Metallic Spray Painting on Composite Panels

In June 2022 the team at Wearnes Automotive in Singapore reached out to RENUGLASS for the restoration of their Jaguar and Land Rover car showroom facade.

Wearnes is the number one luxury car retailer in Singapore with brands like Bentley, Aston Martin and Bugatti.

The facade was in PVDF aluminium (or polyvinyl fluoride). PVDF coating is a liquid-based coating applied on aluminium composite to enhance their ability to resist abrasion and corrosion.

We noticed strong degradation of the PVDF coating, with discolouration and scratch marks following what looked like a cleaning pattern.

It appeared that the previous contractor, failing to remove stains and bird drops to client satisfaction, used an abrasive cleaning method that damaged the PVDF coating beyond repair.

We were left with the only option of repainting the cladding. We proposed a metallic paint system that we applied on site after sanding and priming the existing composite panels.

Now, in order to avoid further degradation of the facade, the client engaged RENUGLASS for a quarterly cleaning of the showroom facade. This will guarantee a spotless showroom all year long and no need to budget for another facade restoration.

The lesson of this post to the building manager: call a restoration specialist when your cleaning contractor is failing to deliver the expected result. Don't let them run experimental cleaning techniques on your facade!

Dare or dare?

When client desire, architect vision and unique product meet, it can make sparkles!

Exposed concrete facades are making a comeback and the trend has also reached Singapore shores. When you decide to use exposed concrete you have a few choices: Off-form Precast, GRC, GFRC, UHPC mainly.

For 32F Nassim road the Architect, CSYA, and the client, decided to go for timber look off-form precast.

Once you have decided on the material, the next question is: how rough do you want it?

You can, leave it "as is", you can integrate color pigments in your concrete mix, you can stain it with a silicate stain, or even paint it with an emulsion paint (NOT RECOMMENDED THOUGH!).

I met CSYA in 2020 and introduced ProtectGuard Color, our staining product for concrete surfaces from Guard Industrie.

They had a crush on our iridescent range and chose Amethyst Mirage, a unique dichromatic effect stain that has no equivalent in the world.

Not only does it look the part, but it also does the job. ProtectGuard Color is a 2in1 impregnation that not only colors but also protects the concrete thanks to its water and oil repellent system.

Take a look at the project below and remember, don't get fooled by the colour difference between the pictures, it is not a mirage, it is Amethyst Mirage.

This is a story of perseverance and legacy

I first noticed Empire Centre while walking down the streets of Hong Kong from our Singapore office.. on Google Earth..

I was struck immediately by the extreme pollution of the reflective glass facade. They turned yellow with tones of purple and brown on the edges. I knew we could bring it back to their brand new condition..

I was so excited for this opportunity that I reached out to everyone I could find within the building management. I believed they would be relieved to know there was a solution to their problem but it turned out no one answered, no one seemed interested to hear me out.

One Sunday afternoon, from my sofa in Singapore, I looked for some new contacts within the landlord organization (Sino Group) that I still hadn't reached out to. I found David Ng. David is the son of Robert Ng, President of Sino Group. The Ng family owns Sino Group in Hong Kong and Far East Organisation in Singapore. They are like royalties in the Asian mega landlord world.

I decided to roll the dice and send him a one liner on LinkedIn that said, in a nutshell: you have a problem, I have the solution.

2h later I received an answer: Sounds interesting, tell me more.

2 days later I was in HK for a mock up (you are looking at the result below). It was ironic to finally meet most of the management that I reached out to before.

It was a very hot HK summer day, I lost a few litres of sweat doing the mock up, but the success was total and I will always remember hearing the claps from David followed by the claps of the whole team when they noticed the result.

2 months later we started the project and, after a week of work, I sent a picture of the progress to David and I got one of the most beautiful messages I will ever read from a client that said: "I'm crying with joy. Thank you". I then understood how important it was for the owner's family as this building was not only their headquarters but it was built by Sino Group and Far East Organization founder Mr. Ng Teng Fong, David's grandfather. We were not just restoring the facade, we were bringing the building back to its glorious days when Mr Ng built it in 1980. Our work did not only embellish the building but it carried an emotional value.

I will be forever thankful to David and Sino Group for putting their trust into RENUGLASS hands and giving so much meaning to our works.

Building Name: Empire Centre & TST Centre

Owner: Sino Group

Location: Hong Kong, Tsim Sha Tsui