Paint Thickness Gauges

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Danspeed1

New member
I recently ran into a car that threw me for a loop. Panels where not necessarily repainted but I later found the car had been hammered by a previous detailer prior to myself. Made me realize that a paint thickness gauge was a vital tool.



Like many of the other people on this site i was under the misconception that these gauges ran thousands of dollars. Recently I did a little research and found that one can be had for as low as $99. Of course I imagine for $99 there is not much in the way of bells, whistles, or any quality.



For those of you that have paint thickness gauges purchased new for $1000 or less could you please post your experiences, product information, where you purchased it, and if buy it again so the rest of us can choose a gauge that works for our needs?





DG
 
Actually after watching that youtube video on the bottom its got me interested since its only $20 and see how accurate it is
 
HighlineII will do everything you need it to do for 225.00, Its a smart investment at times like this. It will give you and you clients a good sense of well being!
 
Unless you get the gauges that can actually measure the different layers of material than the gauge is a waste of money and time IMO. The typical gauge measures all the material between it and the metal. How much of that is clear cote? How much is base coat? Unless you know it's pointless.
 
IMO, Highline II is the best bang for the buck, its accurate, backed by a real company and only $225.
 
Anthony A said:
Unless you get the gauges that can actually measure the different layers of material than the gauge is a waste of money and time IMO. The typical gauge measures all the material between it and the metal. How much of that is clear cote? How much is base coat? Unless you know it's pointless.
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why is knowing the base coat thickness so important? When you polish you take off small amounts of the clear coat, so it isn't pointless to just have the ability to measure that...
 
Nagz said:
why is knowing the base coat thickness so important? When you polish you take off small amounts of the clear coat, so it isn't pointless to just have the ability to measure that...
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It's not the base thickness that's important it's the clear coat and I agree with you 100%. The problem is if the gauge doesn't determine the two what good is it? Most gauges just measure the total material. How do you determine the clear coat thickness than?
 
Anthony A said:
It's not the base thickness that's important it's the clear coat and I agree with you 100%. The problem is if the gauge doesn't determine the two what good is it? Most gauges just measure the total material. How do you determine the clear coat thickness than?
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well in an ideal world the base coat, color coat and clear coat are all the same thickness, so the clear would be 1/3 of your total reading on the PTG for that spot.



Of course, that's not always the case. :laugh:
 
Mindflux said:
well in an ideal world the base coat, color coat and clear coat are all the same thickness, so the clear would be 1/3 of your total reading on the PTG for that spot.



Of course, that's not always the case. :laugh:
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You just proved his point.
 
donut. said:
You just proved his point.
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And? If he wants to fly blind with no knowledge of how thick/thin the paint (and clear and base coat) are then that's his prerogative. He won't even have an idea if it's abnormally thin or abnormally thick.



Nevermind how thick just the clear is! What's it matter if the panel you are working on has been resprayed THIN and you can cut down to metal with astounding ease? No harm no foul, right? Just tell the owner "oops!"

:rofl
 
There has yet to be a repaint I haven't noticed by visually inspecting the car. Not saying a gauge is pointless, but you shouldnt NEED one to spot repaints.
 
I have been using a paint thickness gauge for years and it is definitely a great tool to have in your arsenal.



If anyone is interested, I picked up a few of them a while back and still have a couple unopened in the package. My friend who sells cars was supposed to take 2 of them, but ran into money problems and never bought them. I forget what I paid for them, but would be willing to let them go for a decent price.



Here is the site with all of the info about them: Order Page for FS 502 Coating Thickness gauge





Let me know if anyone is interested...
 
Mindflux said:
well in an ideal world the base coat, color coat and clear coat are all the same thickness, so the clear would be 1/3 of your total reading on the PTG for that spot.



Of course, that's not always the case. :laugh:
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It's never the case. You have no idea what the history of the paint is. It could have been wet sanded or compounded multiple times. You put the gauge to it and get a reading on total material. How do you determine how much of that is clear coat?



Are you having trouble grasping this? Are you agreeing with me? I can't tell.
 
Anthony A said:
It's never the case. You have no idea what the history of the paint is. It could have been wet sanded or compounded multiple times. You put the gauge to it and get a reading on total material. How do you determine how much of that is clear coat?



Are you having trouble grasping this?
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No trouble at all. You are having trouble (clearly) grasping the fact that if you gauge off a panel and it reads LOW that you SHOULDN'T BE USING ANY HEAVY POLISH ON THAT PANEL.



Clearcoat thickness (only) would be nice, but the purpose of a PTG is to let you know the overall thickness of the paint at the spot you took the reading at. Then WITH EXPERIENCE you can determine whether or not you want to attempt to polish that panel.



It's not supposed to be a catch all for paint problems. It's not the silver bullet of paint correction.
 
Mindflux said:
And? If he wants to fly blind with no knowledge of how thick/thin the paint (and clear and base coat) are then that's his prerogative. He won't even have an idea if it's abnormally thin or abnormally thick.



Nevermind how thick just the clear is! What's it matter if the panel you are working on has been resprayed THIN and you can cut down to metal with astounding ease? No harm no foul, right? Just tell the owner "oops!"

:rofl
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Are you referring to me? Far from flying blind. I'm saying not to trust the gauge unless you have the very good ones that determine the thickness of each layer.That way you know how much clear is there.



Pity the idiot that uses the standard run of the mill gauge that tells him there is lots of material there. Than the guy starts cutting and hits base coat because he WRONGLY assumed that there was lots of clear because of the reading he got from the gauge. The gauge wasn't reading the clear coat thickness but the total of all the layers of material.
 
Anthony A said:
Pity the idiot that uses the standard run of the mill gauge that tells him there is lots of material there. Than the guy starts cutting and hits base coat because he WRONGLY assumed that there was lots of clear because of the reading he got from the gauge. The gauge wasn't reading the clear coat thickness but the total of all the layers of material.
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That's where experience comes in handy. :rofl
 
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