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Does anyone meassure paint?
Posted by Phil Goode
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Does anyone meassure paint? September 28, 2003 03:51PM |
Registered: 17 years ago Posts: 435 |
<HTML>Since only Bud replied, am I to assume only Bud meassures his paint before he sands or buffs?
If that is true then perhaps some of you can give me your tech. for figuring your safe zone without a paint gauge.
Let me explain why I asked. I have buffed, wetsanded, painted for some time now and always thought I had the "eye". A week or so back while working on a newer ford ranger getting a very small and not deep scratch out with 2000, on the fourth swipe BAM! c/c started to distort. I stood there for about 4 minutes in absolute shock!
So, now I am slow to remove scratches from my customers cars and that was one of my big money makers.</HTML>
If that is true then perhaps some of you can give me your tech. for figuring your safe zone without a paint gauge.
Let me explain why I asked. I have buffed, wetsanded, painted for some time now and always thought I had the "eye". A week or so back while working on a newer ford ranger getting a very small and not deep scratch out with 2000, on the fourth swipe BAM! c/c started to distort. I stood there for about 4 minutes in absolute shock!
So, now I am slow to remove scratches from my customers cars and that was one of my big money makers.</HTML>
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Re: Does anyone meassure paint? September 28, 2003 05:03PM |
Registered: 17 years ago Posts: 751 |
<HTML>Hi Phil, no we dont measure the paint as of right now, although I'd like to be, its on my "to buy " list.
It is my understanding that the paint on the vehicle that has not been re-painted , only has about a 1.0 to 1.5 mm of clearcoat on it. We got in to wet sanding for a while but have stopped doing it now. The main reason was that we were never given any formal training in it, we could get some of the scratches out , but we didnt really know what we were doing. The second reason was that after doing some research we learnt that the clear coat contains UV blockers in the top .5 mm of the clear..most OEM's recommend that you do not buff any deeper than .3 mm otherwise it will lead to early clear coat failure. So while you may remove the scratch , you may well end up sending the customer to the body shop anyway in a few months. We decided that it if the scratch was that deep anyway it would be better for the customer ( and ultimatly for us) to have it re clearcoated to start with.
While I think the paint gague is an important tool, as was pointed out earlier , it does not measure the indivdual coats, it only gives you a total depth.
Right now we dont use one, we should as I think its an important tool, so we do as you do, use what we believe to be an experienced eye. We get it wrong sometimes too .
I think it would be useful to buy a paint gague , simply measure the total thickness of the paint, and then take care to buff no deeper than .3 mm if thats possible.
I might go ahead and buy one of these for myself anyway, just be intresting to see how much clear we do remove when we buff cars with different compounds.
Hope this helps.
Jim.</HTML>
It is my understanding that the paint on the vehicle that has not been re-painted , only has about a 1.0 to 1.5 mm of clearcoat on it. We got in to wet sanding for a while but have stopped doing it now. The main reason was that we were never given any formal training in it, we could get some of the scratches out , but we didnt really know what we were doing. The second reason was that after doing some research we learnt that the clear coat contains UV blockers in the top .5 mm of the clear..most OEM's recommend that you do not buff any deeper than .3 mm otherwise it will lead to early clear coat failure. So while you may remove the scratch , you may well end up sending the customer to the body shop anyway in a few months. We decided that it if the scratch was that deep anyway it would be better for the customer ( and ultimatly for us) to have it re clearcoated to start with.
While I think the paint gague is an important tool, as was pointed out earlier , it does not measure the indivdual coats, it only gives you a total depth.
Right now we dont use one, we should as I think its an important tool, so we do as you do, use what we believe to be an experienced eye. We get it wrong sometimes too .
I think it would be useful to buy a paint gague , simply measure the total thickness of the paint, and then take care to buff no deeper than .3 mm if thats possible.
I might go ahead and buy one of these for myself anyway, just be intresting to see how much clear we do remove when we buff cars with different compounds.
Hope this helps.
Jim.</HTML>
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