Don't dig your paint? Change it with the touch of a button.
Normally, when you want to change the paint color on your car, you're facing lots of disassembly, extensive prep work, and expensive time in a spray booth followed by seemingly endless hand blocking. Instead of the conventional method, a new technology might be on the way to make a color change as easy as twisting a knob. It's actually quite similar to the magic General Motors has wrought with their magnetorheological dampers. The variable-color paint works this way: prior to paint, the body gets a special polymer coating that's got paramagnetic iron oxide particles in it. When a current passes through this coating, the ferrous particles change their alignment, which alters the way they reflect light, effectively changing the car's color. The default color when the car's not running is white, which hints at a future of exceptionally bland parking lots if this technology takes off. [Source: Motor Authority]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
FThorn 9:09AM (11/08/2007)
Duckies and Bunnies (Johnny Dangerously)
http://www.moviewavs.com/php/sounds/?id=gog&media=WAVS&type=Movies&movie=Johnny_Dangerously"e=sedan3.txt&file=sedan3.wav
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Alex 9:13AM (11/08/2007)
great, get ready for some seriously gross car colors. i can only imagine what the tuner-boys in my neighborhood will come up with for their hondas.
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AutoXN 9:28AM (11/08/2007)
This will be great for those daytime bank heists and liquor store robberies.
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Jerk Face 9:36AM (11/08/2007)
"The default color when the car's not running is white, which hints at a future of exceptionally bland parking lots if this technology takes off."
LOL
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Julius Haslow 9:43AM (11/08/2007)
Guys, Pistonheads stole this story from MotorAuthority. It came out yesterday.
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jamey 9:45AM (11/08/2007)
Car shopping for the typical female just got alot easier.
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pistonfree 10:33AM (11/08/2007)
Oh no. Now people are going to be changing the colour of the car in time with the music or worse. Great :(
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Guenther 10:16AM (11/08/2007)
I'll stick with various interpretations of "invisible graphite"
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gamRx 10:23AM (11/08/2007)
Should be great for law enforcement- imagine that silver impala just turned black and white. The unmarked cars are not easy to spot as it is, imagine it with this!
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Chad 10:23AM (11/08/2007)
I bet the police would dislike this very much.
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Chad 10:25AM (11/08/2007)
The red car they were chasing just turned yellow.
Locke 10:09PM (11/08/2007)
I had talked with an engineering student a couple years ago about research on this method and it was still years and dollars away.
I keep thinking how great it would be for pool bottoms. Light color and cool in the summer, dark color and absorbing heat in the spring!
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Arsenic0 4:07PM (11/09/2007)
Except that you have to be applying a current to the oxide to hold the color.
Hey kids jump in the water, its *shockingly* warm...
CMDR 11:23AM (11/08/2007)
What if you do a body kit? or get a scrape?
What if onstar makes the bank robbers car start flashing for easier visibility?
It would be ridiculous to think safety measures won't be taken with this. I can already see this only working in park.
And I'd be happy for my heat soaking black car to turn white when I'm not in it.
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salguod 1:05PM (11/08/2007)
For a lot of us car guys (and gals too, I assume), one of the joys of having a nice car is walking up it in the lot or turning your head to check it out as you walk away. Now, it'll only look it's best when I can't see it - when I'm driving.
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Jason 8:05PM (11/08/2007)
There's been crap like this out before - it's hardly new.
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weahman11 11:24AM (11/09/2007)
Ok who is the main company who is going to wholesale the product.. well rather the oxide coating paint
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timp 7:21AM (11/09/2007)
cool write-up, i always thought that someone would eventually come up with this technology...
however, I feel like I should point out (for those who aren't aware) that the car in the picture isn't painted with any special paint, it's actually a special edition volkswagen called The Harlequin... they came factory painted in all different colors.
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