997at

Hi Guys. I have a 2013 C4S and just purchased a paint thickness meter for grins so I could detail my 1982SC. I measured the 991 and came up with readings that had a spread from about 6 to as high as 8 mil. Readings on different sides of the car in the same location were incredibly consistent to within typically 0.25 mil. I have platinum silver paint with very consistent color, metallic flake, and orange peel. Is this thickness normal for factory paint? I bought the car used and it only has 6K miles on it. If it were repainted, I have a hard time believing that the side to side consistency would be that good. Also I see absolutely no tape lines or overspray anywhere. I’ve heard everyone quote 4-5 mil as typical. What gives?

Catharpin

Maybe a new panel?

Bxstr

More likely that the paint meter is not calibrated properly. Go out to your daily driver, if you have one, or another car that you know has a factory finish and see if it reads normally. It isn't likely that your entire car was repainted. For detailing, always use paint meters as a guide. They are better used for knowing if a car has been repainted than knowing exactly how much paint you are removing.

LexVan

Post your question in our Concours Forum, too. The professional detailers there are taking paint readings every day.

Esoteric_Detail

First tip- switch your paint depth gauge to microns instead of mils. Microns are a smaller increment of measure, so they are going to be more accurate.

Secondly, get a chart (or simply do a rough sketch of the car) and go over the entire car, taking several measurements from each panel. From one side to the other, take measurements in the same spot on each panel. There is always going to be variation from one panel to the next, but the measurements should be relatively close from one side to the other (the driver's side door should be close to the passenger's side door, fender to fender, etc). This would be an easy first step to decipher whether the car has been repaired/repainted in its lifetime.

997at

i did already sort of do the panel to panel left to right check....pretty consistent. I’ll try it again with microns instead of mils. Meter is calibrated as it reads a consistent 4-5 on my DD. Interestingly if I read the horizontal part of the door sill I get about 4.5 and right as the paint transitions to the rear fender it goes to 6.5....but there is absolutely no tape line or overspray and the edges are perfectly smooth and look perfect.