clearcoat sure is thin
- Thread starter LazyGhost
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Wendell Jarvis
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- Aug 5, 2008
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Clear Coat is thin? You dont have any clear coat........lol
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- #5
There aint no options for me. No way id detail any of my companies vehicles. Since im new to detailing, ive recently taken an interest in all of the vehicles i see around me. You "old timers" have seen it all before im sure and already have a good grasp of how thin the clear is. After taking a good look at that trucks hood today, im gonna make sure i always take the "least aggressive" approach when it comes to my vehicles. :xyxthumbs:
Ill also make sure they all have a good coat of something to protect em!
- Thread starter
- #8
Since you have access to sections of clear coat I'd be curious to hear how thick those chips are. If you have access to a micrometer it's an easy measurement to take if you have a minute or two.....rops:
We have some micrometers at work. Ill get a measurement tomorrow.
spiralout462
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- Dec 14, 2012
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Sweet, that should be interesting. Thanks for the informative post.
Since you have access to sections of clear coat I'd be curious to hear how thick those chips are. If you have access to a micrometer it's an easy measurement to take if you have a minute or two.....
I'm going with .011 plus or minus .002
IID
Well-known member
- Sep 11, 2010
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Visually,I'd say your close (in his picture).
Fishincricket
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- Dec 4, 2012
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Not much, eh?
swanicyouth
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- Mar 3, 2011
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Too bad they dont make a clear coat toupee for the hood of that truck.
Xplosive Detail
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- Feb 8, 2012
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Ill take my guess at 25 microns +/- 2 microns.
Bobby,Since you have access to sections of clear coat I'd be curious to hear how thick those chips are. If you have access to a micrometer it's an easy measurement to take if you have a minute or two.....
My guess is .011 +-.002:dblthumb2:
Setec Astronomy
Well-known member
- Aug 31, 2010
- 17,057
- 1,348
Eh? If the total film build on a new car (e-coat, primer, basecoat, and clear) is somewhere in the vicinity of .006-.007, with the clear usually around .002, do you mean .001 ± .0002?
Mike Phillips
Active member
- Dec 5, 2022
- 51,004
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Im holding a piece between my fingers.
The above picture reminds me of a picture I purposefully took and put into my book at the very beginning of the book, this one...
The first few chapters in my how-to book go over paint history which leads into how thin the clear coat is on factory paint job so that the rest of the way through the book the point can be driven home "why" to use the least aggressive products to get the job done.
Then there's a section on two ways to wash and dry a car. Two ways because the first way is the aggressive wash to really get you car clean before you do any machine polishing. The second way is the careful approach because after you remove all the defects to your satisfaction, BECAUSE THE CLEAR LAYER IS THIN you now want to "touch" your car's paint in a way that you don't re-instill swirls and scratches.
And of course the reason you don't want to re-instill swirls and scratches is because the paint is thin, (catch-22), you can't just keep on compounding and polishing as you're cause clearcoat failure or worse.
FUNX650
New member
- Dec 1, 2010
- 21,057
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Thanks for the follow-up!!
-Compared to most factory sprayed CC's that are around 1.5-2 mils...
That's pretty thick CC!! (.003" = 3 mils = ~76 microns)
-Might be because this CC was on a "work-vehicle"
How'd it ever fail so quickly?!?!
Bob
Wow! I would have never dreamed cc would be that thin. Sounds like you were right :xyxthumbs: