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Measuring paint depth, which meter?


MikeSoFlo

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Just as the title says, for those of you who are measuring paint depth before doing heavy correction, which meter are you using? I haven't used one in the past but I see the value in one if heavy correction is needed. 

 

The follow up is, at what gauge do you tell your client, the paint/clear coat is too thin for proper correction? 

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Let’s get into it a bit. 

 

We srarted with a DT-156 generic paint thickness gauge.  They can be had an eBay and Amazon for about $125-135 I believe. It worked “okay.” That was right up until we turned it on and it didn’t work for no real reason. After that, we bought into a reputable DeFelsko Positector gauge. It wasn’t a small investment (somewhere in the $700 range) but it works reliably every singe time we turn it on. 

 

When we use it, we take a number of measurements around the car. Usually a few points on each panel. Then we take a reading inside a door jam since it’s typically not a heavy clear coat there from the factory. Subtract the door jam thickness from the average panel reading and you have an approximation of clear coat thickness. After doing some corrections of various degrees you will understand how much clear comes off with each step. You’ll begin to know what you can/can’t do.

 

As a general rule, the UV protection in a clear coat comes in the first third of the thickness. Begin removing more than that and you can accelerate clear coat failure. 

 

The gauge will also tell you if a panel has been repainted. If you’re taking measurements and they’re consistent and you find one wildly different, there’s a good chance something happened to that panel. 

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