Good Thread! I Have Wondered Many Times About This. I Busted Through The Clear On My ML320 Wetsanding On The Front Quarter Panel, And Have Polished It Since, And Havent Noticed The Primer Area Getting Any Larger. I tried dacp, 3m smr, and meguairs #9 on it and didnt notice any significant change in area with any of the polishes.
How much is 'too much' when it comes to polishing?
- Thread starter Jngrbrdman
- Start date
MnRiverman
New member
I've got a brand new 03 Hyundai Elantra compliments of Enterprise while my car is in the body shop, and I'm sure we could do some paint depth before/after polishing readings on it.
If anyone in the northern VA area has a paint meter and some time, we can go to work on the rental car and get some proof about how much clear we are removing.
- Anthony
If anyone in the northern VA area has a paint meter and some time, we can go to work on the rental car and get some proof about how much clear we are removing.
- Anthony
Jngrbrdman
New member
CreekFisher said:
That is very deep. I understand it though. It probably is different for every single car. The true answer here is just like the Tootsie Pop... "...the world may never know."
breakneckvtec
New member
This discussion just took a turn toward deep. Well I thought about this today and this what my thoughts were...
"The car is clearcoated, this means there is a couple layers of non pigmented paint as the final coat on the car. If I put 500 layers of clear on a car do those 500 layers make the bottom layers any stronger, I dont think they would. So why do showcars and cars of the like have more layers of clear. I think the answer to this is that if you care enough to have the car repainted you care enough to put enough layers of clear on for any polishing you may do so that it will last you a long long time. For obvious reasons, such as money and time, car companies use thinner clearcoats, but sufficient ones none the less. If I remove my swirls and take care to not put any new ones in and use mild abrasives to keep the finish looking good I should be ok. The klasse I plan to use to protect will act as a barrier, a top coat if you will, to the clear that already exists. If I only polish when I need to then will the clear ever fail? Yes, of course it will. Will it fail during the time that I own the car? Well if I remove them and then spot remove them when necesary and am careful and keep my klasse layered I would say that everything should be ok, the key is once they are out to try and keep them out as much as possible to cut down on the polishing that needs to be done. As long as I keep myself to these guidlines I dont think I will see any clearcoat failure during the time that I own my car."
Well that was a trip inside my head for some thoughts on this matter...stay tuned.
"The car is clearcoated, this means there is a couple layers of non pigmented paint as the final coat on the car. If I put 500 layers of clear on a car do those 500 layers make the bottom layers any stronger, I dont think they would. So why do showcars and cars of the like have more layers of clear. I think the answer to this is that if you care enough to have the car repainted you care enough to put enough layers of clear on for any polishing you may do so that it will last you a long long time. For obvious reasons, such as money and time, car companies use thinner clearcoats, but sufficient ones none the less. If I remove my swirls and take care to not put any new ones in and use mild abrasives to keep the finish looking good I should be ok. The klasse I plan to use to protect will act as a barrier, a top coat if you will, to the clear that already exists. If I only polish when I need to then will the clear ever fail? Yes, of course it will. Will it fail during the time that I own the car? Well if I remove them and then spot remove them when necesary and am careful and keep my klasse layered I would say that everything should be ok, the key is once they are out to try and keep them out as much as possible to cut down on the polishing that needs to be done. As long as I keep myself to these guidlines I dont think I will see any clearcoat failure during the time that I own my car."
Well that was a trip inside my head for some thoughts on this matter...stay tuned.
ah man. . . I screwed-up!!
It's 3 not 4.
I did a quick search and came up with this:
http://www.tootsie.com/memoriesSpotsMrowl.html
It's 3 not 4.
I did a quick search and came up with this:
http://www.tootsie.com/memoriesSpotsMrowl.html
imported_Aurora40
New member
There were two posts on the Professional Detailers board that got me thinking:
http://www.autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18846
and
http://www.autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18834
The first one mentions a paint thickness gauge from Top of the Line. It claims to measure up to 15 mils, with an accuracy of 1 mil. The second is about paint thicknesses.
Someone here posted that common argument that a polish will not remove enough paint for a paint gauge to measure. But, for this gauge to notice it, it would mean you'd have to remove about .5 mils or more. That's like 1/4 of the clearcoat, according to the second thread, and way more than you should remove.
So this sort of kills the casual use of the argument that "don't worry, it removes so little paint that a paint gauge can't measure it". It sure as hell better not remove enough to be noticed! This doesn't mean that polishing is bad, just that this argument doesn't hold water.
I have been sort of hesitant to use anything stronger than SFP on my car, and I think maybe I will only use DACP when something is in bad shape (I don't think I'll use it on swirls). I don't think that a few uses of it will hurt, it's just that who knows how many times I'll need to do it? Or what all will happen to my paint over the years of ownership? Maybe there will be times when I'll need to do some serious polishing. So I should save as much paint as possible until that time... I think filling will be the name of the game for me. :nixweiss
P.S. Sorry if this is sort of rambling.
http://www.autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18846
and
http://www.autopia.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=18834
The first one mentions a paint thickness gauge from Top of the Line. It claims to measure up to 15 mils, with an accuracy of 1 mil. The second is about paint thicknesses.
Someone here posted that common argument that a polish will not remove enough paint for a paint gauge to measure. But, for this gauge to notice it, it would mean you'd have to remove about .5 mils or more. That's like 1/4 of the clearcoat, according to the second thread, and way more than you should remove.
So this sort of kills the casual use of the argument that "don't worry, it removes so little paint that a paint gauge can't measure it". It sure as hell better not remove enough to be noticed! This doesn't mean that polishing is bad, just that this argument doesn't hold water.
I have been sort of hesitant to use anything stronger than SFP on my car, and I think maybe I will only use DACP when something is in bad shape (I don't think I'll use it on swirls). I don't think that a few uses of it will hurt, it's just that who knows how many times I'll need to do it? Or what all will happen to my paint over the years of ownership? Maybe there will be times when I'll need to do some serious polishing. So I should save as much paint as possible until that time... I think filling will be the name of the game for me. :nixweiss
P.S. Sorry if this is sort of rambling.
Hmm, that's an interesting point Aurora. With clear coat thickness at just under 2 mils and (according to autoint) you being able to only safely remove a paltry 0.3 mils, I don't see how you can tell without some kind of paint thickness gauge that's a lot more sensitive (and expensive)..... :nixweiss
I guess we're back to "guestimation"?
I guess we're back to "guestimation"?