Nidimob1

I do alot of wet sanding at work. I want to start using my paint depth gauge, is lexus paint thickness in (mils) 4.5????

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

Paint will vary on every vehicle regardless of make or model.

It is somewhat common for Oem paint to be around 110-150 microns, however many manufacturers are decreasing their paint thickness even further. Keep in mind, this is TOTAL FILM THICKNESS. This means these numbers include primer, base coat, and clear coat. It is not typically recommended to sand oem paint these days due to the very thin clear coat.

Given that the purpose of the clear coat is to provide protection for the base coat, you need to preserve as much thickness as possible.


Are you simply sanding to remove orange peel? If so, you have to weigh the pros/cons. Yes, it looks better... But you are also reducing the life of the paint system by removing a fair percentage of the clear coat. Once the clear is compromised, a repaint is the only way to repair it. Also, by greatly reducing the total clear coat, you are reducing the amount of polishing that can be done in the future to take care of normal wear and tear (light swirls and scratches).

All in all, it is my personal opinion that sanding thin OEM paint is not worth it for a regularly driven vehicle. If it is a show car, then perhaps that is a different story, but proceed with caution as the room for error is slim to none when the paint is that thin.

Nidimob1

Well not really orange peel. I deal with really picky lexus customers everyday at our dealership. So when there are scratches that we can not compound out, i start wet sanding. I guess ivwas looking for the thickness of the clear coat?

zmcgovern4

iTrader: (2)

There is no way you will have 4.5 mils of clear from the factory... if anything, you may have ~2 mils of clear to work with... but again, it is not advisable. Sounds like it would be beneficial for you, or your boss, to educate your customers on the large risk of removing a large percentage of the clear coat on their vehicle. Most owners do not know anything about the paint system on their vehicle and therefore are not aware of the decrease in protection and life of their paint after it has been sanded.

Unless you have an ultrasonic PTG like the Defelsko PosiTector 200, there is no way to know how thick each individual layer of paint is (ie primer, base, and clear). All other types of PTG will only measure total film thickness (sum of all of the layers), but the PosiTector 200 has the ability to measure each individual layer separately... it will also work on non-metal substrates... that is the reason it is $2300

cruzinZ

You are absolutely right that they should educate these customers. Unfortunately the majority of the time you get someone who does not understand the basic concepts that we think should be common knowledge. I would go as far as telling the customer that you could wet sand but you wouldn't do it to your vehicle due to reducing the clear coat to the point it can't protect the color coat. If you give them the pros and cons of wet sanding let them make the decision. Just have them sign a liability form that the dealership is not responsible for future clear coat damage due to their decision.