Paint Thickness/Specifications

[mcpp66]

I'm now curious about this.......I'm sure this is different for all car manufacturers, but generally speaking how thick is factory paint on new cars? How thick are the primer, base, and clear coats? Also, how much compounding can you safely do on a car? Or should I ask how much clear coat is safe to remove? How do you know when you have no more room left to work with as far as buffing with a DA or polisher? I'm not a professional so I wouldn't need a paint thickness gauge, is there any other way to know when you're done? I don't think this is actually a concern for me at this point, I'm just curious.

Oh, something else I'm wondering. What exactly is "single-stage" paint? It sounds like that's what older cars use. Is that just a primer and base coat or is it something else? Thanks in advance for the continuing education.

 

[tuscarora dave]

I can't help much on the paint thickness related question but thought that this might be a good place to ask this question, Has anyone had any experience with the coatings thickness guage offered at harbor freight tools?

As for your question about single stage paint, Yes it is a primer and a base coat with no clear coat. A lot of older cars used a laquer paint. The body shop I worked at used an enamal paint on the more custom paint jobs.

 

[loudog2]

Read this thread. I don't want this to start up again.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/21620-how-many-times-can-you-buff.html

 

[mcpp66]

Read this thread. I don't want this to start up again.
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/auto-detailing-101/21620-how-many-times-can-you-buff.html

After reading all that I can see why you wouldn't want to start that up again. Thanks for the link.

 

[OCDetails]

My observations have been between 6 and 8 mil. Not millimeter, mind you. Some people think a mil is a millimeter. A mil is a unit of measure that is way smaller. There are 0.0254 millimeters in a mil.

Anyway, I have measured paint that is 7 mil and yet it is still way softer than it should be. These days I'm finding on modern paints it matters less how thick it is and more how quality it is. Even 8 mil paint will peel off if the surface wasn't prepped right. My Subaru was 7 mil and it would scratch all the way to the sheet metal just by looking at it. I would recommend caution with paint regardless of how thick it is.