Repainting my car: Which is better manual or using a robot?

Recently, I got my Crysta painted - while they did a great job with colour matching and spray, they did an average job with surface preparation.

BHPian imp! recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

I recently got some paint work done at an ASS and was distinctly unhappy with the quality of workmanship and was looking for ways to rectify the paint job.

This got me thinking about the paint process done at the factory using Paint Robots. All else being equal, Robots will always be able to give the same level of refinish, unlike manual painting which is dependent on the skill of the painter.

I was discussing this with a friend of mine and he said the same that if there was an option to get robotic painting (if priced competitively or on par with manual painting) then he’d go that route.

What do you guys think?

Here's what GTO had to say on the matter:

Robots are insanely expensive, need a lot of real estate space, need programming, maintenance etc. It's an answer to a problem no one has. Good dealer paint booths & aftermarket shops do very high-quality repainting. You need to find a good paint shop, not a robot.

Here's what BHPian androdev had to say on the matter:

If you are happy with the paint match, you should consider yourself lucky. You can ask them to redo it to get a proper finish - it's not that hard.

Robotic painting is not viable IMO.

Most reputed paint shops are able to achieve a good finish. However paint match is very difficult for old cars and robots are not going to be of much help.

Robots need to be programmed for the paint formula and shape of the painting area - a very highly skilled/expensive job not at all suitable for a repair shop where each job comes with its own unique requirements.

It's not enough to buy these $$$ Robots, their maintenance will be unimaginably expensive.

RoI will be very poor, especially in India where even luxury car owners are not willing to open up their wallets.

Here's what BHPian audioholic had to say on the matter:

I have had similar thoughts before on why there haven't there been instances of body shops using robots to replicate what the factory robots do for painting a panel. I’m no expert in the field of body work but have extensively seen different shops finish various cars across the world thanks to Social media. What I realised is it’s not just the robot that would make a huge difference. It's what happens from the denting process, surface preparation, colour matching, painting process, quality of the materials, quality of tools and the overall sterile environment. The robot only contributes to a very even and consistent paint spread. So this would only solve a part of the whole problem which a skilled and passionate painter could easily replicate, at a fraction of the cost.

Recently I got my Crysta painted - while they did a great job with colour matching and spray, they did an average job with surface preparation which led to a slightly wavy finish. Here a robot couldn’t have made much of a difference.

Next is the cost aspect - Such robots are insanely expensive and unless its utilized almost all the time and repeat the same job, they won't be economically viable. A few years ago for our company we bought robots from Kuka which is a leading manufacturer. Each robot was upwards of 50L rupees. Imagine how this amount could be recovered in a body shop. And the robot does not really replace labor. So the robot is an additional cost and even if you consider a 1k rupee premium per panel just because there is a robotic process, you have to paint 5000 panels just to recover the cost of the robot. Considering the best case of painting five panels a day, it will take 1000 days straight to recover the cost. Now imagine how many variables will change. That is why no one has tried it at least to my knowledge.

Here's what BHPian Jeroen had to say on the matter:

I don't think it is feasible at least not any time soon. Robots need programming. Robots are extremely effective when spraying a complete car from New. And it's not the spraying that takes a lot of time either!

Respraying parts of a Fender and so on takes a lot of experience and skills that are difficult to program a robot with. Every job needs a different programming most likely.

When it comes to costs, it is not the amount of spray hours that makes repairs expensive. It is the prepping, filling, filing and masking. And after the spraying there is usually still some rubbing down and or polishing required.

Take my Jeep on which I had both wings and the bonnet resprayed. The actual amount of time the guy spent out there with his spray gun was less than half an hour. But it took almost 8 hours of prepping and another 1, 5 hours of finishing once it had been sprayed.

I can honestly say that here in the West, any decent repair and paint shop will do an outstanding job. There is absolutely no way you can tell the old paint versus newly repaired and repaired bits. Not in colour, texture or anything. The only way to tell is with a paint thickness measuring tool. The original coat of paint is always thinner than the re-spray.

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