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TOP 6 Car Paint Thickness Gauges Under $150įinally, here’s my list of the 6 best car paint thickness gauges you can buy for less than $150, which I think is very affordable. Hence, using a paint thickness gauge, you can know exactly how thick the clear coat is and how “deep” you can go with the polisher. If the clear coat is too thin, you’ll burn through it and damage the car paint. You just can’t do the job properly if you don’t know the thickness of the clear coat. Paint thickness gauges are an essential piece of equipment, especially if you’re a professional car detailer. BEST BUDGET: ERAY Paint Coating Thickness Gauge (check the price on Amazon now).
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These all have very different thicknesses. The same goes for the colored coat and the clear coat. 1 panel can have a primer coat of 30 µm, and the panel next to it can have a primer coat of 50 µm thick. The thickness of each coat varies widely. However, it’s not that simple in real life. And 33 times before going through the colored coat. This would mean that you can polish the surface 16.5 times before going through the clear coat. 150 µm could then be divided into 3 layers of 50 µm. In a theoretical world, you could say that the paint is made up out of a primer, a colored coat and a clear coat. Which means that you have a “strike through”, and the primer coat is showing.įor example, you measure a thickness of 150 µm, and you know you remove 3 µm with every time you polish, you know you are a long way from reaching the bottom. Removing to much means you can either go through the clea coat (which can cause oxidation of the colored coat), or you can even go through the colored coat. You remove paint by polishing, so every time a car gets polished, you remove a very fine layer of paint. When you are going to polish an area, it helps to know how much paint you have to play with. The polish has gone through the clear coat, and at places even through the colored coat. This means you know exactly how much clear coat you have to work with. The very expensive models can give you a very precise measurement of the thickness of each layer. The more expensive models can help you in the case of glass fiber or plastic body panels. The cheaper models are used to just get a rough idea on what you are working with. The very expensive models can even measure the thickness of each layer independently. The more expensive models can measure the distance between the sensor and any body panel underneath the paint (even if it isn’t metal). The cheaper models can only measure the distance between the sensor and a metal panel. There are a few different paint thickness gauges. Paint thickness gauge that can measure independent layers Because this is the distance between the sensor and the body panel underneath the paint. For example, if the total thickness of the paint is 0.2 cm (0.08 inch), the display will show 2000 µm (micrometre). That distance is the thickness of the paint. The device will then measure the distance between the body panel underneath the paint, en the sensor. You place it perpendicular to the surface. This sensor is than put on the surface of the panel you want to measure. The paint thickness gauge has a sensor that sticks out of the bottom of the device, or is connected via a wire with the device. 3 Why the need for a paint thickness gauge.