There has been some discussion on here of late regarding the thickness of the factory paint. I dug up this measurement chart that I had done before I had my car repainted. There is no data for the hood because of the aluminum construction and the inability of the paint thickness guage that was used to read on an aluminum surface.

I do not know the conversion between these units and the ones that FMINUS posted of the CR, but mabye he can chime in here and compare apples to apples.

Hope this adds some new data to the discussion:

 

very cool... and also dont recognize the measurement- it says mm. must be all paint and clear together- and still seems high to me for a car about to be painted especially

did you get the measurements after the painting??


wonder why the hood measurement is "hood" !! ??

 

I think that the measurement was simply the distance from the sheetmetal to the top of the painted surface, so it would be primer+basecoat+clear. I think the paint guage used magnetism for its measurement, and the aluminum hood didnt read. So, we will just call that measurement "hood". I have not gotten it remeasured, I used this sheet for a warranty claim, but it would be interesting to see how much more material is on the car now.

 

Could it be micrometers?


-Matt

 

"Most factory paint jobs range from 3.5 to 5.5 mils (87 to 137 microns). Thinner readings indicate that the clear coat is almost entirely removed or in the case of single-stage systems that the primer is about to show through."

Looking at FMinus's readings for the CR he recently polished, its paint seems similar in thickness to my readings. His in microns and mine in mils.