How low is too low - in polishing paint

[MobolWerks]

Mike,

I was curious about your thoughts on when you begin to get a little uncomfortable with polishing paint... In terms of paint thickness remaining.

Is it 3 mils??? maybe 2 mils??

I guess the better question is when should I start feeling uncomfortable

Thanks!

[Lasthope05]

Anything around 3 mils or 80 microns is pretty low and you should be careful about polishing. First measure inside the door panel. This will give you the absolute lowest as the jams only get one shot of clear and measure paint and compare the numbers. If they are fairly close it would be better to use a glaze or if you must polish a very light finishing polish.

[MobolWerks]

Thanks for the quick response. So in terms of dealing with a customer on this issue, what do you typically advise them to do??? Is it an automatic re-paint, or do you simple suggest a short-term solution like the glazing you mentioned??

With a glaze being simply a mask, it seems like in the long run in might end up being cheaper for the customer to just have the area touched up in a paint booth...

Thanks!

[Mike Phillips]

It's relative because the thickness for the top coat will be different on every car you work on. I've been told you can safely remove about .5 mills from a factory finish and if the paint is regularly maintained then it should still hold up, but most paint gauges only measure total film build so you would have to measure before you start and then measure as you progress and monitor how much material you're removing.

Instead, how about,

"Use the least aggressive product to get the job done"

Note I didn't use the word abrasive, I used the word aggressive.


Also, what you're working on is a huge factor, are you working on a show car or a daily driver? If it's a daily driver then don't aim to remove ever single defect as this means removing more paint off the car. Discuss what you're going to do with your customer and see what their expectations are and in needed, educate them a little about what it means to remove swirls and scratches and I find in most cases once you educate your customer in what it means to remove swirls and scratches if the car in fact is a daily driver they will completely understand why it's not a good idea to remove all the deeper defects.

[MobolWerks]

I think that pretty much answers my question. Do you know off hand a thread or website or something that tells you how thick a certain type of vehicle's paint should be from the factory???

I saw a thread on another forum, but the guy who posted it was banned

[Lasthope05]

Thanks for the quick response. So in terms of dealing with a customer on this issue, what do you typically advise them to do??? Is it an automatic re-paint, or do you simple suggest a short-term solution like the glazing you mentioned??

With a glaze being simply a mask, it seems like in the long run in might end up being cheaper for the customer to just have the area touched up in a paint booth...

Thanks!

I would ask them what are their plans for this particular vehicle, long term/short term. I would do a small test spot with a light polish in an inconspicuous area, making sure the check the thickness before and after. A light polish wont really make a dent in removing much paint but will bring back some gloss. If it is satisfactory to them I would go through with it.

It all depends upon what the customer wants. If they want a full multistage polish I would highly recommend the repaint or at least to cover yourself for any future problems have them sign a release of liability.

[mcpp66]

I have an article from autodetailingnetwork.com that says that manufacturers say to remove no more than 25% of the clear. This article also states that most new cars have around 50 microns of clear on them. 25% of 50 microns is 12.5, which is around the .5 mil mark that Mike Phillips mentions above. If a moderator will tell me that I'm allowed to post the link I will.

[Lasthope05]

You can easily get a rough estimate of the thickness of the clear coat by measuring the door jams first as your baseline(Door jams get the miminum amount of clear/1 coat) and then measure all the exterior panels and subtract the difference.

[benjamin3]

I have yet to polish my car but am thinking about making the jump. Do I need to get something to measure the thickness of the paint and if so what would be a good one? Also, how often is safe to polish? I'm not counting on having to do it often as I will be washing correctly to try to prevent swirls, but I need to remove the swirls already on the car.

[Rsurfer]

I have an article from autodetailingnetwork.com that says that manufacturers say to remove no more than 25% of the clear. This article also states that most new cars have around 50 microns of clear on them. 25% of 50 microns is 12.5, which is around the .5 mil mark that Mike Phillips mentions above. If a moderator will tell me that I'm allowed to post the link I will.

Your quote of 50 mic. of clear on a new car is way off base. It's more like 120 and up.