In
those days, a major stumbling block in the mass production of automobiles was
the lengthy drying times associated with the primitive automotive paints and
painting processes – times as long as several weeks! As head of the automaker’s
paint division, Henry Reichhold was approached by Henry Ford in 1925. Ford
asked Reichhold if he had any ideas on how to speed up the drying process, and
how they might introduce new colors to Ford automobiles.
Using resins imported from Beck, Koller & Co., Henry Reichhold was able to
reduce the drying time for paint on Ford’s Model T from weeks to mere hours.
The new resins vastly improved the final body finish as well. This allowed Ford
to increase the speed of its assembly line and the amount of cars it could produce
for the masses. Henry Reichhold’s work also enabled the introduction of colors
other than black (the only one available at the time) for Ford
automobiles.