Checking Paint Thickness

Hey All,

Was searching for a vehicle to buy I have come across vehicles that people swear the panel has never been repainted, well a paint thickness gauge can prove otherwise. I also use it for detailing (before and after) so I can see how much clear has been removed if you have to do heavy polishing.

https://youtu.be/46igEiWKFlU

 

Interesting

 

I wish I knew about these when I bought my 2015 Camaro ZL1 (don't have it anymore) I bought it brand new off the showroom floor. Took it home, detailed it and discovered it was repainted (left rear 1/4 panel) I could tell by the orbital sanding marks I could see under the black paint. Drove it right back to the dealer and said I didn't want the car. The dealer denied any wrong doing and there was no history of any repainting. Long story short, independent shop verified re-paint, case went to court and dealer bought back car. I take this tool whenever I'm checking out a car. I use it for detailing, but I find its most useful when buying a car (especially used as not every fender bender is reported so no records) and you can't argue with the tool. It's a great negotiation tool for sure.

 

I picked up a PTG a while back, my 2016 has shockingly thin paint at the top of the bed compared to the rest of the truck. But it's also single stage paint so I think it will read a little less than a clear sprayed vehicle of a similar year. One thing is consistent with the handful of vehicles I have checked with it, the newer the car the thinner the paint is. But that's no real revelation since these things are painted by machine now so they're using the least amount of product possible.

I read the paint on a friends 370z and you can tell his whole passenger side of his car was repainted because the thickness reads twice what it does on the drivers side. So even if you did a test section on that car if you were doing a full blown multi step correction on that car you may have found that what worked on one side may not have yielded the same results as the other.

 

well to be fair, even a brand new car with zero miles will not give the same read out throughout the vehicles panels either, so should prob take that into account

 

You are right uurx, but the factory paint is soo bloody thin that if a panel is re-painted, its like twice as thick. You are right on the variance between panels, but its not double. I was curious so when I checked the paint on the Honda Civic in the vid you could see how much more thick the paint was then compared to factory, and when I checked the aluminum wheels that I sprayed for my van it was 4 times a thick as factory.

Us humans can't spray as thin as the factory so it easy to tell touched up panels, the difference is pretty big. Great point !!

 

ah gotcha so the truth detector is in the higher number read outs and not so much the variation in figures throughout the car

now I get it thanks for sharing!

 

Thank you for your comment!!!