# Paint thickness on a Ford.



## Buckweed (Aug 27, 2012)

Hi guys/gals been asked by a friend of mine to see if it would be possible to remove some scratches on the rear door of a ford focus 2011 plate in silver. 
Q1. Have taken a paint reading 290-320 is this the norm for this car? 
Q2. Is it difficult to get a good reflection on a silver car ? Have read somewhere it is ! 
Any help/advice much appreciated . 
Sorry no pic's as yet.


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## leachy (Sep 20, 2011)

The paint thickness seems quite high to me, but that's potentially a good thing unless it's been sprayed ince leaving the factory. My 2012 Fiesta averages around 140-160 microns from memory.


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## Buckweed (Aug 27, 2012)

So Is that a bad thing if its been resprayed . Thicker coat of paint is a good thing ..yes ?


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## leachy (Sep 20, 2011)

Not sure to be honest. I think the issue is consistency and possible areas where the re-spray has been blended in, meaning that the clear coat mught not be as thick or as even as it would be on OEM paint. As a result there's the possible risk that you might burn through where it's at its thinnest. 

As you say though thicker paint should be safer.

I'm new to machine polishing and only really know the theory at this stage, hopefully someone with a bit more experience will drop a reply on later that can clarify things.


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## AllenF (Aug 20, 2012)

Thicker paint nice to work on more meat to the bones so to speak.
Worrying as to why it is that thick in the first place though.
Robots dont really have "off days" when they paint a car so either your reading is wrong or its had some type of repir done IMO


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## Glaschu (Sep 16, 2012)

Buckweed said:


> So Is that a bad thing if its been resprayed . Thicker coat of paint is a good thing ..yes ?


Is it a bad thing if a year old car has been resprayed? If you've just bought it/haven't had repairs done then yes.

Thicker pain't isn't necessarily a good thing, the reading you have is just the total coating thickness, unless you're using a gauge that reads individual layers then you have no way of knowing how much clearcoat (I realise that even with a gauge on oem
paint it's still not an exact science) you have to play with. Just because the paint is thick, don't assume it's mainly clearcoat...


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## The Cueball (Feb 8, 2007)

Thicker paint means nothing, it's in no way a "good" thing... you could still have very, very little clear coat to work with!

It could also mean that the section isn't the original paint, so could be full of filler, harder, softer anything! :lol:

As with all machine polishing, start with the lowest cut and work backwards until you are happy...

As for reflections on silver... well some people say it's hard... some don't... I certainly don't think you get the same wow factor as darker colours, but that is offset by being easier to live with... I've had a few silver cars over the years, and personally, don't have any issues with how good they can look...



















:thumb:


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## leachy (Sep 20, 2011)

Thanks guys, you've clarified things.


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## Dave KG (Feb 23, 2006)

As above - do not be deceived into thinking thick paint means you have more to play with... it wont be the first time I have seen "blended in" panels where there has simply been colour and clear sprayed over the top of existing paint layers, meaning the top layer of clear you actually polish is very thin.

As always with paint readings, do not go on single readings but look for consistency - what are the readings on the rest of the car? Are the door readings suspiciously thick *compared to the rest of the car?* It is the inconsistencies that point to repair work, thin paint regions etc, not the reading value itself on its own.

And it may just be a respray to repair damage from keying - seen that many times.


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## President Swirl (Oct 23, 2011)

My good friend and I corrected his 2008 focus in metallic silver. It was washed, clayed, ect... then prepped with Lime Prime on a lake country finishing pad. ( minimal defects ) after this it was given 2 layers of Tough Coat. The resulting gloss was amazing. You can get silver to shine, let me assure you of that. It just takes a bit of work, and the right products. The readings you give of the paint are high, but don't go bull in a China shop with the compounds. Work your way up the polish - pad combos until you hit the sweet spot. In my experience, Ford paint is not too tough, so it should correct just fine. Good luck.


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## Buckweed (Aug 27, 2012)

Wow, great advice guy thanks that's given me something to think out. Won't be able to see the car until next week now. First thing will take readings from the other parts of the car then I'll see what to do.


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## President Swirl (Oct 23, 2011)

My pleasure, let us know how you get on.


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## BrummyPete (Jun 10, 2010)

The car president is talking about is mine, ill pop a couple of pics up when i eventually finish work 

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2


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## BrummyPete (Jun 10, 2010)

Heres a couple of pics from last weekend, lime prime on a DA then 2 coats of TC. As a note the car has had a full correction about 6 months ago.


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## witcher (Nov 25, 2010)

As it happens I've never worked with ford paint yet. Is ford paint hard?


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## Dixondmn (Oct 12, 2007)

its medium.
average depth on my ST is 130 - 160 microns


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## Buckweed (Aug 27, 2012)

Cracking reflection brummypete, Will update this thread when I get to work on the focus .


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