General Motors and Ford are touting the processes and efforts behind the perfect paint finish, which is the first thing to catch a prospective buyer’s eye and a huge source of complaints if a defect is detected.
At GM, members of the Blue Suit Crew are trained experts in elaborate precautions to ensure that final vehicle paint finishes are pristine, while Ford is rolling out dirt detection technology across its plants to find and fix imperfections.
Ford said its F-Series pickups are the latest to use the technology to ensure a perfect paint surface before the spray guns come out.
The system uses high-resolution cameras to take microscopic scans under special lighting that digitally identify surface imperfections finer than a grain of salt. In the past, automakers relied on the human eye to detect imperfections.