Maseratis are painted at the Ferrari factory in Maranello; this ensures the same level of paint finish as found on Ferraris.
The Maranello set up allows the bodyshells of around seventeen Ferrari and Maseratis to be painted every day. Once they have been painted they are sent to Modena for final assembly.
The entire process lasts four days from the arrival of the unpainted bodyshells from ITCA in Turin to the final checks. The numerous manual and automatic stages guarantee enviable quality standards. The work is carried out in a room where the temperature and humidity are constantly monitored to ensure optimum conditions.
In the first phase the body, still in white, is washed in a special chemical to remove any traces of grease from the moulding process and a protective layer of paint is applied.
During the entire (completely automated) cycle, the bodyshells are suspended in a special tunnel with the bonnet, doors and boot slightly open. This allows the protective paint to reach even the hidden areas inside the boxed steel sections. Next comes the cataphoresis stage: a procedure that involves dipping the bodywork in a special tub of thinned protective paint before applying an electric current that makes it stick to the metal more uniformly. Once the bodywork has been washed, prepared and the protective paint applied, all the bodyshell joins are sealed by hand to prevent dust, water or air from penetrating.
This is when the painting proper begins with the application first of a primer and then the colour layers. To obtain a better finish and even application of the paint, the primer is varied depending on the car’s finished colour: if the car has to be painted red, a reddish primer is used while light or dark primers are employed, respectively, as the base for light or dark paint finishes.
The successive phases call for more hands-on work in a manual check of the bodywork after the primer and colour have been applied. The colour is sprayed on by hand and its extraordinary shine is the fruit of tried and tested methods that also regulate the time taken to apply one layer of paint and the next meaning that the final transparent paint layer is always perfectly applied.
The end stage is an assessment of the work carried out and the application of a protective layer over the parts of the car closest to the ground (the undertray and wheel arches) to make the bodywork more resistant to salt water, atmospheric agents and stone particles.
Owners have a choice of the 16 colours in the Maserati range, 12 of them metallic. However, the extremely flexible painting process means that non-standard colours can easily be applied.
