[SpeedyATL]

Does anyone know how many mils of paint/clear are on the flat portion of a Z4 hood from the factory on a non-matte paint car?

I have a thickness tester, but it's not working for some reason.

Curious because i need to do a chip repair and I want to know how aggressive I can be prepping the spot for touch-up paint and clear.

Thanks

[Balr14]

If I'm not mistaken, the Z4 hood is aluminum and many paint depth gauges only work on steel.

[SpeedyATL]

Thanks, but from my experience many guages do work on non ferrous, which includes aluminum. Mine did, when it was working....ugh.

[stlcdr]

Not sure if this helps, but I put my gauge on the hood that’s covered in PPF stealth and it reads from 10 to 12 mils. Opening the hood, checking the paint there, it shows from 3 to 4 mils (typical thickness, I’m guessing for a quality paint job). Stealth PPF says it’s 8 mils. I don’t know what the gauge does with the film.

(Edit: the gauge I use is from Prismatic Powders / Cerakote. It’s their own branded model, I guess).

[SpeedyATL]

Thanks. I would have expected something closer to 6 mils for a cleared car. I would also think the underside of the hood would get less paint/clear than the top, but my experience is from 15+ years ago, so....

I just ordered a new guage so we'll see what mine reads in a day or two..

[stlcdr]

Originally Posted by SpeedyATL

Thanks. I would have expected something closer to 6 mils for a cleared car. I would also think the underside of the hood would get less paint/clear than the top, but my experience is from 15+ years ago, so....

I just ordered a new guage so we'll see what mine reads in a day or two..

I thought it would be a bit thicker on the top, I believe the PPF is appearing thinner than it actually is to the instrument. It’s a paint thickness measurement after all. 3 mils on the underside doesn’t surprise me, though.

[SpeedyATL]

According to my new tester, my AW m40 scores about 5.5 mil on the flat portion of the hood top and 3.5 mils on the finished underside.

Not far from what i expected, so generally pleased with that. It's not super thick but should be ok for my touch up purposes.