The Anatomy of Car Paint
In today’s blog post we will be going over car paint. We will discuss what is car paint? What is automotive paint made from? How thick paint is on a car out of the factory? And what can we do to make an informed decision if we should put a buffing pad to it or not? So what exactly is car paint? Car paint as we all know is the shiny coating of a specific color that is on our vehicles when it first comes out of the factory. They can come in various colors like red, white, blue, metallic, and the dreaded most loved and hated color to work within our industry…BLACK!!!!
Automotive paint is not just a color choice given to you by a dealership when buying a car. The main purpose of paint was to protect the substructure and panels of a vehicle from the elements of mother nature and prevent corrosion. From 1950 to 1970 the main type of paint used was acrylic lacquer, also known as single paint. Acrylic lacquer combined with metallic flakes made an amazing combination to create a whole new look on cars. It's becoming rare to see single-stage paint in the automotive industry but they are still around. One key factor to know if you're about to paint correct a car with single-stage paint is by looking at your buffing pad, if you do a paint correction on a vehicle and your pad turns the color of that car then most likely you're working with single-stage paint. But do not panic!!! That’s actually quite normal; just keep doing what you're doing and you will be fine. One of the biggest flaws of this paint was that after one to two years it would oxidize, creating a dull chalky look. So in the 1980s manufacturers worked on creating what we know today as 2-stage automotive paint, which is the paint that comes out of our automotive factories. To keep it short, sweet and simple 2-stage paint is made of Polyurethane, layered in two separate coatings, base coat (color) and topcoat (clear coat) also known as 2-stage. Ok great we know what car paint is, and what it's made from. But how thick is the paint?
In the auto body and paint industry thickness of paint is measured in Mils (millimeters) and microns ( 1 millionth of a meter). 1 millimeter of paint equals about 25.4 microns, the automotive paint that comes out of the factory nowadays is between 4-5 mils thick. Clearcoat alone is maybe 1-2 mils thick which is thinner than a piece of paper. That’s not very much paint to work with when doing a paint correction, which is why it's so easy for you to burn through the clear/color of the paint. But how do we accurately measure the paint to be sure? By using what’s known as a paint thickness gauge. The way a paint thickness gauge works is by magnetic properties. When you put a gauge against the surface of the vehicle's paint, a sensor on the bottom side of the gauge is put against the surface of the panel and will read how far away it's from the metal surface. Cheaper models will only work on metal surfaces; more expensive models will work on all surfaces including bumpers. A rough estimate, I repeat A ROUGH ESTIMATE!!! To know how much clearcoat you might have to work with is by measure the panel you're about to work on, measure the door jambs then subtract the first number to the door jamb number. The reason for this rough estimate trick is because door jambs are only coated with a small layer of clear coat for the reason that it's not exposed to the sun as much as the outside of the vehicle. So when paint correcting, make sure you make a properly informed decision on how to tackle the job. Do not be afraid to walk away if you either don’t feel confident enough or the paint is too thin to tackle!!! Pride is not worth an extremely large paint job bill.
So there you have it, “The anatomy of automotive paint”. Hopefully, with this new found information that I have given you, you can make a more informed decision on how to tackle automotive paint with a rotary/DA (Dual Action) polisher. But remember our main job is what can we do to keep the most paint on the surface of the car while also making the car look good. Also detailing isn’t only just about what can you do with a polisher, it's also about what can you do to fall in love with your car again even if it means not correcting the paint.
Disclaimer: Due to factors beyond the control of Oh My Auto Detailing, Beginner Detailing, & Esau Cotto Jr, we cannot guarantee against improper use or unauthorized modifications of this information. Oh my auto Detailing, Beginner Detailing, & Esau Cotto Jr. assumes no liability for property damage or injury.
By Esau Cotto Jr.
