How thick should clearcoat be after a repaint?

S

SVECobraR

New member
First and foremost i'd like to apologize if this is in the wrong forum. I've been gone for a while and i'm not sure if this is the right section to post this but it is the most general and it has the most posts.



Cliff Notes at the bottom.



Anyway to get to the point my car was vandalized about 4 months ago and i had it repaired and painted at a shop a friend recommended (mistake). They did an okay job initially but the car did have quite a few drips, fish eyes, smears and other defects. Unfortunately this isn't my main concern.



After having the car sit in my garage for 2 months i decided to clay the hood (my girlfriend had spilled some water on it which left water spots). As i wiped the clay residue off i noticed that the paint was marred, scratched and it had holograms. I polished it by had with some FPII and it took about 50% of it off. I tried this on a couple of different panels and it did it everywhere but the roof.



Now i know if i want to i can buff/polish the problem away but every time i clay the car the problem will reappear. I took the car back to the body shop and they said they color sanded the car and buffed it to get rid of the problem.



Here lies the problem, this will be the second time the car has been color sanded and buffed, reducing my clear coat thickness considerably. I still detail my car often and i don't want to shorten the paints life because of the paint shops unwillingness to repaint the car correctly.



Does anyone have any literature on how thick clear coat on a car should be? I googled ford clear coat and i found that it should be about 5 mills stock.



Any help is appreciated.



Cliff Notes:



Black 99 Mustang Cobra

Repainted but color sanded and buffed twice

Paint (before second color sand) would marr and scratch from claying.

Picking the car up tomorrow and i need literature on acceptable clear coat thickness



Sorry for the long post, thanks in advance
 
Nobody is going to be able to tell you how thick your clear coat is. It really depends on what type of clear they used and how many coats they laid. If you don't have a paint thickness gauge there is really no way to tell. I know most people are going to disagree with what I am about to tell you, but I would lightly sand it with like a 2500-3000 grit paper just to remove the "issues" you are concerned about. Then I would buff it out. I color sanded a couple cars, and then over the years removed scratches in the already color sanded paint... I was careful, but NEVER broke through the clear.



If your looking for the text book answer: Do not sand anymore until I had someone (the body shop) use a paint thickness gauge and tell you how thick the clear is in the area you are correcting. Then sand with the lightest grit first, moving to a harsher grit if necessary... buff and recheck with the thickness gauge.



DG
 
a non oem paint job will have a good amount of clear on it so i think you would be ok.

only the factory can get the paint down that thin and a repaint will some times be 2-4 times thicker than oem.

my camaro has had some work done and it got a nasty very deep scratch on the fender that was repainted so i filled it in with touch up paint then sanded it with 2k paper after the paint cured for a few weeks(also any touch up paint will be softer than a actual paint job because of hardeners in the clear plus it being baked)

then i gave it a buff with a 4in orange pad with some megs uc and it looks almost perfect.





that said if there is so much wrong with the work i would make them redo it runs and fish eyes are unaceptable to me
 
Some sorta-random thoughts follow:



I forget what the usual cc thickness is, but some of the painters here oughta know (ask Flashtime, for instance).



Nobody can say how much clear was used except the painter. I'd ask him. Ideally, you'd specify/discuss such stuff before he shoots the paint.



FPII is a very gentle polish so normally it shouldn't be a problem to us it now and then.



There shouldn't be a need for regular polishing unless the paint came out "stupid-soft" and in that case I'd be complaining about that paintjob. Normal claying shouldn't result in significant marring if you use the right clay and the right technique.



Fisheyes do sometimes happen, but IMO runs/"smears"/etc. are seriously bad and should've been fixed long before you ever saw the finished job..
 
i agree with accumulator.

and if your marring the paint with the clay eather your using it to dry or your using to much pressure.
 
Thanks for all the responses guys i really appreciate it.



First i know neither you guys or even the painter (considering he doesn't work there anymore) can tell me how much clear is on the car. I was just wondering what basic procedure is. I know when i got my Pontiac painted 5 years ago the painter said they put 3 layers of clear on there, so i thought somebody would be able to give me a rough estimate as to how thick 3 layers of clear would spray but it was my fault for not taking into account how many variables there are in that questions alone.



I was thinking about taking the car down to my normal paint supplier and having them check the clear coat thickness for me, they said they would do it for $50. Up to this point the car has already been color sanded completely once, and multiple spots have been either repainted and/or color sanded and buffed again.



That is what they were suppose to do to make the car ready for this past Saturday. But the car was still unacceptable upon arrival. The clay problem didn't present itself again, although i couldn't find my chemical guys gray clay bar that i used the first time and was forced to use an old yellow Adam's clay bar in its place, but some of the fish eyes, runs, hair marks and other imperfections were still present.



In all the car did look a bit better but it still wasn't anywhere near satisfactory. One side had way more orange peel than the other, they had scratched by headlight, window and taillight which weren't fixed. There was compound EVERYWHERE, and the car just looked like it needed considerable more time.



Upon complaint they told me all the car needed was some more sanding and glazing and that it would look perfect. I told them great, if you knew that then why did you waste my time and call me down here today? They apologized again and promised to have it completed correctly this time.



I think that they might actually get it right this time but i am still pissed about the burn on my carbon fiber hood, the scratches on my lights and window, and the unnecessary amounts of buffing taking place. I guess that's what happens when you choose the wrong body shop.



Thanks for reading.
 
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