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Factory paint thickness

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#1
Anyone measured their paint thickness, or asked their detailer? I bought a cheap'n'cheery piece of junk off Amazon (*) and it says the paint thickness is only 2-3 mil. I'm not expecting a concours paint job or anything, but that seems surprisingly thin.

(*) Since I heavily invested in the paint on my Cutlass I figured I might as well learn how to take care of it. The same tool says the typical thickness there is 14-17 mil which is what I expected. It even works for thin sections of body filler.

In case color drives some variance, mine is '18 micro blue.
 

robz32

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#2
Is that an average for the whole car or just one panel?
 
OP
O
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Thread Starter #3
I checked about a dozen places - roof, hood, LF & RF door
 

robz32

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#4
Could be the tool is not calibrated properly, as that is way too thin, even for a cheap paint job.
When I paint corrected mine I had an average of 110 micron throughout the whole car.
 
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Thread Starter #5
Yup, hence why I asked. A generic $20 tool is almost worth the packaging it ships in. [biggrin]

Well, 110 micron is ~4.3 mil, so probably in the right ballpark. Resolution is only down to 1 mil which isn't all that useful...
 

robz32

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#6
But when talking paint a 1mil difference, is quite big a difference.
 
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#7
Guy is repainting the front now, he just texted me and said he was surprised how thin the factory paint was put on
Why it's getting repainted



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

KiaFan

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#8
Guy is repainting the front now, he just texted me and said he was surprised how thin the factory paint was put on
Why it's getting repainted



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Did he say why its so thin?
 
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#9
No, but he's been doing this a lot of years:) it's just his perception based on his experience. Even if true still my favorite car I've ever owned:)


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KiaFan

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#10
No, but he's been doing this a lot of years:) it's just his perception based on his experience. Even if true still my favorite car I've ever owned:)


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Very interesting thanks for confirming what we suspected lol
 

keyreaper

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#11
That really blows. Hopefully, it comes out well. Now I'm worried about paint thickness - Will probably get some PPF ASAP, want to avoid this kind of damage.
 
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#12
Turned out really good, he did remark again on how thin the factory paint seemed.




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spider55

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#13
Turned out great chris71
 
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#14
Turned out great chris71
Not to mention my $7.50 exhaust tip paint job:) gloss black engine block spray paint.


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spider55

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#15
Not everything has to cost a lot. :sneaky:
 

CKeeler

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#16
That looks gorgeous
 
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#17
Not to mention my $7.50 exhaust tip paint job:) gloss black engine block spray paint.


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can you post the link to the paint? Did you do it yourself?
 
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#18
My buddy is a body guy, he did it but he got the paint codes. I will get the details from him and post.


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'18 Audi A4
#19
One of the mods confirmed thickness is about 3mils which is pretty thin considering industry average is about 4.5~5mils and then 1.5~2.0 mils of clearcoat on top of that. That's how a company can cut overall manufacturing costs.
 
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#20
industry average is incredibly thin these days due to increased environmental regulations and cost cutting.
 


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