Earlier this year, Eyebox had the pleasure of hosting and helping a crew from Sherwin-Williams to paint Tim Shaw’s dream car.
As a host and producer in the automotive industry for over a decade, you can imagine how many times the "favourite car" question has been asked of Tim Shaw. He has shocked car lovers before by claiming the Fiat Multipla is “the coolest thing you can drive down the street”. So, it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to learn that the Car SOS presenter owns four!
There was one problem with Tim's cherished series one Fiat Multipla, and that was the colour. The dream colour for him was the factory original greeny-gold finish and he approached Sherwin-Williams for the help in achieving that. We were honoured to provide the space for the work to be undertaken, with our technical team assisting in stripping, sanding, painting, and reassembling the vehicle.
"Sherwin-Williams has a rich heritage in automotive refinishing. Our promise to our customers is more than just colour accuracy; it's our people, it's our products, it's our partnerships that really set us apart. We believe that every car deserves a premium finish."
- Adelle Bradford, Marketing Director of Sherwin-Williams Automotive Finished EMEAI
The more than 20-year-old car wasn't in the greatest of conditions when it arrived to the centre. The front bumper was damaged beyond repair, the rear bumper was damaged, the interior needed stripping and replacing, and many more imperfections! The car had to be recoloured, restored, and brought back to life to complete the ultimate makeover.
The team started with stripping the car so that they could remove dents and surface imperfections such as rust and large scratches, plus apply filler where needed. The panels were repaired, primed, painted, and top-coated all in less than three days!
In order to get the basecoat as closely matched as possible to the original gold, Sherwin-Williams' Spectrometer five angle camera was used. This was input into the Collision Core Colour computer to pick out the best variable match before being sent to the Pronto machine for mixing. Collision Core Pronto is the world's only fully automated paint mixing machine. It mixes efficiently, quickly, and accurately allowing painters to actually apply the paint rather than spending too much time mixing. It is fast, efficient, and 100% accurate first time, every time.
To save time, the clearcoat used was the Fast Performance Clearcoat which is energy efficient and cures in 20 minutes with a superb gloss level. The fast dry time of this clearcoat allows you to rebuild the car quicker than some other clearcoats available. This, combined with the immense team effort, meant that in less than 72 hours the car was complete and ready to go back home to Tim!
"This has to be the only Fiat Multipla on the planet, in my opinion, that's had a colour change. Nobody else would invest that amount of time or effort on a Fiat Multipla. I'm odd in the sense that I know my car colours and I knew straight away that this is exactly the right colour because I've seen so many of them. I know colour does change over time, in sunlight and what have you, but I know, having seen them when they came out of factory, that this is precisely how they rocked off the production line."
- Tim Shaw, TV Presenter
"A huge thank you to Eyebox Training & Conference Centre for providing their top-of-the-range facilities and incredible support. Their partnership helped us bring this transformation to life in just 72 hours! It’s moments like these that remind us, it’s our people and partners that make all the difference."
- Sherwin-Williams
Thank you to Sherwin-Williams for using our space to complete this task. We had such a fun time helping you with this unique product.