Hey Guys,

I recently got my car damaged from ice that had fallen from the roof of a trailer of a truck, while driving on the interstate to New Jersey. It just missed hitting the passenger side window and my 8 month pregnant wife. Unfortunately, a good sized dent was put into the door just above the door handle, taking the paint with it. There is also a small chunck taken out of the black stripping along the bottom of the window where it meets the door. 4 small additional dents were put into both front and rear passenger doors.

Anyway, we were there for only a couple of days, but thought we should have it looked at and get an estimate. We took it to a reputable place where my in-laws had work done to their cars.

We didn't get the work done, but it's what the guy told me about painting hybrids that causes me to post this to you guys. He said that he just got a couple of his guys certified to work on hybrids because you have to disconnect the battery when baking the paint or else it may explode.

Does anyone know if it's true? Is this somthing to consider when having our hybrids painted, whether the people working on it are certified to work on hybrids?

We're looking to get it fixed when we get our tax return back so I'll be calling around. Maybe the Honda dealers have recommendations...

Thank you and take care,

Jess

 

Haven't heard about certification to paint a hybrid vehicle, but the reason for caution is that the paint is baked with heat lamps. Too much heat in and around the car and the batteries are liable to fail or "explode" as some would suggest.

The body shop will need to lower the temperature of their paint drying booth and let the car sit longer. Mind you, the temperature range we're talking about in a body shop's paint booth is much higher than a car would encounter in normal conditions. So it's not as if you need to worry about your car sitting under hot summer sun.

 

My Insight had body work after a hit-and-run this past December. The main concern was getting people that worked on aluminum - never heard about exploding hybrids.

 

When I had body work done on my HCH I told them that if they need to heat cure the paint that the battery shouldn't be allowed to get too hot. I'm pretty sure there is a label on the door sill that mentions something about paint curing temps and the battery. I haven't had any problems, but I don't think they had to use heat. I also know they didn't disconect my battery, and I don't think that would make a difference in explodability.

 

Our hybrids have NiMH batteries. They don't explode, period. I might be a little concerned about exposing the batteries to that kind of heat, but then again they bake in the hot summer sun without failing (as far as I know) so how much worse can the heat lamps be?

Lithium Ion might be a little more risky given the thermal runaway problems seen current-tech cell phone and laptop batteries. It could be this guy is just pulling things out of his you-know-what and this is what sprang to mind? That problem should go away by the time we get LiIon, anyway.

 

Car paint is generally baked at temperatures from 130 up to 185C, (about 280 to 350F). That's plenty hot...

It's important the body shop understands restrictions for dealing with hybrid vehicles.

 

Does NOBODY read those brightly-colored labels on the driver's door frame each time you get into the car? Check it out next time - a nice big warning about the temperature of a paint booth on our Hybrid. =)

 

'nuff said then. That settles it. Thanks Flash.

Take Care,

Jess

 

If anything you will damage the battery if heated too much. That's probably want he meant.