Method of measuring clear coat thickness

[mcpp66]

So I've read a couple of people say that to get a rough measurement of your clear coat thickness you can use a PTG and measure the paint on your door jambs, then measure one of the body panels and then subtract the difference and that will give a rough measurement of the total clear. I realize that this is only supposed to be a rough indicator, but I would think that this would only be somewhat valid if the basecoat thickness is uniform everywhere. I guess what I'm wondering is if the clear is thinner in the door jambs then why wouldn't the basecoat be thinner as well. My thinking is that this method of measurement is only fairly accurate if the thickness of the basecoat in the door jambs is the same (or close to it) on the body panels.

[Rsurfer]

So I've read a couple of people say that to get a rough measurement of your clear coat thickness you can use a PTG and measure the paint on your door jambs, then measure one of the body panels and then subtract the difference and that will give a rough measurement of the total clear. I realize that this is only supposed to be a rough indicator, but I would think that this would only be somewhat valid if the basecoat thickness is uniform everywhere. I guess what I'm wondering is if the clear is thinner in the door jambs then why wouldn't the basecoat be thinner as well. My thinking is that this method of measurement is only fairly accurate if the thickness of the basecoat in the door jambs is the same (or close to it) on the body panels.

True, I use the paint under my hood which appears to have little to no clear. Some indication of the thickness is better than none. The PTG will give you an idea if some panels were re-painted and if some cc panels are super thin. Let's say that the hood had 125 mic. and the trunk had 80 mic. If you used a heavy compound on the truck you could be in trouble. Without a PTG you would not have known this.

[Lasthope05]

Base coat is not like clear. You cannot use thinner or lighter coats as you would with clearcoat. The base is the color coating and it needs a specific amount all over the car to have uniform color and look. So there is no real need to worry about the base(color) coat being thinner in some areas than none, at least on a factory paint job.

[mcpp66]

Then this is a decent way of determining clearcoat thickness. Thanks.

Base coat is not like clear. You cannot use thinner or lighter coats as you would with clearcoat. The base is the color coating and it needs a specific amount all over the car to have uniform color and look. So there is no real need to worry about the base(color) coat being thinner in some areas than none, at least on a factory paint job.