Paint Meter?

[frosty]

Auto Geek cares Defelsko PosiTest DFT Combo Electronic Paint Thickness Gauge
Defelsko Paint Thickness Gauge, Paint thickness meter, coating thickness gauge, auto paint meter, car paint meter

It works very well but only works on metal so it wont work on cars like vettes.

**You Dont want to wet sand a factory painted car. If you do you are looking for trouble

When you say it works well, what you would consider it works well for? I assume it works well and is accurate telling you the depth of all the layers of paint to the metal but it doesn't really give you any clue how much clearcoat you have to work with, correct? Or is there a trick I'm missing that you could use something like this to figure out the clear coat depth?

[frosty]

In searching for an article on Rotary Best practices, I found a link to this forum. It does a pretty good job of talking about PTG's and how to use them with some guess work to determine what you're working with.

Machine Polishing by Rotary Polisher - Full Guide - Detailing World

About a 1/4 way down in the page.
Search for "ASSESSING THE PAINTWORK"

[Misha]

i guess my first post

i got Highline II PTG about a month ago for $225 from them. then got cen-tech PTG from harbor freight couple weeks ago(it was $10) so why not

i do use them for wetsanding and for paint correction, recently used on M3.

if you dont have any of those or others for that matter, BE very carefull or dont do it at all.


HL II i think is very good gauge and nicely priced. some might start bashing that its not acurate(mostly it will be ppl with 2-3K paint gauges) but its pretty damn acurate, within 3-4 microns of actual reading. and guess what its good enought to tell you if you can wetsand or not or do any correction on paint for that matter

[frosty]

Misha,

That's exactly the one I've been looking at. Just can't bring myself to dump $700 and find out there is a $200 that works just as well.

Would you mind clarifying what makes you feel it's fairly accurate? Do you have a 3 or 4k PTG as well that you are using to gauge to make that statement?

Whatever tests you are doing to verify it's accuracy, would you mind sharing?

[Misha]

Misha,

That's exactly the one I've been looking at. Just can't bring myself to dump $700 and find out there is a $200 that works just as well.

Would you mind clarifying what makes you feel it's fairly accurate? Do you have a 3 or 4k PTG as well that you are using to gauge to make that statement?

Whatever tests you are doing to verify it's accuracy, would you mind sharing?

no dont have 3-4K paint gauge. i think one of main differences for those high price gauges is couse they work on plastic and can tell you how much of clear, base and actualy paint there is on metal or plastic(not just total amount of paint). plus other bells and wisles you can live without

paint meter comes with test strips that you calibrate almost each time u use it. and you can see how far reading PTG takes compared to number on strip. on 100 micron strip mine reads usualy 103 so its pretty damn acurate, higher prices might tell you little close to 100 but how close do you need it. unless you doing 500000 car i dont think u need too acurate

my $10 PTG reads just as acurate
here is readings from that gauge (only problem with it is its not as comfortable to use)

Math
((Reading - Plastic Shim Preordained Measurement) x 100) - 100 = Percentage over Plastic Shim Preordained Measurement

first reading Cen-tech. second reading HL II

46 Microns: Readings
46 +0%
46 +0%
46 +0%
46 +0%
47 +1%
Average Percentage= 0.2% @46 microns

96 Microns: Readings
101 +4%
99 +2%
101 +4%
103 +6%
99 +2%
Average Percentage= 3.6% @96 microns

249 Microns: Readings
253 +3%
253 +3%
255 +5%
254 +4%
253 +3%
Average Percentage= 3.6% @ 249 microns

505 Microns: Readings
484 -2.20%
483 -2.3%
482 -2.4%
482 -2.4%
479 -2.7%
Average Percentage= -2.4% @ 505 microns


is there tool review section on this forum? id post review there

[oldmodman]

[QUOTE=Misha;275753]i guess my first post

then got cen-tech PTG from harbor freight couple weeks ago(it was $10) so why not



How do you get the Harbor Freight & Tool paint thickness gauge for $10.00? Was it a close out?

[Misha]

yes it was on clearance, the leftovers. one guy that i called at HF said they will be getting replacement but i doubt it

[twisted007]

I had an etg good meter than got stolen i think i will get another one plus the positest an highline.

[tenorplayer23]

When I saw this thread I RACED to the HF to no avail! Alas, no bargain paint gauges to be had..........you are really fortunate! I had to settle for a $3.99/3lb. sledge hammer with my coupon! But, no $10 paint gauge (probably worth $50!)

BTW, can you post a picture of the HF gauge that you procured?? I never was able to find it online.

Thx. in advance.

See ya.

[quote=oldmodman;277505]

i guess my first post

then got cen-tech PTG from harbor freight couple weeks ago(it was $10) so why not



How do you get the Harbor Freight & Tool paint thickness gauge for $10.00? Was it a close out?

yes it was on clearance, the leftovers. one guy that i called at HF said they will be getting replacement but i doubt it

[Misha]