The joy of every car owner when picking up a new car is palpable, yet most people lack sufficient knowledge about original factory paint and often take improper measures to protect the paint surface. Having been immersed in various auto forums and interacting with brand manufacturers for years, I have noticed that many car enthusiasts hold such an opinion: "There’s no need to spend money on paint protection. After driving it for two years and it fades, a full-body repaint at a 4S shop only costs a few thousand yuan, which is much more cost-effective than long-term maintenance!" Most car owners who hold this view drive economy cars priced around 100,000 yuan. A full-body repaint for such models at a 4S shop costs about 6,000 yuan, while roadside repair shops can take the job for 3,000 yuan. As for the quality of the painting process, it’s fair to say you get what you pay for, and the difference in quality is visible to the naked eye. In contrast, in the Beijing market, a full-body repaint for a BMW 3 Series at a 4S shop costs as much as 20,000–35,000 yuan. For high-end models like the 5 Series and 7 Series, the starting price is 30,000 yuan, and the shops even claim to adopt original factory processes. Those who know cars well certainly understand the ins and outs of this. Today, we are going to take a deep dive into this question: Is original factory paint really worth spending money to protect? ## I. Original Factory Paint: The Unique "High-Temperature Process" The paint applied to cars at the factory uses a high-temperature baking process, which can only be completed when the car body is in a bare frame state. From applying putty as a base and epoxy primer for protection, to intermediate primer for leveling, basecoat for coloring, and finally clearcoat for enhancing gloss, some high-end models even incorporate multiple layers of special processes. The entire process is fully operated by numerical control automated equipment. The key point is that the baking temperature after painting reaches above 200°C, which allows the paint to deeply bond with the car body substrate. The resulting paint finish achieves top-tier standards in hardness, glossiness, adhesion, and durability, with the official claim of guaranteed resistance to blistering and peeling for 10 years. Of course, this varies by model—for those low-priced models, corners are inevitably cut in paint materials and processes, so they naturally cannot meet this standard. Taking the standardized painting process of high-end models as an example, its rigor is beyond imagination: 1. **Pretreatment Process**: It includes more than ten steps such as degreasing, surface conditioning, phosphating, and water control. The water washing step alone is carried out 6 times, covering various methods like spray washing, immersion washing, cold water washing, hot water washing, and pure water washing, ensuring the car body meets extremely high anti-corrosion and anti-rust requirements before electrophoresis. 2. **Environmentally Friendly Drying System**: The drying oven is heated by clean energy, and the waste gas generated is purified through high-temperature secondary combustion by professional equipment, which not only ensures the paint curing effect but also meets environmental protection standards. 3. **High-Efficiency Spraying Process**: Advanced "3-coat 1-bake" technology is adopted, with the entire painting operation completed by fully automated robots. This maximizes the uniformity of the paint finish and avoids color differences and sagging issues associated with manual spraying. 4. **Cavity Wax-Injection Protection**: This is the last critical step in the painting process. Workers inject liquid wax into the cavity structures at the bottom of the car body. After special treatment, the liquid wax forms a uniform protective film on the inner walls of the cavities, isolating moisture intrusion and fundamentally preventing rust inside the car body. 5. **Stringent Environmental Control**: The painting workshop has extremely high requirements for a dust-free environment, with meticulous attention to every detail to prevent dust particles from adhering to the paint surface and affecting the final painting quality. Meanwhile, the workshop is equipped with a central production management system that conducts real-time dynamic monitoring of the entire production process and equipment operating status. ## II. 4S Shop/Repair Shop Paint: Unreplicable "Secondary Repair" No matter how high-end a 4S shop is, the repainted paint is a secondary paint job, and its process and effect can never match those of original factory paint. The core difference lies in the baking temperature: original factory paint undergoes high-temperature baking at 200°C, while repainted paint uses "low-temperature repair paint" with a baking temperature of only around 70°C. The paint finish cured at low temperatures is far inferior to original factory paint in terms of adhesion and durability. More importantly, secondary painting is almost entirely done manually. Even if some high-end 4S shops are equipped with dust-free workshops, it is difficult for them to meet the precise standards of the original factory automated production line. In most cases, the painting effect can only achieve "looking almost the same to the naked eye". In terms of service life, the repainted finish at a 4S shop can generally last 3–5 years, while the craftsmanship of roadside repair shops is even more worrying. These small shops often have limited space, with many processes carried out outdoors. They cut corners on consumables as much as possible, and mostly use cheap paint products. It’s worth noting that the material cost difference between domestic ordinary paint and imported paint brands like DuPont and Glasurit is as high as more than ten times. This leads to the phenomenon where "a job that costs 1,000 yuan at a large shop is taken by a small shop for 200 yuan". However, the paint finish from such low-cost repainting often loses its luster in half a year and may even blister and crack in less than a year. Some wealthy car owners may say: "Money is not an issue for me; I want the painting process to meet original factory standards!" Unfortunately, there are no such repair shops across the country. If you insist on customizing a full-body paint job that meets original factory standards, the cost may exceed 100,000 yuan. The reason is simple: original factory painting is performed on a bare car frame. To replicate this process, nearly 70,000 parts of the entire vehicle need to be disassembled; otherwise, the interior and electrical components will be completely damaged under the 200°C high temperature. After painting is completed, a team of professional technicians is required to reassemble the vehicle, which takes a week. Such costs and efforts are truly unaffordable for the average person. ## III. Original Factory Paint Is So Precious—How to Protect It Correctly? Original factory paint is the only "original factory configuration" of a vehicle that cannot be replaced or replicated. To keep your beloved car looking as bright as new despite the passage of time, scientific maintenance is essential. Common paint surface protection methods are divided into the following categories, which can be selected according to needs: - **Basic Maintenance**: Wash the car regularly with proper methods, avoid using strong alkaline detergents that can damage the paint surface; wax the car regularly to provide basic protection for the paint and maintain its glossiness. - **Long-Term Protection**: Choose paint coating or crystal plating, which forms a hard protective film on the paint surface, effectively resisting minor scratches, acid rain, and ultraviolet erosion. - **Ultimate Protection**: Apply a paint protection film (PPF) to the car body, which is equivalent to putting a "transparent armor" on the paint. It can comprehensively isolate external damage without affecting the original color of the paint. Here, we want to recommend a more user-friendly maintenance solution—a paint care product using the "+" construction process. It truly eliminates the need for polishing, avoiding paint wear caused by polishing on the original factory paint. It can be directly applied to cover minor scratches, instantly making your car shine brightly. The joy of picking up a new car is worth cherishing, and protecting the original factory paint is the best way to keep that joy alive. When your beloved car still looks as bright as new after being exposed to wind and rain, that sense of delight will last longer than the moment you first picked it up.