If I could meassure my clear coat thickness with a digital gauge before and after using DACP with a PC on a 8006 pad at speed 5, which would be the outcome ? How much clear coat would be removed?
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Meassuring clear coat thickness
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Funny, I just did this, sort of...much more agressively than you...might have taken off about half a mil...based on my rough calibration of the eddy current tester I borrowed. I would say one application with your pad would be a tenth of a mil or less...but I'm just guessing...Mike Phillips is prolly the guy who has done this a lot, or Rod Kraft who showed us his tester today at the detailing day.
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You are only "allowed" to remove 0.5 mils of the clear
The thinking is that if you remove any more, the UV protection is compromised, and may lead to clearcoat failure in 6 months or so.
Me? I dunno. But I just received my ETG (Electronic Thickness Guage) last week. It makes me much more aware when going after those DEEP imperfections.
Jim
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This is just my opinion. Once, maybe twice...
ValuGard offers a product (which I THINK is similar to DACP) and their directions clearly state that one pass (buff to dust) will remove .3 mil.
Without the (expensive) ability to measure, we are buffing in the dark! That' why I'm so bothered by folks who think wetsanding is a casual fix for so many problems...
Be careful.
Jim
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Originally posted by Jimmy Buffit
This is just my opinion. Once, maybe twice...
ValuGard offers a product (which I THINK is similar to DACP) and their directions clearly state that one pass (buff to dust) will remove .3 mil.
Without the (expensive) ability to measure, we are buffing in the dark! That' why I'm so bothered by folks who think wetsanding is a casual fix for so many problems...
Be careful.
Jim
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Let me jump in here also...
DACP and a PC will not remove .3 mil with one pass not even close...
Just to give you an idea, we can take our Finishing Papers, wool pad, and Diamond Cut 2.0 and remove less than .5 mil.
With that said, you can use DACP over and over and over with a PC with no problems of removing too much material and causing any type of paint failure.
I hope this clears things up
MikeMike Pennington
Director of Global Training, Events and Consumer Relations
Meguiar's, Inc.
800-854-8073
mpennington@meguiars.com
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Originally posted by manueljlg
Also, what´s the standar thickness of clear coat in most cars?
Single Stage Paint Systems (aka standard finish)
Total Film Build is about 3.5 to 5.0 mils.
(primer, pigmented color)
About 2.0 to 2.5 mils of the TFB is the pigmented color (on top of the primer) .
Clear Coat Paint Systems
Total Film Build is about 4.5 to 6.0 mils
(primer, basecoat, clearcoat)
About 1.5 to 2.0 mils is the clear coat alone, with only .5 mils available for defect removal.
*a standard sheet of paper is about 2.5 mils*Jose Torres
Meguiar's Inc. - Technical Support/Surface Care Specialist
1-800-854-8073 ext 113
jtorres@meguiars.com
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Mike Pennington, nice to hear from you!
My reference to removing .3 was with a rotary and wool pad...
Seems I could be more precise in my posts.
Setec, the ETG only allows us to monitor the amount removed. So, we must take initial/baseline readings, and monitor the changes.
It is not a cure all. For example, if we don't know the history of the vehicle, can we safely assume that it has not been aggressively buffed in the past? Probably, but we just don't know.
Just one more tool.
Jim
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