Will you need a license to buy automotive paint?

[rick-l]

Someone told me this is coming in the very near future? Is it?
You would need an EPA certified facility. What a bunch of crap.

[fuelie600]

This sucks!

Legislation
Hobbyists May Be Banned From Buying Paint

If you're planning on refinishing your car somewhere down the line, you might want to think about buying your paint today.

Addressing the Collision Industry Conference on November 1, 2005, held at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Los Vegas in conjunction with the SEMA show, EPA Environmental Protection Surface Coating Specialist Kim Teal outlined some of her agency's plans for their next air-pollution rule from automotive surface coating.

The last version of this rule, issued in February, 2004, was focused primarily on bodyshops, but the new regulations, scheduled for release in 2007 and adoption in August, 2011, are far more sweeping.
"The rule will impact everyone, no matter how much you use," she is reported as saying in Automotive Body Repair News. That may have a major effect on the hobby, as "the rule will attempt to restrict sales of paint to people who are not certified users."
This language has some powerful support. In a letter to Teal dated October 26, 2005,representatives from the Automotive Service Association (ASA) and National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA), recommended steps that sound uncannily like Teal's remarks just a few days later.

The letter, which suggests measures to be incorporated in the proposed rule, suggests that "Prospective purchasers and users of automotive refinishing products would need to be employed by a certified shop...Clearly, reasonable controls on the purchase and use of automotive refinishing products is key to helping eliminate unnecessary VOC emissions..."

We'll let you draw your own conclusions about the EPA's, ASA�s and NADA's intentions, but if there was ever a piece of car-related legislation about which to write your legislator, this is it. Kim Teal's contact information can be found at www.epa.gov and your legislators at www.senate.gov and www.house.gov. The original letter from ASA and NADA is available at www.asashop.org.
- By David B. Traver Adolphus

Courtesy of Hemmings Motor News

[Jeff Higgins]

There must already be some local laws or ordinances in place. I just finished painting my car with PPG acrylic lacquer. I was in Portland last weekend and met another Jeff that had painted his car with Glasurit, I believe a polyurethane system. He was surprised that I was able to even buy lacquer anymore. It is apparently illegal in Portland without proper environmental controls. Has anyone else run up against any local restrictions?

[RallyJon]

Just how much emissions are produced every year by hobbyists painting their own cars? I bet it's about the same order of magnitude as the horrible damage uncatalyzed early 911 exhausts do the the environment.

Very clever move on the part of bodyshop trade associations, though.

[LakeCleElum]

I know a guy that a rep and sells paint to body shops. I asked him last month and he was not aware of any impending changes. He told me if that happens, he could still get me paint. Jeff, he lives up near you. 185th just off the I-5.......

[cashflyer]

A guy I know with a shop in MA said that regulations have gotten so tough for small businesses, that his shop is in the process of switching to water-based finishes. I thought he was just pulling my leg, as I never figured anything other than solvent based stuff would give a suitable finish, but I Googled and found that he was serious. LINK LINK 2


It's coming.

[Zeke]

Many here go to Mexico to buy paint. And, it's much cheaper for the same stuff. That won't cease. Last paint I got came from Las Vegas because it no longer complies with CA standards.

I'm sure there are ways around this. There always are. Don't go out and buy up all the paint just yet.

[ruf-porsche]

Originally posted by Zeke
Don't go out and buy up all the paint just yet.

Where were you when R-12 was $.50 a can?

[randywebb]

It's too bad you think it is a "bunch of crap" -- most auto paints, esp. aftermarket ones, are serious pollutants. It's too bad that hobbyists have to suffer, but in any contest between my lungs and your convenience, guess who I think ought to win?

I know of at least two body shops that just spray paint in my city w/ no booth or anything. They're pros. I don't know if it's legal for them to do that or not... So it isn't just hobbyists.

[krauthead]

Just last week I painted my old Toyota 4x4 out in back of my property. Four days later we had a record 82 deg. day. I'm sure I will be contacted soon for my contribution to global warming. I had to get it done before I started burning leaves.

[Bill in OKC]

It sounds like another law that will send jobs and money outside our borders.

[rick-l]

Originally posted by randywebb
I know of at least two body shops that just spray paint in my city w/ no booth or anything.

A booth just takes out the particles, the fumes still go into the air.

[randywebb]

I thought that booths included a filtering setup (?)


Also, if pro shops don't have any kind of devices to clean the air, then restricting paint sales to pros would not reduce emissions at all (I can see why the painters lobbyists would like the above law, of course -- but there must be something more to it or EPA wouldn't propose it - esp. w/this administration).

[H.G.P.]

Anyone mow their lawn recently?