Ebay Paint Thickness Gauges

I'm interested in this as well. Being new and haven't even done my first car yet I just don't want to spend $700+ on a meter til I actually start making a little money detailing. Do these measure the clear coat or overall paint thickness?
 
Oh, I had no idea. Never used one but certainly considering one now. I thought the more expensive ones measured cc thickness. Noob thinking, should have read more.
 
Bigds2012TT said:
Oh, I had no idea. Never used one but certainly considering one now. I thought the more expensive ones measured cc thickness. Noob thinking, should have read more.
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Yes, there is a $2000 one that will read the multiple paint layers, but it only does so on non-metallic substrates (Corvettes and bumpers).
 
Oh ok.. So basically go around the vehicle with the gauge and see the over all thickness and go from there.
 
It's a little more complicated than that, yes, you can do that, but do you know if the vehicle has been polished aggressively before? Yes, you can measure, then you can polish, and measure again, and know how much you took off, but you won't know how much clear is left.
 
i think i saw a thread some where here about a good ebay paint thickness reader maybe try that one, that guy had nothing but good stuff to say about it
 
Danube said:
Why?

:confused:
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Because I like red, silly.


Because it looks like a Highline II. One of the others is old school with the probe on a wire, which means you need two hands. One of them is the most expensive and looks like a Highline I. I can't remember the other one.
 
My recommendation is do your research and go with the most accurate one. Anything that is over a 5% error can give you conflicting readings.

Generally to measure the actual thickness of clear coat, its a bit of a guess.

Usually when I get a car, I give a general estimate that the e-coat, primer, and basecoat is roughly 65 microns thick.

So if the paint thickness is 125 microns, then 125-65= 60 microns.

Therefore the clear coat is around 60 microns.

Usually figuring out how thick or thin something is requires an estimation from the Detailer to determine what is safe CC removal.

Thickness gauges are also crucial to knowing how hard a CC is. If you are using a compound and take hardly anything off, you know that it is hard, if you are using a polish and it gets thinner quickly, you are dealing with a soft clear.

These little tools come in handy more ways then you can imagine. Once you get experience with them, you really start to understand paint and its history. Its like a Doctor and a stethoscope.
 
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