Watching Paint Dry: The unexpectedly interesting story of car coatings
The paint shop at a modern car assembly plant can be 50% of the square footage under the roof, and cost 50% of the outlay, so half a billion for a new one at least.The change from VOC-borne to water-based paints was also a big deal for the environment. The lacquers did a good job, but imagine living in a neighborhood where several tons of toluene or acetone was being evaporated into your air every hour. In places like LA, this process was a huge contributor to smog in the 1960s/70s.