Warning: I learned the hard way that factory paint thickness specs are way thinner than I thought

So I was working on a 2018 Honda Accord last week, trying to blend a door. Pulled out my paint gauge just to check things, and I was shocked. The factory layer was like 4.5 mils on that panel. I always figured it was thicker, maybe 6 or 7. I found this chart online from some detailing forum that broke down OEM specs by make and year. Hondas are basically sprayed thin from the factory. No wonder I was burning through clear coat on my first pass. I had to redo the whole job. Anyone else ever assume factory paint was thicker and get bitten by it?

3 comments

3 Comments

west.anna2mo ago

Heard my buddy burned through a fender on a Mazda last month doing the same thing.

laura_black312mo ago

Was your buddy running straight water or something? I've seen people mess up paint jobs way worse from getting too aggressive with cheap tools, but a whole fender gone just from normal compound work sounds like a stretch. Most modern clear coats can take a decent amount of buffing before you hit bare metal you know. Unless he was using a grinder with a sanding disc by mistake. I bet there's more to that story like maybe he left the buffer in one spot for ten minutes or used some junk compound from a dollar store. Point is I think people blame the product when it's usually user error.

alice_kim1mo ago

People always jump to blame the tool or the product first. @laura_black31 is right, it's almost always about how you're using it. I see this all the time with people and their phones too. They'll complain about battery life draining fast, but then you find out they have thirty apps running in the background and the brightness cranked to max. Or they blame the vacuum for not picking up hair, but the filter is clogged solid. It's like everyone wants a magic fix without checking their own habits first. Same with cars, same with anything really. The user is usually the weak link in the chain.