Factory paint thickness

[oddball]

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]

Is that an average for the whole car or just one panel?

 

[oddball]

I checked about a dozen places - roof, hood, LF & RF door

 

[robz32]

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.

 

[oddball]

Yup, hence why I asked. A generic $20 tool is almost worth the packaging it ships in.

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]

But when talking paint a 1mil difference, is quite big a difference.

 

[Chris71]

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

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[KiaFan]

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

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Did he say why its so thin?

 

[Chris71]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Chris71]

Turned out really good, he did remark again on how thin the factory paint seemed.

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[spider55]

Turned out great chris71

 

[Chris71]

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]

Not everything has to cost a lot.

 

[CKeeler]

That looks gorgeous

 

[slammered]

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?

 

[Chris71]

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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[Conv_GSDriver]

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.

 

[usagi]

industry average is incredibly thin these days due to increased environmental regulations and cost cutting.