Question about coating thickness gauge????

[Joelotto]

I got me a cheep CTG compared to some out there off ebay for $125. The one I got is Nicetu model cm8801FN if anybody wants to look it up. It came with 4 shims 50, 100, 280, and 450 microns. The first thing I did was see how accurate it was on the shims that it came with and it was way off. So I calibrated it to all four shims and it's very accurate now. When I check the thin shim its right on 50 + or - 1 once in a while. At 450(thick shim) it's within 5 so that seems real good across the range and it's repeatable so I'm happy with the product.

Now to my question??? I got the cheaper CTG as I wanted a way to know how much clear I take of my car, friends, or family.....not doing this as a pro. So I checked my car(2009 Maxima) it was about 120 microns everywhere except the hood. On the hood I measured about 65 microns. So i finally get to the question...??? At what point is the measurement considered normal, below normal, use caution, very little clear left. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Feed back please

[Rsurfer]

120 mic. is good...at 65 mic. your close to clear coat failure. 65 is very low, did you take it in several areas on your hood?

[Joelotto]

Yes I check about 20 spots on the hood all in the 65-70 micron range. Could it be(I'm not even sure if it is) but could it be the hood is made of some different material and giving me wacky readings.

[Rsurfer]

Yes I check about 20 spots on the hood all in the 65-70 micron range. Could it be(I'm not even sure if it is) but could it be the hood is made of some different material and giving me wacky readings.
I doubt it, but anything is possible. What kind of car is this?

[IID]

As Ron has mentioned......65mic's is VERY low.I would not abrade anymore clear in the area(s) your reading is this low.
I would thou however make sure you have a good wax/sealant/coating on these areas to slow down any future UV damage.

[ObsessiveAutoDetail]

Ummm.. Don't the lower grade PTG measure the entire coating (primer, paint and clear)?

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[Joelotto]

It's a 2009 Maxima It has opti coat on it now. I got the car used with 23k miles a few months ago and did about a 90% correction before applying opti coat. It had some rids and scratches that I didn't take out as I didn't have the CTG at the time and had no idea how thick the paint was.....I'm glad that I didn't go for 95-99% correction. One thing I know now......next time I buy a used car I'll be using the CTG. Hope it lasts a few years until I sell it.

[Joelotto]

Ummm.. Don't the lower grade PTG measure the entire coating (primer, paint and clear)?

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Yes I guess....It measures everything on top of the panel. Didn't even know that they have a PTG that only measures the clear.

[hernandez.art13]

How much would claying, buffing, polishing, on average remove the CC of an old car?

I've mostly worked on freshly painted cars. So I got used to how much could be color sanded. To the Auto Body shops standards.

[WRXINXS]

I have the same paint gauge. did you remove the blue plastic from the round metal pieces before calibration so they read 0?

[HardLineDetail]

How much does that gauge you have cost?

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[zmcgovern45]

120 mic. is good...at 65 mic. your close to clear coat failure. 65 is very low, did you take it in several areas on your hood?


As Ron has mentioned......65mic's is VERY low.I would not abrade anymore clear in the area(s) your reading is this low.
I would thou however make sure you have a good wax/sealant/coating on these areas to slow down any future UV damage.

As far as your 65 micron reading does not always mean something is wrong, however because it is not uniform with the rest of the car, you can most likely assume that it was a replaced/repainted panel or that it has just been polished to death and has minimal clear left.

The reason I say it does not always indicate an issue is because we have a newer Mazda CX-7 that uniformly read between 65-75 microns... this made me quite worried as it needed A LOT of work. After some research, I found that Mazda had been tweaking their paint process and around the 2008 time period they began using a newer, low cost, etc etc paint process which resulted in extremely thin paint, however there was still a "decent" amount of clear to work with given the low readings.... but as I mentioned, because your particular situation with the Maxima does not yield uniformly low readings, you can basically assume the paint on your hood is quite thin.

Here is the Mazda I was referring to...
http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/show-n-shine/62232-new-daily-driver-restoration-paint-correction-22ple-application.html


How much does that gauge you have cost?

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See this review: http://www.autogeekonline.net/forum/product-reviews/61505-cm8801fn-paint-thickness-gauge-affordable-everyone.html