Maserati paintwork available in 16 colors
If you own a Maserati or considering buying one you will love to learn about the paintwork detail. What makes the Maserati so exceptional is the paintwork available in 16 colors which 12 are amazing metallic colors. This is why the Maserati always looks so sexy appealing to generation Y as well as more seasoned ultra luxury consumers.
Maseratis are painted at the Ferrari factory in Maranello, Italy; this ensures the same level of paint finish as found on Ferraris. Once the Maserati bodyshells have been painted they are sent to the Maserati factory in Modena for final assembly.
The entire paint process lasts four days from the arrival of the unpainted bodyshells from ITCA in Turin to the final checks. The numerous manual and automatic stages provide enviable quality standards. The work is carried out in a room where the temperature and humidity are constantly monitored to ensure optimum conditions.
In the first phase the body, still in white, is washed in a special chemical to remove any traces of grease from the molding process and a protective layer of paint is applied.
During the entire cycle, which is completely automated, the bodyshells are suspended in a special tunnel with the hood, doors and trunk slightly open. This allows the protective paint to reach even the hidden areas inside the boxed steel sections. Next comes the cataphoresis stage: a procedure that involves dipping the bodywork in a special tub of thinned protective paint before applying an electric current that makes it stick to the metal more uniformly. Once the bodywork has been washed, prepared and the protective paint applied, all the bodyshell joints are sealed by hand to prevent dust, water or air from penetrating.
This is when the true painting begins with the application first of a primer and then the color layers. To obtain a better finish and even application of the paint the primer is varied depending on the car’s final color: if the car has to be painted red, a reddish primer is used while light or dark primers are employed, respectively, as the base for light or dark paint finishes.
The successive phases call for more hands-on work in a manual check of the bodywork after the primer and color have been applied. The color is sprayed on by hand and its extraordinary shine is the fruit of tried and tested methods that also regulate the time taken to apply the layers of paint before the final transparent clearcoat layer is applied.
The end stage is a quality check of the work carried out and the application of a protective layer over the parts of the car closest to the ground (the undertray and wheel arches) to make the bodywork more resistant to salt water, atmospheric agents and stone particles.
Owners have a choice of the 16 colors in the Maserati range, 12 of them metallic. However, the extremely flexible painting process means that non-standard and out of range colors can also be applied.
Maserati Kubang 2013
Maserati top five regions:
Italy
Lebanon
Switzerland
Macedonia [FYROM]
United States