NeoSA
06-20-2014, 03:56 PM
Hi guys.
A lot has been said about paint thickness on cars based on their outer paint thickness measurements, but I believe there is an old piece of advice that needs to be revised.
In order to guesstimate the amount of clear coat some panels have, one "tip" is to measure the inner door panels as those areas usually have no clear coat. However, I`ve been motoring and cleaning my own cars for the last 14 years and I`ve never had a car that didn`t have clear coat sprayed inside the door panels as well.
As most of you know, your base coat paint doesn`t produce a shine, so if the paint on the inside of your door panels has a nice shine to it, it stands to reason there must be some form of clear coating over it.
For example: I currently drive MK6 VW Golf GTi. There are no exposed panels that I can see (inner door, inner boot etc) that is not coated in clear coat as well.
So where my boot lid on the outside drops to as low as 92microns, an inner reading gives 82microns. Does this mean my boot lid only has 10microns of clear coat? Surely not since the paint on the inner lid is also glossy and therefor must have a clear coating.
I honestly have never seen a car that had "dull" paint on the door inners that would indicate a lack of clear coat.
A lot has been said about paint thickness on cars based on their outer paint thickness measurements, but I believe there is an old piece of advice that needs to be revised.
In order to guesstimate the amount of clear coat some panels have, one "tip" is to measure the inner door panels as those areas usually have no clear coat. However, I`ve been motoring and cleaning my own cars for the last 14 years and I`ve never had a car that didn`t have clear coat sprayed inside the door panels as well.
As most of you know, your base coat paint doesn`t produce a shine, so if the paint on the inside of your door panels has a nice shine to it, it stands to reason there must be some form of clear coating over it.
For example: I currently drive MK6 VW Golf GTi. There are no exposed panels that I can see (inner door, inner boot etc) that is not coated in clear coat as well.
So where my boot lid on the outside drops to as low as 92microns, an inner reading gives 82microns. Does this mean my boot lid only has 10microns of clear coat? Surely not since the paint on the inner lid is also glossy and therefor must have a clear coating.
I honestly have never seen a car that had "dull" paint on the door inners that would indicate a lack of clear coat.