How many microns of paint removed?

[kevincwelch]

Disclaimer: I know the most accurate answer is "it depends."

But, for those of you who have made it a habit out of measuring paint thickness before and after compounding and polishing, generally how many microns of (presumably) clear coat are removed with the following?

Assume a DA polisher using steady pressure 12-15#s and slow speed, 50% overlap.

Parameters: 6 passes, yellow CCS orange foam pad
Menzerna FG 400
Meguiars m105

Parameters: 6 passes, yellow CCS orange foam pad
Menzerna FG 400
Meguiars m105

Parameters: 6 passes, LC purple nano foam pad
Menzerna FG 400
Meguiars m105

[StuDLei]

You need to edit your first post as it doesn't make sense.

[theblob640]

Clarify please, Yellow CCS Orange pad?

[AutowerxDetailing]

Not much CC paint is removed during an average correction process. If you are chasing some rids you might take down ~5-7 microns but for general swirls and light to moderate defects you realistically should only need to remove ~2-3 microns of paint to get a 85-95% flawless finish.

I measure paint thickness on any job involving intensive polishing because I want to know where the low spots are in the paint before I ever touch a polisher. Even new cars have uneven paint thickness due to inconsistencies in the painting process and repairs made at the factory to repair marring or damage during the assembly process.



Parameters: 6 passes, CCS yellow foam pad
Meguiars m105 ~1-3 microns removed

Parameters: 6 passes, CCS orange foam pad
Meguiars m105 ~1-2 microns removed

Parameters: 6 passes, LC purple nano foam pad
Meguiars m105 ~2-4 microns removed


And of course this all depends on a huge variety of factors such as (but not limited to): the hardness/softness of paint, arm speed, pressure, amount of product used, pad primed/not primed, pad dirty/clean, new pad, used pad, ambient temperature, the position of the moon's orbit relative to Jupiter, etc., etc., etc., etc., etc...

[tdekany]

It all depends on the car, you can't really generalize. Most of the time 1 to 2 microns, but I have removed close to 20.

What kind of car(s)

[kevincwelch]

Sorry. That's what I get for cut and pasting.

Lake County CCS orange

Lake County CCS yellow

Lake Country purple nano foam


These are the most aggressive pads I would use. I don't have any microfiber pads or strict wool pads. (Maybe a mod can edit my post at this point.)

[kevincwelch]

Thanks for the replies.

I think I recall your measuring the Tesla, Nick, when you posted your Show and Shine, and the thickness of the paint was around 100-111 microns. Could that be accurate? That would make it about 4.5 mils.

I'm just tring to get an idea of what kind of removal I am getting when I do my own cars. If it truly is about 2-4 microns on average, then that's not that much.

Of course, all this depends on several factors. Just trying to get a feel for things.

[AutowerxDetailing]

yeah. although I have seen some teslas recently with readings as low as 65 microns in some sections.

Sent from my LG-VM696 using AG Online