Akzo Sikkens - Creating Together - Our Silver Colored Finish

Our special high silver colored finish

Sikkens has developed an exclusive high contrast silver colored paint for McLaren Racing. Designed for maximum visual impact, the paint is hand polished to a mirror finish which helps sponsor logos stand out through the television camera. "We were looking to upgrade the whole brand image of the car. We were looking for something quite unique, a very special McLaren silver color. So we went looking for the right partner and AkzoNobel Sikkens formed the partnership to get the job done."

Jonathan Neale, Managing Director, McLaren Racing

A basecoat is no longer required and the process with the silver color now needs just four-and-a-half coats of silver color instead of six.

The carbon footprint to coat the car has been reduced by about 80 percent and hazardous emissions have been minimized (infra red arch).

Ultra-thin layers of the high silver colored paint are then applied. To cure a normal road car bonnet takes 40 minutes at 60°C, the infrared arch can do the same thing in just 7 minutes.

After drying the paint is hand polished to a mirror finish before a protective clear coat and sponsor logos are applied. The resulting finish is similar to liquid mercury.