to bake for 40 min, cool off for 5 min then start buffing. i can have the car buffed and 1/4-1/2 of assembly done before they start buffing.
at those higher temps i can see damaging the electronics and other things. i could see myself baking a EV at 120 for 50 min. this is how i bake CNG cars that aren't supposed to be baked.
i guess time will tell.
