Looking for a good cheap digital thickness gauge?

[WRXINXS]

Hello,



I was just curious as to my cars clear coat thickness. It has been polished twice. Are any of the $60-$100 gauges on ebay OK? Also, where do I go to see what my readings mean for a car of my type (Subaru)?



Thanks,

Drew

[C. Charles Hahn]

Drew, the thing about a paint thickness gauge is that generally they are only good for making an "educated guess" about how much clear coat your vehicle has on it. There can be a huge variance from car to car -- even if we`re talking about two cars painted one right after the other at the factory -- so it`s tough to say with absolute certainty what the readings you get will mean as compared to the same "type" of car you have.



You can get gauges that will tell you how thick each individual layer of the film build on the vehicle is (primers, base coats, clear coat) but those cost into the thousands of dollars. The $60-100 gauges might give you a pretty good estimation of what you`re dealing with, but the readings are only as good as how you plan to use them.



Is this a vehicle you purchased new, or used? Do you need to do any aggressive correction work to deal with deep defects? If all you`re doing is mild polishing periodically for maintenance purposes, I wouldn`t spend too much time worrying about whether or not you`re going to cut through the clear.

[WRXINXS]

Charlie,



Thank you for the response! The car was purchased new. I polished it once with my PC7424XP and Menzerna Power Finish. I will be doing mild polishing (finishing polishes) to my car every year or so. But one time before I learned how to polish, I brought my car to professional detailers for a polish and I`m not sure how aggressive they were. They are no longer in business and so I cant ask. I`m not sure if it will be worth springing for a thickness gauge just because of this or not.



Drew

[C. Charles Hahn]

Charlie,



Thank you for the response! The car was purchased new. I polished it once with my PC7424XP and Menzerna Power Finish. I will be doing mild polishing (finishing polishes) to my car every year or so. But one time before I learned how to polish, I brought my car to professional detailers for a polish and I`m not sure how aggressive they were. They are no longer in business and so I cant ask. I`m not sure if it will be worth springing for a thickness gauge just because of this or not.



Drew

Yeah, if all you`re doing is mild polishing annually I wouldn`t worry too much about it. Even if the pros you went to got aggressive with it the likelihood that you`re in any kind of serious trouble is pretty slim, unless you are noticing any signs of trouble anywhere.

[WRXINXS]

Charlie,



I am not noticing any signs of trouble so I think I`ll just skip the gauge for now and just continue with my mild polishing annually. Like you said even if they got too aggressive it has still only been polished twice in its entire lifetime. Thanks!!

[cjbigcog]

wrxinxs....

I too am a new Subaru owner (`11WRX LR). Was concerned about the soft paint and marring even with careful ONR washes. The answer for me was Opticoat. After polishing the car until I was satisfied as many defects were removed as possible I Opticoated it. Two weeks later followed up with a coat of Reload. Amazing shine, and as Opticoat is supposed to be harder than the clearcoat, hopefully I won`t need to polish the car for a long time. Might be just what you need. Buff car...Opticoat...Done!

[Scooby24]

For those looking still, while the harbor freight ones are no longer sold at Harbor Freight for a ridiculously low price, they are being sold on E-bay for around 100 bucks. I picked one up and while I cannot tell exactly how accurate it is, it does seem to calibrate in spot on with their supplied sample.







NIB Digital Paint Coating Thickness Gauge Meter | eBay

[ADA-Agent]

I am doing some wet sanding on the hood of an all original 84 IROC Z28. Paint meter?

[C. Charles Hahn]

I am doing some wet sanding on the hood of an all original 84 IROC Z28. Paint meter?

In a situation like that? If you take a piece of sandpaper to it without using a paint gauge on it first.... well, let`s just say I hope you`ve got good insurance! You`d be taking a pretty big risk.

[poloaa008]

Thanks for all the reports guys, nice to hear that.