While the big guys scramble to get their waterborne paints out, there is a small company in Connecticut that has been making completely water-based automotive paint for almost 30 years. Auto-Air Colors started in 1978, marketing its products to custom painters and airbrush artists. Craig Kennedy now runs the company begun by his parents, and we spoke to him about its paint. "Basically, it starts out as a giant blob of plastic," he says, referring to the acrylic polymer that forms the resin for Auto-Air's products. "We then add things to it to keep it in a liquid state." The majority of Auto-Air's carrier agent is water, which separates it from other waterborne paints. Auto-Air has no solvents and emits no VOCs as it dries. "You could drink it if you want to, though we don't recommend it," Kennedy says. He happily sent us a quart of basic black to try out, which we took to Ferre at LATTC so he could show us how to use it.
Since no one makes a water-based clearcoat, you'll have to spray a solvent-based clear over an Auto-Air basecoat. The company offers a wide variety of colors and a lot of cool custom options, from candies and pearls to metalflake and fluorescent colors. Kennedy says the trends he's seeing now are subtle two-tone paint jobs and pearl accents being used on body lines. "Real fire is dead," he says. "We're seeing a lot more toned-down paint jobs, and the two-tone is coming back." Judging by the ease with which our basic black went on, we may just try out a custom paint job of our own. Stay tuned for the outcome.
What the hell? Remember the thinner mentioned earlier? This is why it's needed. The paint was too thick to spray right out of the can and came out of the gun in globs rather than a fine mist. This was actually the second attempt-the first resulted in a spatter effect similar to the inside of a trunk on '60s GM cars. After thinning to what seemed like enough, this was the result. Obviously the paint was still too thick. This illustrates why it is important to spray a test panel first; the only instructions on the paint can recommended to thin it as necessary up to 25 percent. Further thinning smoothed the paint out and allowed it to flow out of the gun properly, but the damage was already done to this mirror, and the paint will have to be sanded off. | 
Auto-Air Colors paints need to be applied differently from solvent-based paints. Kennedy recommends using an RP (reduced-pressure) paint gun, or even an "old-school" spray gun like a Binks model #7. "The paints atomize best when sprayed through a 1.2 fluid tip at 40 psi," he says. In addition, several spray gun manufacturers are marketing water-compatible guns with stainless steel internals that will not corrode in the presence of water. Ferre had recently bought this Iwata LV (low-volume) water-compatible gun and was eager to try it out. |
The next product we tried was this enamel we purchased at Top Guns, a local paint supply store. It is also a single-stage, two-component paint. The activator is in the can on the right, and we made sure to thin it sufficiently this time using the reducer on the left. | 
The Auto-Air paint is ready to spray directly out of the can. The tech sheet recommends spraying a light mist coat first, followed by a medium wet second coat. |
"Water-based paints cover much better than solvent paints," Ferre says. "Usually two coats are all that's needed." Sure enough, our mirror was done in two coats. | 
Both Kennedy and Ferre stress that each coat of water-based paint must be fully dry before another coat is sprayed on. This is different from solvent-based paints, which only need to flash, or dry to a tacky feel, before another coat is applied. Here, Ferre is blowing air from the tip of the gun over the surface of the paint, allowing it to dry a little more quickly. |
Another benefit to Auto-Air paint is that it can be cleaned with soap and water. | |