Paint Thickness Gauges ?

**Gary Sword** · 02-11-2007, 09:15 PM

Does anybody know much about paint thickness gauge 's as far as the best brands and best pricing?

Also does anyone know if different auto manufacturers publish the thickness of their paint? Also the thinkness of the paint vs. the thickness of the clearcoat would be nice to know.

**sparkie** · 02-11-2007, 10:13 PM

PM sent!

**Nica** · 02-11-2007, 10:50 PM

Oooh good topic, I'm interested on this so I'm just posting to keep up with it.

**supercharged** · 02-12-2007, 12:16 AM

I think the cheapest ones are from $400.

**Lone_Star** · 02-12-2007, 11:05 AM

400 dollars

**Gary Sword** · 02-12-2007, 12:21 PM

I think $400.00 is on the cheap end.

**Lone_Star** · 02-12-2007, 12:26 PM

That is a months rent for me. Uncle Gary, can I borrow $400 dollars? LOL, J/K. Why so expensive?

**Gary Sword** · 02-12-2007, 01:06 PM

Originally Posted by Lone_Star

That is a months rent for me. Uncle Gary, can I borrow $400 dollars? LOL, J/K. Why so expensive?

Who knows why they are so expensive. Also a lot of them are only good on steel, others work on steel and aluminum and still others work on non metal surfaces. I know they make them for both steel and aluminum but I'm not sure they even make one that will for on any suface. To cover all the bases on my cars I would need one to work on steel, aluminum, fiberglass and plastic.

**{FzS}BlacKMagicK** · 02-13-2007, 12:31 AM

Yea, it would be real nice to know what kind of hardness and depth your dealing with when it comes to your clearcoat.
Anyone know what kind of clearcoat is on an 01' Trans Am WS6?
Figure it doesn't hurt to ask.

Wondering if I have a ceramicoat, I doubt it, but it's harder than I thought it would be. I doubt they would use ceramicoat then leave all the orange peel they did on it, but then it is good ol' GM

They just can't seem to NOT have a problem with the paint when it comes to the Camaros and Firebirds, I believe it was from 84' to 94' that they decided to do away with the coat of primer before painting the base coat on and only used an electrolytic coat. Usually, it's an electrolytic coat, then primer, then basecoat, then clear. The result of leaving out the primer? Before you finished paying it off, the paint would start to peel in different spots all over the car. Looked great, your three yr. old car peeling all over.

So, you think your immune if you own a Camaro or Firebird that was born after 94' ? Oh think again my friend.
Now, you have an isolated problem, along the top of the sail panel you will start to see bubbles form in the paint, it's very strange to see.

Why does this happen?

There is a certain kind of glue underneath the sail panel that as it warms, it releases gasses, these gasses react badly with the paint causing the bubbles, right behind your T-tops, all along the whole top of the sail panel. The darker the car, the faster these bubbles will appear due to the increased heat.

They will fix it if your car doesn't have a million miles on it and it's like less than six years old. I'm getting mine fixed, the dealer just ordered the new sail panel. They have to take off the old sail panel, remove the glue that's there, then put new glue down that doesn't react with the paint, then put on the new sail panel. they promise me it will look like a million bucks. I'm just worried about them scratching the rest of my car...I HATE leaving my car with a dealer, a mechanic...anybody. Even if I'm right there while the mechanic's working on it, I'm thinkin, this guy could give a crap about my paint. He's gonna lean all over it in his overalls, without putting any pads on the fender. Makes me want to have my own shop.