c4sdave

Anyone have good recommondations on a good paint meter guage to buy?

AOW162435

Check with Mark in Baltimore.





Andreas

Mark in Baltimore

I just bought this one: http://highlinemeter.com/index.html

Works amazingly well for steel and aluminum. It's my new, secret weapon when I go car shopping. Downside=doesn't work on plastic. However, I'm really not too concerned if a bumper has been re-sprayed. You can spend four times as much for a paint gauge that the car dealers use.

I'm sure Mike aka Arena993 has some suggestions.

Bull

I use the Elcometer 311FNF gauge.

Arena993

Mark is right here. If you are just "Johnny Consumer" go the route that Mark went. No need to buy what I use because it would cost 4 times as much, plus I use my meter at least 75-100 times per week and need the additional features. I buy and resale on the side so I would like to know if any work has been done anywhere on the car. Hope this helps.

Mike

Bearclaw

I have the Quanix 4500. It works well, easy to use, reads in microns or mils, reads on steel or alum., and has a long battery life. I like it a lot. The only thing I don't like is that you have to manually switch between steel and alum. Whatever brand you buy, don't cheap out. The higher-end gauges read to +/-.1 mil, whereas all the cheaper ones only read to about +/-.5 mil. That's too much variation to be accurate enough. Mine was not cheap, I see they're around $600 now.

On Porsches up through 964's, you're going to see readings on single-stage paints of 4-6 mils. It varies because these cars were painted by humans. Clearcoated paint of that era I'm not sure about. I would expect it to be about the same to slightly more. I've "mapped" my car, and it's funny to observe how they shot more on the horizontal areas vs. the vertical panels - but the pattern is symmetrical side-to-side. 993's I'm not sure about, because I don't know if they were still painted by humans. What you're really looking for is a red flag, like startling variations between panels. Even if a panel is stripped & painted, you're still going to see a variation vs. the adjacent panel - OR you're going to be able to note where it was blended. These gadgets are handy and fun - they do stop the bullsh*t cold about whether something has been painted or not.

This technology came in handy when I bought my car sight-unseen from 2000 miles away. I asked for paint-meter readings, in writing, on all panels. Based on those, I was pretty confident the car had not been painted.

ps
I'm pretty sure the girl in the picture has been repainted - but no bodywork done .

Slow Guy

I just use the (cheaper) Fender Splendor model. I think it depends on what you need it for. For the occasional used car purchase the cheaper ones work well and will pay for themselves the first time you avoid buying a repainted car. You're really looking for the changes in the readings more than anything else. Of course things like the tailgates on SUV's have much lower thickness readings than the door panels of the same vehicle (from my experience). They will pick up bondo on the older cars and I did a car the other day that read from a low of 5.5 to 24.0, not counting the 2 spots where the bondo was applied. (the car was a '70 Ford Mustang Mach 1, 351)

http://www.wholesalepaintmeters.com/

TT-911

I have a gauge from Wurth which looks identical to yours btw (except it's orange) and comparing my 993 and 964 the readings are virtually identical.
Horizontal above 100 microns (going up to 190 in same spots) and vertical all under 100 (most between 85 and 95).
My 993 is metallic paint, the 964 is not. Both original paint.

Bearclaw

Good to know, this is consistent with my readings, just expressed in microns (which I actually prefer when taking measurements - more precise and easier to remember).

By comparison, my robot-painted Japanese cars show a very even paint thickness with a very narrow range.

Laura

We also use the Elcometer 311FNF, it is a must have when performing a PPI.

TT-911

My 996 and 997 have around 90 micron on every panel.
So hand painted stopped with the 993.

Smiles

I can imagine that you get consistent readings, but how accurate are these? Do they ever need to be recalibrated? Or is consistency the important thing you're looking for?

(I'm not trying to be smart, but part of my work involves tension testing, and the above applies there, too.)

Bearclaw

I've never heard of one of these needing to be recalibrated by the factory.
The Quanix came with bare strips of steel and alum. to zero-set before you begin taking readings.

Smiles

That's interesting. Thanks.