#Clear coat depth gauge how to
#Clear coat depth gauge Bluetooth
#Clear coat depth gauge professional

Of course, you can never tell 100% how thick is a clear coat, but paint gauges can help a lot with estimating that. 1.Before Polishing and Compoundingīefore you do a paint correction process, you should always check the paint depth and estimate the clear coat thickness. Here I’ll show you the three most common reasons why people use paint thickness gauges.

3 Situations To Use Coating Thickness Gauges Usually, the clear coat thickness varies between 40-50 microns (µm). Related: 5 Common Auto Detailing Questions About Clear Coat (Answered)įor instance, if the average thickness is 120 microns (µm), and the hood is 80 microns, there’s probably not much clear coat left there, and you should be extremely careful if you’ll polish that car. The best way to tell if there’s still enough clear coat is to measure the average, and then you’ll know what a good result of a specific part is good. Again, it depends on the type of the vehicle and its factory paint depth. With that result, you’re probably safe to do a paint correction. Mostly, a good paint result is anything that’s above 90 microns (3.14 mills). Also, you can expect more expensive cars to have thicker paint, while cheaper cars will often have thinner paint. Manufacturers Average Paint Thickness European Cars 100 to 150 microns (μm) / 4 to 6 mills USA Cars 100 to 150 microns (μm) / 4 to 6 mills Japanese Cars 90 to 120 microns (μm) / 3.5 to 4,7 mills Average Paint Thickness of CarsĪs you can see, not all cars use the same paint depth standard. Most new cars will have a paint depth of around 100-150 microns or about 4-6 mills, depending on what unit you use to measure the thickness. However, there are some general rules you should follow. Each vehicle is different, even from the same manufacturers. There’s no definitive answer to how thick paint should be on any vehicle. That way, you’ll make sure that the clear coat is thick enough for safe polishing. If you’re going to polish or compound the car, make sure that you get good enough results. Those are the most important steps you should take when measuring the car coating thickness. That way, you can get some average paint depth. Each measuring should be done on a different spot.

Measure each panel a few times – make sure to make a few readings on every panel.

Lean the sensor to the car surface you want to measure and wait for results to be shown.

It’s a piece or two of metals with some plastics of various thicknesses.

Make sure it’s calibrated – when you buy the gauge, you’ll probably get some samples inside the box to check if the sensors are calibrated.

Pick a unit – I prefer microns (μm) since they are more precise.

Steps For Measuring The Car Paint Thickness: Measuring car paint thickness is effortless, thanks to excellent coating thickness gauges.

#Clear coat depth gauge how to

If you don’t have a coating thickness gauge, but want to buy one, check out my article: Best Paint Thickness Gauges For Car Detailers (Under $150)ĩ Reasons Why Car Detailing Is Great For Your Vehicle How To Measure Car Paint Depth

#Clear coat depth gauge Bluetooth

There are gauges with wifi or Bluetooth options so that you can read the data on your phone, gauges with external sensors, etc. Honestly, the more features they have, the better. Today, most coating thickness gauges can save results and count the average measures, which can be exported to the computer or directly read from the device. I suggest you always buy a gauge that shows decimal numbers, especially if you want to measure the paint depth in mills. (make sure not to think it’s a millimeter).Īlso, some devices will show you the result without decimals, and some of them will show you even two decimals.

As you can see, microns are much more precise. Mills – it’s 25.4 microns or 1/1000 of an inch.In my opinion, it’s the unit you should measure car paint thickness since it’s much more precise than the mills. Microns (μm) – it’s 1/1000 of a millimeter.Most paint thickness gauges show one data only, but it can be shown in two different units: But they’re still too expensive for most people out there.

#Clear coat depth gauge professional

However, some more expensive and professional devices can measure the paint thickness even on plastic and carbon panels.Īlso, some highly professional paint depth gauges may tell you the exact thickness of each coating (primer, base, and clear coat). Most paint thickness gauges can work on metal and aluminum car panels only. That distance measured is the overall thickness of the paint (primer coat, base coat, and clear coat). Conclusion How Do Paint Thickness Gauges Workĭigital paint thickness gauges work by measuring the distance between the body panel and the sensor on the device.3 Situations To Use Coating Thickness Gauges.