Paint Thickness Gauge

pvr

Dutch
 Ruler of the South East UK
Just bought one of them, not cheap at £168 but it works on aluminium as well as steel. Will be interesting to find out how thick the paint really is.

Really needed it for the other cars to see hopw much I can polish away in the way of the top layer.
 
pvr, nice gadget!

Sorry if you've been through this before, but what are the other cars? The fact that you want to monitor the paint thickness suggests something tasty!

Also, in the interests of getting value for money, would you care to conduct some tests? You may be doing so already!
 
The other cars are not that special, well, to me they are :D

I have an X5, a 1993 Golf Clipper in better then mint condition and now also a runabout Polo.

I can always bring the unit to one of the meets if anyone wants to take some measurements.
 
My sort of era... 1993 Golf Clipper - so proper special that one :thumbsup:

Actually was wondering if you could take some readings over time... assuming it fits in with your routine, but...
What, if anything, does claying take off?
What does polishing take off?
After those, does waxing register anything as a + or would the gauge go though it?
All of the above assumes that the gauge has a suitable number of decimals!

The BMW paint seems to be quite soft - how easily it swirls** - be interesting to see how does this compare to the VWs?
** Yeah I know that'll be my poor technique, but that same poor technique didn't have as bad an affect on my old Peugeot years ago!
 
PawnSacrifice said:
My sort of era... 1993 Golf Clipper - so proper special that one :thumbsup:

Actually was wondering if you could take some readings over time... assuming it fits in with your routine, but...
What, if anything, does claying take off?
What does polishing take off?
After those, does waxing register anything as a + or would the gauge go though it?
All of the above assumes that the gauge has a suitable number of decimals!

The BMW paint seems to be quite soft - how easily it swirls** - be interesting to see how does this compare to the VWs?
** Yeah I know that'll be my poor technique, but that same poor technique didn't have as bad an affect on my old Peugeot years ago!

Claying will not remove any clearcoat at all.

Polishing will by machine but not by hand as far as i know if it does it will be very very little.

BMW paint is supposed to be very hard check out some of the pro details on Z4s on Detailing world.
 
pvr said:
Just bought one of them, not cheap at £168 but it works on aluminium as well as steel. Will be interesting to find out how thick the paint really is.

Really needed it for the other cars to see hopw much I can polish away in the way of the top layer.


Someones got too much spare time....! :evil:
 
But I'm assuming its the lacquer coat that gives it the strength, since the actual paints these days are water-based....does that make them any softer?
 
Got the unit now, will take some measurements prior to a good session (not on the Z as that has the teflon on it).
 
Sounds like a nice bit of kit. Interesting tip I picked up from Detailing World is to measure the paint in the door shuts or other similar area and compare to body panels to get an idea how much clear coat there is.

Do you have a link as that price seems really good compared to some prices I have seen.
 
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