Paint Meter/Thickness Gauges!

[shooter]

If you want a PTG which works on composite panels then this link should help

http://www.defelsko.com/

I have the PosiTector 6000 for metal/alloy panels and the PosiTector 200 for composite, I know they cost but its insurance and at least for me worth the cost.

Looks good to customers when you can give them printouts of the paint thickness, especially before and after machine work

[01bluecls]

http://www.defelsko.com/p200/positector200.html This one reads fiberglass BUT another member on this forum contacted the sales rep at defelsko and quoted $2695. Im scared to ask what the cheaper ones cost! I mean what cars are generally made mainly of fiberglass panels. I think the Lotus Elise is one. The corvettes are light weight aluminum or fiberglass? I know the new Z06 has I believe carbon fiber fender and hood.

[Bob G]

One of the tools I ordered when I opened up my detail shop was a coating thickness gauge that read ferrious and none ferrious substrates. I ordered the model 6000 from Defasko in New York. I have read about their gauges from several trade tech magzines and got all the bells and wislsels including down load to print options to your computer or IR printer. I went over kill 2500.00 which is not nessary.

What you have to remember is that at this time the protable gauges out there fisher, Elcometer ETG and Defasko all offer the ability to check coating thinkness but cna not separate from E-coat ,primer ,paint and clear coat.

In general one has to realize that the rule is 2 to 2 1/2 mills of clear coat per vehical. that is what you are polishing regardless one has to be carefull machine compounding and polishing today's OE finishes. The ability to measure paint and graph out a historgram of the coating on the intire automobile is rally not going to be nessary unless you are buying and selling car andlooking for damage.

I would recommend one of the less costly gauges like ETG . Rembering that even thermo plastic bumpers have the same mill thinkness as the metal surfaces of the automobile. If you ureally want to get fancy order a gloss meter with 20,60 85 degress gloss reading automobiles use 60 high gloss
check out BYK garder for all these impressive measuring devices www.bykgardner.com. The information is very educational and informative.

Bob Geco

[01bluecls]

Im liking this thread

What is the typical thickness overall on painted finishes?

I mean the gauges are reading the thickness between the metal surface to the top of the clear coat right? So for example say I put the gauge on a panel of a brand new car's fender, what is a typical reading? If the typical reading of a panel of a brand new car is 4.5 mil (just throwing a number out there), then you can assume you have 2-2.5 mil of clear and then the 2 mil underneath that is E-Coat,primer, and acutal paint right?

SOOOOO...if you get a car that is 5 years old (for example) and the gauge reads 3.5 on the hood, you can "assume" that there is about 1-1.5 mil clear left on it? What does a mil of thickness translate to about how many microns? ...I noticed that these gauges can read in both.

[qadsan]

Originally Posted by 01bluecls

Im liking this thread

What is the typical thickness overall on painted finishes?

I mean the gauges are reading the thickness between the metal surface to the top of the clear coat right? So for example say I put the gauge on a panel of a brand new car's fender, what is a typical reading? If the typical reading of a panel of a brand new car is 4.5 mil (just throwing a number out there), then you can assume you have 2-2.5 mil of clear and then the 2 mil underneath that is E-Coat,primer, and acutal paint right?

SOOOOO...if you get a car that is 5 years old (for example) and the gauge reads 3.5 on the hood, you can "assume" that there is about 1-1.5 mil clear left on it? What does a mil of thickness translate to about how many microns? ...I noticed that these gauges can read in both.

4 to 4.5 mills would be a typical real world number on many cars today. I work on plenty of older muscle cars and it's not uncommon to see 20+ mills on some painted surfaces due to repaints, etc. The gauge also quickly lets me know where the bondo is, etc. You've got to make some assumptions when using the thickness guage, but it does give you a starting point to work from which can be important. For instance, on a 66 Mustang that I was working on a short while ago, the hood had 22 mills of paint on it, but you can't assume the whole car is done this way. The doors averaged 6 to 8 mill, but the paint was getting mighty thin at just about a mill left right near the crease. If I would have taken a rotary to that spot, I could have easily went down to the bare metal and the owner would have freaked. The gauge allowed me to inform the owner of the condition and I ended up carefully hand polishing this area with ScratchX instead of working it by machine. He also now knows exactly where his paint thickness stands because I mapped the car out for him. His car looked great after I was done with it, but he was concerend about the thin paint on his doors and the thicker paint on the hood where it was cracking, etc. He decided to schedule me to strip, prep and repaint his car early next year and of course I'm more than happy to help him out

In reference to your question about mills and microns, a mill is equal to 1/1000 of an inch which can also be represented as 0.001 inches or 0.0254mm (mm = millimeter). A micron is equal to 1/1,000 of a mm or 1/25,000 inch or 0.00004 inches. There's about 25 microns to one mill (0.001 inch)

[tdekany]

Chris, you will not be dissapointed with the one I have. Good luck with what ever you decide to purchase.

Thomas

[lecchilo]

Originally Posted by tdekany

Chris, you will not be dissapointed with the one I have. Good luck with what ever you decide to purchase.

Thomas

i think i'm going to buy that one... when it says non-ferrous though, does that include plastic like on bumpers or no??

[the other pc]

They mean non-ferrous metals. For automotive bodywork that’s almost always aluminum. It won't work on plastics or composites.


PC.

[lecchilo]

Originally Posted by the other pc

They mean non-ferrous metals. For automotive bodywork that’s almost always aluminum. It won't work on plastics or composites.


PC.

that's what i thought... thanks for clearing it up

[01bluecls]

I did it! I pulled the trigger! I ordered the Phase II PTG- 3500 from http://www.1car-detailing-training.c...gage-p-87.html the same one Tdekany has. Freaking $525 plus 8 bucks ground shipping. Im so excited! I have a few details coming up and can't wait to try it out.

[lecchilo]

Originally Posted by 01bluecls

I did it! I pulled the trigger! I ordered the Phase II PTG- 3500 from http://www.1car-detailing-training.c...gage-p-87.html the same one Tdekany has. Freaking $525 plus 8 bucks ground shipping. Im so excited! I have a few details coming up and can't wait to try it out.

i think i'm going with that also
have to save up though... i'm broke

[01bluecls]

If anyone is still up in the air.....I found this link for the defelsko brand: http://www.autopaintgage.com/index.htm