Can standardizing bus models and livery really prevent improper operations?

HuiCong Surface Treatment Network: “China’s official vehicle reform has been underway for 19 years, yet year after year, the reform seems to remain stuck in neutral. The trend of overstaffed vehicle allocations and the private use of official vehicles remains strong.” Li Weihua, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Vice Chairman of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the CPPCC, pointed out that waste and corruption on wheels cannot be delayed or postponed any longer. She suggested institutionalizing solutions and adopting a coordinated, holistic approach to tackle the persistent problem of official vehicles being misused for personal purposes.

Faced with such a persistent and intractable problem, the proposed solution—“strictly defining the scope and standards for official vehicle allocation, adopting a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy toward the private use of official vehicles, dealing with each case as it’s discovered, taking strong and decisive action, and drawing on the practices of Hong Kong and Macao by standardizing official vehicles in terms of model, livery, and color to facilitate public oversight”—has sparked intense debate as soon as it was put forward.

Standardizing automotive painting—technically speaking, the process itself isn't particularly difficult to carry out. The real challenge, however, is this: Once painting standards are unified, can we truly prevent non-compliant operations? I believe that, at present, this remains an open question. Nevertheless, we can still explore the automotive painting processes that we’re already familiar with.

From the perspective of automotive painting processes, automotive painting can generally be divided into two major parts: first, the surface treatment of metal substrates prior to painting, also known as pretreatment technology; and second, the actual painting application process. Surface treatment primarily involves removing oil stains, dust, rust, and old paint layers—especially when carrying out repair work—to improve the surface condition of the workpiece. This includes mechanical and chemical treatments applied to the workpiece surface according to specific conditions, such as phosphating, oxidation, and passivation treatments.

Meanwhile, automotive painting processes each have their own unique characteristics and priorities depending on the type of vehicle.

The primary painted components of a heavy-duty truck are the front cab, which has higher painting requirements; other components, such as the cargo bed and chassis, have lower painting requirements than the cab.

The paintwork of passenger vehicles differs significantly from that of freight vehicles. The body of a passenger vehicle includes the chassis beams, frame, interior cabin, and exterior surface; among these, the exterior surface has the highest requirements. The exterior surface not only needs to provide excellent protection and aesthetic appeal but also features a large spraying area with numerous flat surfaces, often incorporating two or more colors—and sometimes even automotive stripes. As a result, the construction period is longer than that for freight vehicles, the construction standards are higher, and the construction process is more complex.

Passenger cars and small station wagons have higher requirements than large buses and trucks, both in terms of surface decoration and underlying protection. Their surface coatings must meet Class I decorative precision standards, featuring a beautiful appearance with a mirror-like or exceptionally smooth finish, free from any minute impurities, scratches, cracks, wrinkles, blisters, or other defects visible to the naked eye, and possessing sufficient mechanical strength. The underlying coating must serve as an excellent protective layer, exhibiting outstanding rust resistance and corrosion protection, as well as strong adhesion. Where applied locally or over the entire surface, putty with excellent adhesion and high mechanical strength should remain intact for several years without showing signs of rusting or peeling.