Eray Paint thickness gauge meter ... interesting readings ..

[Submariner1]

My thoughts .. And a sort of mini review
£99 reduced from £136

So its not a Pro tool, but not a dirt cheapo job
Alledgedly accurate to 2 microns.


Hmmm ...
thought it was broken when I tried the boot ... I assumed it was Ally.
Ooops its plastic can you believe that??

This meter only does Ferrous based and Aluminium, I knew that, but really would have liked to know the boot thickness.
Bit of a blow to find the boot was plastic.

Do expensive meters read paint thickness on plastic bumpers and skirting components?

Its quite difficult to get consistent readings, as you have to press it down very accurately i.e. at 90 degrees. As you press the spring loaded ball down, you know when you are off, as the surround makes contact i.e. If its not square. Obviously thats more difficult on a curve.
But you can repeat it and once you get the right angle the readings become consistent.

MB say paint should be between 80 to 130 microns. Mine is generally around 125 microns, with a few areas mainly concave curves climbing to 132 micros

Apparrently resprayed areas often are about 200 microns (well thats when Mobilo Warranty start investigating if you have had paintwork done) , ... nice to know I dont have any of those.

The bonnet is circa 119 to 121 microns, as is the roof top.
Was this due to a previous machine polishing? Or are they polished at the factory?
Having had 6 S Class level cars new, I have noticed the Bonnet is always more glassy than say the sides (the latter can have what one might call almost the start of orange peel, but not that bad).
Or it could easily be my measuring angle accuracy or the fact I havent recalibrated it (which you can do).

And I can see a few areas like in the concave curve on the back arches that can read up to 132 micros. I am assuming, thats due to the curve making the reading slightly bigger i.e. difference between the ball point pin and the circular surround being a tad longer. Or maybe paint collects more in the “well shape” when factory sprayed.

But as it has similar in readings, in exactly the same area on the other wing, and the glass like quality of the paint being so MB looking: I am pretty sure its not a resprayed area.

OK I got lucky, but this would be a useful tool when checking a second hand car.
The original owner did certify it had not been in an accident and had had no paintwork, other than one cill, and part of the other cill due to road grit rash ... reasonable as I also collected a few micro pin hole chips .. due to the wheel overhanging the skirting (really needs mud flaps) .

So in summary, is it useful for machine polishing? .... interesting question.

- without knowing the cars history from new; The best one can say is if the max readings were 125. Then clear coat should be 40 microns. So one could assume you would go through the clearcoat at 125 - 40 i.e 85 Microns. So if the bonnet is averaging 119 ... one has circa 24 microns min.
So as it looks great with 24 microns I would go easy polishing there. I.e. looking to remove no more than a micron.

Of course this is just supposition, because it could still have 40 microns of clear coat due to a flatter base coating. Or it could be the opposite, namely being a flat area more paint should “lie” there and someone has machine polished the crap out of it! lol who knows!

Being a cautious bugger ... I would assume the worst and just use this tool to say .. right it could be thinner here, so limit the polishing to a very minimum and try to virtually take nothing off!

So Yes imo its a useful tool:
- to alert you to potentially thinner areas
- and to check you are not thinning it (especially if using a given polish and a pad for the first time). To me as a novice polisher it will give me a lot of reassurance to see zero to 1 microns removed if I polished an area.

- Also might be useful when buying another old car. Just to see if it had bodywork.

The negatives are it cant measure plastic bodyparts
- but then I am far more interested in clearcoat thicknesses over Ferrous metal panels ref rust protection.

Would I go out and buy one .. if say I hadn't had my cement dust issue?
No, because I wouldn’t do a machine polish.

But in this case, as it was paid for by the Builder who caused the damage. Yep glad I forced him to pay for it. As it gives me reassurance I don't thin the clearcoat in potentially thinner areas.

Well knowing what I now know, i.e. that the paint on the bonnet is apparently near 119 Microns, I will check my sister bonnet ( New S Class AMG ) to see what the reality is.

Hope this mini review helps others

 

[Submariner1]

Nice little padded case with calibration parts

 

[John Laidlaw]

Peter this is possibly the worst tool you could ever buy

 

[Submariner1]

Peter this is possibly the worst tool you could ever buy

Your right on that one John, I would have been gutted if I found half of it polished out to 70 microns and the other half at 200 proving it had been resprayed.

Its actually very nice to know its all original paintwork
And useful for the next purchase.

 

[John Laidlaw]

A lot of models have plastic boots these days too...both my 212s have had

 

[LostKiwi]

Every panel on a smart is plastic.

 

[flowrider]

This tool is measuring paint thickness? Surely before you machine polish you need to know the clearcoat thickness.

 

[Craiglxviii]

The boot on my MY2001 215 is plastic...

 

[Flyinspanner]

Boot, front wings too

 

[star]

You should see the amount of cars that get painted before they get delivered to the first owner. being new doesn't guarantee its not had paintwork.
I thought you charged the builder to have the fall out removed and polished by a professional and not do it yourself to make money??

 

[V6Matty]

You should see the amount of cars that get painted before they get delivered to the first owner. being new doesn't guarantee its not had paintwork.
I thought you charged the builder to have the fall out removed and polished by a professional and not do it yourself to make money??

Nope, he got him to pay £700 and he's going to do it himself

 

[EmilysDad]

Peter this is possibly the worst tool you could ever buy

 

[EmilysDad]

I just drive my car ..... couldn't really care about how thick the paint is. I knew it'd had some paintwork at the back when I bought it (from a MB dealer) as there was still over spray on the tail gate trim. You can tell it'd also had some paint done at the front, but it does what I want of it ... and from the top of a bus looks OK

 

[dreadlockdw]

A lot of models have plastic boots these days too...both my 212s have had

My 2005 CLK Cab has a plastic boot lid. There are, I believe, phone, radio and satnav antennae underneath, which presumably would be less (or not at all) effective with a metal lid.

 

[JBell]

A lot of models have plastic boots these days too...both my 212s have had

My W204 has a plastic bonnet, it is part of the "Blue Efficiency" thing

 

[SL63 Mark]

I wish my 230 had a plastic boot lid, the metal one weighs a ton, and the new struts only just cope

 

[alexanderfoti]

Those tools need calibrating on a bit of stock (Ie Steel plate or aluminium plate). They do not read accurately on plastic unless it supports it, nor do they give you an idea of what layer composition is (primer vs base colour vs clear coat).

You can sometimes get an approximation by comparing a known unpainted panel with the paint in the door shut. The door shut tends to have a minimum amount of clear coat, so you can extrapolate by subtracting the difference. Some manufacturers use less than normal prime and colour coats here too though, so its not 100%

 

[Submariner1]

Those tools need calibrating on a bit of stock (Ie Steel plate or aluminium plate). They do not read accurately on plastic unless it supports it, nor do they give you an idea of what layer composition is (primer vs base colour vs clear coat).

You can sometimes get an approximation by comparing a known unpainted panel with the paint in the door shut. The door shut tends to have a minimum amount of clear coat, so you can extrapolate by subtracting the difference. Some manufacturers use less than normal prime and colour coats here too though, so its not 100%

Yep it comes with calibration kit. 1 peice steel, 1 peice aluminium and two sizes of “plastic” 1000 microns and 500 microns.

I was told MBs had 40 microns of clear coat. So not excactly a lot.
I too was told of the door shut and inside the bonnet trick to guestimate the clearcoat thickness.

If 3Ms technical are correct the Ultrafina SE will hardly take any off.
Luckily the constant washing has virtually got it all off.

I dont think any of the “cheap” (sub £200) meters measure paint on plastic.
Maybe the £500-£700 ones do ??
But I am not too sure what technology would enable the meter to read it. Ergo no way to differentiate between top coat and ckearcoat thickness.

 

[Submariner1]

You should see the amount of cars that get painted before they get delivered to the first owner. being new doesn't guarantee its not had paintwork.
I thought you charged the builder to have the fall out removed and polished by a professional and not do it yourself to make money??

There was about £16 difference in having it done and buying all the stuff to do it myself.

Due to the total absence of rain, and the scaffolding planks being covered in it. The car needs washing at least every other day. To prevent more of this dust settling on the car and getting “attached”.
With 2 more weeks till the job is complete, going the do it yourself route provided enough money to buy a snow foam lance and a water filter.
The latter certainly made it possible to rinse and wash it repeatedly before mechanical washing with a mit i..e removing any new dust, and also broke down the film that seemed to lock the grit on.

Certainly not making any money, and a HUGE inconvenience.

Put it this way had I known what this involved, I would have wanted serious compensation for my time.

So he got off extremely lightly, as he could be fined by both building control and environmental health!
But we made a deal, and I never go back on my word.

OK I took the self centred, irresponsible route; as he should have been caned for polluting us with Silica Dust. But at the time of doing the deal I was unaware how dangerous this is. ( circa 600 deaths in that sector of the contruction industry attributable to it, per annum! )

 

[star]

Even so you have gained equipment/tools at his expense. It’s your choice to attempt it yourself, so the time and hassle is down to you.