Why is silver paint called aluminum paint?

All my life I have wondered this. Why is silver paint called aluminum paint? It can be painted on steel, wood, plastic, brass, and darn near anything else (including aluminum), so why that name?

Well, there is a color called 'silver' and a color called 'aluminum'. They're different - in fact, there are 2 or 3 different 'aluminum' colors that I've seen.

Because the color comes from aluminum which is a hell of a lot cheaper than real silver. Note that some cars do come in silver.

Lou

Marketing purposes. In consumer acceptance tests, "Aluminum" beat out the runner-up, "Squirrel" by, I believe, 2-3 points. "Phlegm" was a distant third.

Does that mean the paint contains aluminum particles? If it does, how come it can be used on steel without causing a corrosion problem?

A. Yes (or at least did--I've not used any in a long time so I suppose it's possible they're using something else now owing to higher Al costs)

B. Because it is already oxidized and contained in the carrier that makes it "paint" so it's not directly in contact--and that there's not a real high problem anyway...

Because it doesn't have any silver in it. If they called it "silver" paint, they'd get sued. (Litigation is a major sport in the USA).

Perce

On 07/28/05 12:11 am snipped-for-privacy@invalid.com tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

ROTFLOL

My last two cars have been "pewter" and "driftwood". I really want "gold", but I keep ending up with grey.

Meirman

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