Bugatti shares an insight into its hypercar painting practices

The French hypercar marque has lifted the veil over the challenges its employees face when it comes to putting a fresh paint coat on a Bugatti. Each car takes between 600 and 700 hours to finish, including 200 hours for preparation of priming.

Before the parts can be primed, they are first meticulously inspected for any inconspicuous defects. The priming layer is then polished until it is perfectly smooth. The main coat layer is actually transparent, and also gets a high polish to eliminate any texture and ensure a particularly rich and saturated look for the underlying color.

Every part is finished individually from the rest, and the colors are then compared. The manufacturer points out that achieving completely identical shades is difficult due to the different nature of surfaces – for instance, the same color tends to look different on metal compared to carbon fiber, and so on. Should any parts of the car body stand out even marginally from the rest, the company retries the finish until no difference can be perceived.

The final polishing stage takes four days to complete. When over, the car spends ten hours sitting in a light tunnel being examined for any minute imperfections.