Nissan gives a lot of importance to testing and R&D and has now resorted to a miniature car wash and a toy model to check on the quality of the paint it uses for its production cars. The Japanese automaker recently posted a video of a toy Nissan 370Z being put through its paces in a miniature car wash at the Nissan Technical Center North America in Michigan.
Engineers do this to ensure that the paint that they use can withstand the tough environment and the rigors of a car wash like tough bristles. They used a tiny version of a car wash comprising 10,000 blue bristles that spun at 180 RPM.
According to the video, the engineers washed the models with sample paint thousands of times to see how the paint held up, and used a cute red little 1:16 scale model of the 370Z to demonstrate how the tests are done. They even dirty the car up a little by using special dirt called “Arizona test dirt” to see how the car can handle the strain. This dirt mirrors the effect of real-word dirt on the car. In a modern car wash, the equipment used can scratch clearcoats and abrade paint.
Hence, long before a Nissan vehicle is brought to the showroom, it is thoroughly tested to ensure that its paint stays bright and shiny in spite of many sessions at an automatic car wash.
The video was uploaded only for illustrative purposes. Actual testing of the paint involves the Nissan paint being applied to rectangular plates which are placed into the miniature car wash and tested multiple times to ensure a top-quality finish, not actual vehicles.
