mikemdd

Looking at a car and have a question regarding paint and clearcoat. I metered the car for paint thickness and came up with the following results. About half the car shows a thickness or around 4.5 to 4.8 mils. However, some areas (ie doors, panels) show a thickness of around 7.5 to 8.5. These areas show slight "wavyness" when carefully viewed and appears to be the clearcoat. Not bad but you can see from some angles. There is NO evidence of a repaint, such as taping lines, etc. Paint is perfectly matched on the entire car with the lower thickness areas and higher thickness areas blending exactly. Is it possible that the clearcoat was sanded and redone in some areas with no actual painting being done? I know very little about painting and was not sure if these data would support just a clearcoat application. Thanks.

95_993

Interesting question. Curious as well.

mikemdd

I passed on the car, but still interested for future consideration.

ChristopherBrown

Its VERY difficult to speculate on this. However, I can definitely say that an almost double reading of the rest of the vehicle is MUCH more measurable thickness than just an additional layer of clear.

ChristopherBrown

Oh, i forgot to mention..

Clear coat IS a part of the painting process. Its the final layer of painting, which consists of 3 stages.

Primer > Basecoat (Color Coat) > Clear Coat