My paint is only 1mil thick?

[TrauCon]

So I got curious as to what thickness the pain is on ours. Granted I didn't get a hundred of dollars measurer, but I thought even though with the one I have the paint thickness reading would be consisten between all panels.

For the front fenders and the hood, the reading is a lot higher than the rest of the car. I know they are different material as magnets don't stick to them, but does anyone have any experience with it? Even for the door, the reading is 1 mil, about 25 microns, which is extremly thin. I dont think that is right.

My car is ceramic coated. Maybe that messed up the reading?

Any input is much appreciated.

[NYG]

All that I can contribute to this thread is that the BMW clear coat is one of the worst in the auto industry. I wish our cars got painted by Benz.

[NinjaBum]

Mine varied between 150 and 200 microns I believe depending on the panel. IDK if individual paint is painted differently but the doors were in the 150s and the fenders were higher.

Ceramic coating is generally a very small difference. Like 5 to 10 microns.

[Aaaaaaaaa]

New or used? How many times has it been polished?

[RickFLM4]

Have you tried that tester on anything else or another tester on your car?

[maul3d]

Would explain why my front bumper gets paint chips from bugs and flies @ 100mph.

Lol

[TrevorM3]

Originally Posted by NYG

All that I can contribute to this thread is that the BMW clear coat is one of the worst in the auto industry. I wish our cars got painted by Benz.

and where did you get this info from? BMW paint is fine. MB is no better/worse.

All share the common orange peel issues etc.


You want perfect paint, buy a Rolls Royce, or Bentley.



different panels may have different readings (your vertical panels for example vs horizontal ones) no biggie.

Are you trying to figure out if your car has had paintwork?

[TrevorM3]

Originally Posted by NUTScapes

New or used? How many times has it been polished?

you'd probably have to polish your car 4x a week with a wool pad to actually do damage. lol. Polisher takes off next to nothing.

[HMM]

After coating my wife's MDX and then my M3, I definitely believe Acura puts on a better paint job.

[N1rve]

My coworker has a 2019 C63S, same complaints about orange peel and how easy the paint chips. I asked him why he didn't put PPF and he said that he doesn't like seams. Comparing my 2019 BMW M4 to his C63S, my M4's paint has less orange peel than his car.

[paliknight]

Originally Posted by HMM

After coating my wife's MDX and then my M3, I definitely believe Acura puts on a better paint job.

Honda is notorious for paint quality. One of the worst in the industry.

[domino_z]

did you calibrate the paint depth gauge before using it?

[NinjaBum]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

you'd probably have to polish your car 4x a week with a wool pad to actually do damage. lol. Polisher takes off next to nothing.

Depends on the amount of correction necessary. Also people definitely can burn through clear by being overly aggressive.

[NYG]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

and where did you get this info from? BMW paint is fine. MB is no better/worse.

All share the common orange peel issues etc.


You want perfect paint, buy a Rolls Royce, or Bentley.



different panels may have different readings (your vertical panels for example vs horizontal ones) no biggie.

Are you trying to figure out if your car has had paintwork?

I've had a few models of both over the years. I have to put 50x the effort to keep my BMW looking the way I like.

It's not orange peel. The quality of Mercedes paint is light years ahead of BMW. My BMWs clear coat after 1 month of daily driving looks like my old MBs after 2 years. Ask any body shop about how bad BMW clear coat is.

[TrauCon]

Got this car since new, polished 1 time prior to the ceramic coating.
I am not trying to find if it has been repainted or not since I know it is in perfect condition. It is just me curious on the paint thickness.

So I tested it on few other BMW and all came out to 1 or 2 mil, on my wife's MDX it gave 3s, which proved that my tester is a junk. Sorry for wasting your time here, but it is good to see your opinions about BMW's paint compared to others. Thanks.

[Brasko]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

and where did you get this info from? BMW paint is fine. MB is no better/worse.

All share the common orange peel issues etc.


You want perfect paint, buy a Rolls Royce, or Bentley.



different panels may have different readings (your vertical panels for example vs horizontal ones) no biggie.

Are you trying to figure out if your car has had paintwork?

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

and where did you get this info from? BMW paint is fine. MB is no better/worse.

All share the common orange peel issues etc.


You want perfect paint, buy a Rolls Royce, or Bentley.



different panels may have different readings (your vertical panels for example vs horizontal ones) no biggie.

Are you trying to figure out if your car has had paintwork?

We have both MB & BMW in my house and I can say the MB paint is definitely harder/thicker coat than BMW. I have also had issues with my first M3 that had less than adequate paint. So little that BMW recognized this and built me a new M3 with same specs to replace the original M3 I purchased. No issues since.

[TrevorM3]

Originally Posted by NYG

I've had a few models of both over the years. I have to put 50x the effort to keep my BMW looking the way I like.

It's not orange peel. The quality of Mercedes paint is light years ahead of BMW. My BMWs clear coat after 1 month of daily driving looks like my old MBs after 2 years. Ask any body shop about how bad BMW clear coat is.

ok, i'm only speaking because i actually paint cars for a living....


You guys can say what you want, the difference is negligble. I've sanded both, repainted both, corrected both, all relatively the same to me. As i said before, you want the good paint, step up to Bentely. lol


For me, just from a visual perspective, the worse clear has to be Mazda. Goodness gracious, absolutely terrible.

[NYG]

Originally Posted by TrevorM3

ok, i'm only speaking because i actually paint cars for a living....


You guys can say what you want, the difference is negligble. I've sanded both, repainted both, corrected both, all relatively the same to me. As i said before, you want the good paint, step up to Bentely. lol


For me, just from a visual perspective, the worse clear has to be Mazda. Goodness gracious, absolutely terrible.

Not claiming to be a paint expert but you're the first person from that background I've ever heard say that. Not saying you're full of shit either just never heard anyone say that before.

Difference has been huge in my experience of appearance, upkeep and resilience.

[DadVibes]

Originally Posted by NYG

Not claiming to be a paint expert but you're the first person from that background I've ever heard say that. Not saying you're full of shit either just never heard anyone say that before.

Difference has been huge in my experience of appearance, upkeep and resilience.

+1. Before trading my S4 in on this M3, I was warned extensively from a guy I've trusted for paint work on a lot of previous cars. Knowing how anal I can be, he told me I'd be pulling my hair out trying to keep the M3 paint looking nearly as good as the S4, and my STI before that. Both required very little effort.

At just 11k miles on the odometer, I can say he was absolutely right. My front bumper looks like it's seen 4 winters and the clear coat shows new notable scratches after just about every drive. I drove my S4 for over 50k miles over 5 years and it didn't look nearly this beat up when I traded it in.

Regardless, PPF was definitely the way to go from the start, which I failed to do.

[aerostar]

Originally Posted by S4toM3

+1. Before trading my S4 in on this M3, I was warned extensively from a guy I've trusted for paint work on a lot of previous cars. Knowing how anal I can be, he told me I'd be pulling my hair out trying to keep the M3 paint looking nearly as good as the S4, and my STI before that. Both required very little effort.

At just 11k miles on the odometer, I can say he was absolutely right. My front bumper looks like it's seen 4 winters and the clear coat shows new notable scratches after just about every drive. I drove my S4 for over 50k miles over 5 years and it didn't look nearly this beat up when I traded it in.

Regardless, PPF was definitely the way to go from the start, which I failed to do.

Absolutely no way BMW paint is worse than Subaru.

My old WRX's paint felt like it was watercolors with a thin layer of wax on top.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by aerostar

Absolutely no way BMW paint is worse than Subaru.

My old WRX's paint felt like it was watercolors with a thin layer of wax on top.

It’s no worse than Audi either IMO. Between my wife and I we’ve has an S4, A6 and 2 Q5s. Paint seems about the same to be - neither better nor worse.

[DadVibes]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

It’s no worse than Audi either IMO. Between my wife and I we’ve has an S4, A6 and 2 Q5s. Paint seems about the same to be - neither better nor worse.

I think a lot of it comes down to the car color, as well. This time around I went with a dark grey, while my last two cars were a lighter blue and white. The grey does hide rock chips better but seems to show significantly more light scratches. While I'm not usually a fan of just plain silver cars, I'm starting to think that would be the best all-around color choice.