Do any of you guys who do detailing for work use a clear coat meter / gauge?

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JoeHotRod

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How many of you out there use or have a clear coat gauge for when you are detailing customers cars so in the case there is barely any clear left, or if another detailer before you took down the clear coat how do you all determine how much paint correction / cut you can do?

Saw this PosiTest product here for sale on autogeek but with 0 reviews:

Defelsko Paint Thickness Gauge, Paint thickness meter, coating thickness gauge, auto paint meter, car paint meter

So what would those of you that detail for a living suggest is the best way to determine amount of clear coat left with any car you come across and maybe even more-so on older classic cars & muscle cars that don't have factory machine factory paint jobs???
 
Even for a weekend warrior like me, a PTG is an invaluable tool.

Sure I don't have a $10K gauge that measures each individual layer of paint, but for roughly $140 you can pick up a fairly accurate PTG which will, if nothing else, give you an IDEA of how much paint is left on the car - it allows you to easily spot panels that have been repainted (if you can't see it visually) and highlights excessively thin panels.
 
lawrenceSA said:
Even for a weekend warrior like me, a PTG is an invaluable tool.

Sure I don't have a $10K gauge that measures each individual layer of paint, but for roughly $140 you can pick up a fairly accurate PTG which will, if nothing else, give you an IDEA of how much paint is left on the car - it allows you to easily spot panels that have been repainted (if you can't see it visually) and highlights excessively thin panels.
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Same here. I got a cheap ( $150) PTG and tried it on my car and glad I did. For whatever reason the paint on the hatch is about 1mil thinner so I know not to be to aggressive.
 
Have never had one and have used a rotary on hundreds of cars without any problem. But I wouldn't recommend that. Rotary work is when you need to worry the most and many people dont use rotary polishers anymore. Get a PTG if you want but not really necessary.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using AG Online
 
Totally worth it. I use it on every car I quote. Use the best info you have to speak knowledgeably about what can be done to correct a car. If that's individual layers or overall thickness, some info is better than none. I've only had a couple times where I've told an owner all I am willing to do is a light polish. Had I done a full correction, that paint might be failing a year down the road.

As others have said, it's nice to know where panels have been respray and may react differently to your process.

For $150 one time, and 5 minutes per car, it's a no brainer in my eyes.
 
With the cheaper Chinese ones (<$150), how can you tell how much is clear and how much is paint?
 
SameGuy said:
With the cheaper Chinese ones (<$150), how can you tell how much is clear and how much is paint?
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There in lies the problem with a PTG under a $1000. You can estimate by taking readings on the door jambs or underneath the hood which receive very little clear coat.
 
FocusSTguy said:
Same here. I got a cheap ( $150) PTG and tried it on my car and glad I did. For whatever reason the paint on the hatch is about 1mil thinner so I know not to be to aggressive.
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Hey Focus! Would you happen to ha a name or link to a PTG that's around 150$?
Thanks,
Victor
 
If its not accurate and telling you how much CLEAR is on the car, I (personally) find very little use for it besides telling which panels have been resprayed. But most experienced detailers dont need a paint gauge to see if the panel has been repainted.

The ones that are accurate are expensive.
 
Audios S6 said:
Totally worth it. I use it on every car I quote. Use the best info you have to speak knowledgeably about what can be done to correct a car. If that's individual layers or overall thickness, some info is better than none. I've only had a couple times where I've told an owner all I am willing to do is a light polish. Had I done a full correction, that paint might be failing a year down the road.

As others have said, it's nice to know where panels have been respray and may react differently to your process.

For $150 one time, and 5 minutes per car, it's a no brainer in my eyes.
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Which one do you use Audios?

I know alot of classic car guys so I would think something like this would be worth it for me especially since each classic / muscle car is not a factory paint or clear coat like production machine sprayed cars...
 
lawrenceSA said:
Even for a weekend warrior like me, a PTG is an invaluable tool.

Sure I don't have a $10K gauge that measures each individual layer of paint, but for roughly $140 you can pick up a fairly accurate PTG which will, if nothing else, give you an IDEA of how much paint is left on the car - it allows you to easily spot panels that have been repainted (if you can't see it visually) and highlights excessively thin panels.
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Which gauge do you use lawrence?
 
FocusSTguy said:
Same here. I got a cheap ( $150) PTG and tried it on my car and glad I did. For whatever reason the paint on the hatch is about 1mil thinner so I know not to be to aggressive.
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Which brand of gauge do you use FocusST?
 
mg6045 said:
If its not accurate and telling you how much CLEAR is on the car, I (personally) find very little use for it besides telling which panels have been resprayed. But most experienced detailers dont need a paint gauge to see if the panel has been repainted.

The ones that are accurate are expensive.
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So you get a high end car for paint correction. Loaded with swirls and scratches and was buffed to death by other owners. New owner doesn't know that and nor do you...are you going to use a heavy compound and possibly burn through? I believe a paint gauge is invaluable when doing heavy correction work.
 
JoeHotRod said:
Which one do you use Audios?

I know alot of classic car guys so I would think something like this would be worth it for me especially since each classic / muscle car is not a factory paint or clear coat like production machine sprayed cars...
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I use the same as Lawrence. CEM DT-156
 
I just don't see the point.

Only tells you total thickness of primer AND paint AND clear combined.

Doesn't tell you how much clearcoat is left.

You could have cars with thin coating yet it is possible it may have plenty of clear.

What if the primer is super thin and you think the clear is thin when really it is not?

What if the primer is thick and the clear is thin and you burn through the clear...even though your reading said the coating was relatively thick.

So many variables.

I just don't get the point.
 
Rsurfer said:
So you get a high end car for paint correction. Loaded with swirls and scratches and was buffed to death by other owners. New owner doesn't know that and nor do you...are you going to use a heavy compound and possibly burn through? I believe a paint gauge is invaluable when doing heavy correction work.
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Still doesn't tell you how much clear is left.
 
toycar18 said:
Still doesn't tell you how much clear is left.
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It doesn't, but let me give you an example: Car is a black Lexus, and most of the body reads 100-120 microns while the hood reads 70 and swirled to hell. Well the detailer went after the hood and struck through the clear. Only after the damage did he borrow my gauge and got these readings. Cost him $1,500 to get the hood re-painted. A $150 gauge would have stopped him from compounding the hood.
 
toycar18 said:
Still doesn't tell you how much clear is left.
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For one, your not going to find clear coat on single stage paints, so there's a plethora of vehicles it is fully applicable to.

Second, it does take a little knowledge and experience to use the info. Checking door jambs and under the hood can help dial things in. Knowing that Hondas from the early 2000s are generally around 100um total build or that new ford trucks are around 180um total build can help.

The biggest thing for me is that it's more information than I had without it. How you use that information is up to you. If you don't want that info, then there are plenty of other ways to tell if work has been done to the vehicle; holograms, mismatched orange peel or metallic flake, masking lines, etc., but none of these will give you any indication of the film thickness.
 
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