About How Thick is Clear Coat

Beemerboy

Beemerboy

Just One More Coat
On another forum was discussing the thickness of clear on most cars....I said about 3 Mils and was told that I was wrong...Can't seem to bring anything up on the net, or don't know how...Next was about how much clear are you taking off when you remove swirls on a car...I know its not much but some are under the impression that you can burn or remove the clear if you polish to much...I'm sure that this is possible at some level but only in extreme IMO



Can anyone help me clear this one up.

Thanks
 
I know I seen a chart somewhere......
I think it was in a discussion about the use of a Paint Thickness Gauge.

Not sure what forum it was on or even where to begin looking....
I'll see what I can do
 
the whole thing is about this thick


pad0046.jpg


it came from a car that was in an accident and the paint pealed from the metal
 
This is an excerpt from an article in Automotive Times I found awhile back.
A good clear coat is 5 mils or more, but most manufacturers use 2-4 mils and the substances are better than before. Color coats are usually 3-5 mils and primer coats are 1-3 mils. Aircraft use more one step paints to save weight and many manufacturers use less paint to save cost and save steps by using multi-step paints, some good and some not. Minor oxidation can decay paint about 1-1.8 mils. Surface scratches and shopping carts can cut through clear coat and half way into color coats.

If you want to see the entire article the link is:
http://www.automotivetimes.com/news/clear_coat.html
 
To give you a point of reference, a typical 8 point thickness index card is 5 mils thick. With modern paint jobs it seems that the thickness is going down, but most quality clear coat jobs should be 5 mils, just as Jen said.
 
About 1.9 mil for today's factory paint jobs according to what I read the other day
 
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