How many microns of paint removed?

kevincwelch

kevincwelch

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Disclaimer: I know the most accurate answer is "it depends."

But, for those of you who have made it a habit out of measuring paint thickness before and after compounding and polishing, generally how many microns of (presumably) clear coat are removed with the following?

Assume a DA polisher using steady pressure 12-15#s and slow speed, 50% overlap.

Parameters: 6 passes, yellow CCS orange foam pad
Menzerna FG 400
Meguiars m105

Parameters: 6 passes, yellow CCS orange foam pad
Menzerna FG 400
Meguiars m105

Parameters: 6 passes, LC purple nano foam pad
Menzerna FG 400
Meguiars m105
 
You need to edit your first post as it doesn't make sense.
 
Not much CC paint is removed during an average correction process. If you are chasing some rids you might take down ~5-7 microns but for general swirls and light to moderate defects you realistically should only need to remove ~2-3 microns of paint to get a 85-95% flawless finish.

I measure paint thickness on any job involving intensive polishing because I want to know where the low spots are in the paint before I ever touch a polisher. Even new cars have uneven paint thickness due to inconsistencies in the painting process and repairs made at the factory to repair marring or damage during the assembly process.

kevincwelch said:
Parameters: 6 passes, CCS yellow foam pad
Meguiars m105 ~1-3 microns removed

Parameters: 6 passes, CCS orange foam pad
Meguiars m105 ~1-2 microns removed

Parameters: 6 passes, LC purple nano foam pad
Meguiars m105 ~2-4 microns removed
Click to expand...

And of course this all depends on a huge variety of factors such as (but not limited to): the hardness/softness of paint, arm speed, pressure, amount of product used, pad primed/not primed, pad dirty/clean, new pad, used pad, ambient temperature, the position of the moon's orbit relative to Jupiter, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc...
 
It all depends on the car, you can't really generalize. Most of the time 1 to 2 microns, but I have removed close to 20.

What kind of car(s)
 
Sorry. That's what I get for cut and pasting.

Lake County CCS orange

Lake County CCS yellow

Lake Country purple nano foam


These are the most aggressive pads I would use. I don't have any microfiber pads or strict wool pads. (Maybe a mod can edit my post at this point.)
 
Thanks for the replies.

I think I recall your measuring the Tesla, Nick, when you posted your Show and Shine, and the thickness of the paint was around 100-111 microns. Could that be accurate? That would make it about 4.5 mils.

I'm just tring to get an idea of what kind of removal I am getting when I do my own cars. If it truly is about 2-4 microns on average, then that's not that much.

Of course, all this depends on several factors. Just trying to get a feel for things.
 
yeah. although I have seen some teslas recently with readings as low as 65 microns in some sections.

Sent from my LG-VM696 using AG Online
 
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