Paint Thickness Or Standard

[homemechanic]

My car came back from the shop a few months ago, and I notice the paint on the rear bumper cover starts to peel off. There are three layers of paint. The bumper was reconditioned after an accident and painted without strip down the original paint. The color did not match after that paint job, so it was painted again. There are now three layers of paint and possibility three layers of clearcoat. Does anyone know the Lexus paint standard in terms of thickness (in mils) or how many layers?

thanks

1999 ES300

[TOGWT]

I don't know if individual car mfgs have their own paint thickness standards, but these are considered industry stds-

Paint Film Thickness:

Most modern vehicle paint film systems (paint build) comprise a primer coat of 2 Mil, a colour coat of 1-2 Mil, and clear coat of 2-3 Mil, an unprotected paint surface will lose approximately 8-10% or 0.4 Mil (0.0004-inch) to environmental exposure in a twelve month period (dependant upon geographic location) As a point of reference a sheet of copy paper is 3.5Mil (0.0035") removing more that 10% or 0.3 Mil (0.0003") of clear coat will cause premature paint film failure

[SW03ES]

Take it back to the shop and make them paint it again. What kind of warranty did they give you on their work?

The only reason it would peel is if it was done improperly in the first place. Looks like they didn't bond the paint to the surface underneath or use the proper flex additive.

[homemechanic]

Take it back to the shop and make them paint it again. What kind of warranty did they give you on their work?

The only reason it would peel is if it was done improperly in the first place. Looks like they didn't bond the paint to the surface underneath or use the proper flex additive.

Thanks for the replies guys!

I can't trust them repaint my car again. They insist that they overhauled my front bumper, but caught them not replacing the energy absorber while they were repainting my car to match the color. They said they were going to strip and sand off the old paint before painting, but they didn't. That's how several layers of paint are on there now.

Most manufacturers have their own standard of paint thickness I believe. However, a lot of body shops tend to follow the I-Car standard. Does anyone know the I-Car standard for paint thickness?

Thanks!

[LexKid630]

A good shop should know what they're doing... If it's peeling so soon after they re-painted it, they're not a good shop. Pretty simple.

It's not your problem to find out how it should be done, thickness etc. You're paying them money for THEM to do the "thinking" and get it done perfectly. Just tell them to re-do it RIGHT, or take it to another body shop and get their input along with an estimate.

The amt. of coats shouldn't matter just as long as they prepare the surface b/t each clearcoat.

[SW03ES]

The number of coats DOES matter. If the paint is too thick it will peel and crack.

[TOGWT]

A good shop should know what they're doing... If it's peeling so soon after they re-painted it, they're not a good shop. Pretty simple.

It's not your problem to find out how it should be done, thickness etc. You're paying them money for THEM to do the "thinking" and get it done perfectly. Just tell them to re-do it RIGHT, or take it to another body shop and get their input along with an estimate.

The amt. of coats shouldn't matter just as long as they prepare the surface b/t each clearcoat.

Delamination- clear coat detachment is the result of inferior preparation of the base coat (colour) prior to the application of the clear coat. This may be evident on any area of a vehicle where there is trim such as mouldings door handles, window trim, etc. You need to remove the entire clear coat and re-apply a base coat and finally a clear coat. If you don't the new paint will separate due to delamination of the original clear coat under the new paint you applied.

Correction- repair requires correctly preparing the area by cleaning and sanding, the base coat must be examined (checked with a paint thickness meter) to insure correct film build and the clear re-applied. The entire panel should be refinished rather than attempting a ‘spot repair’. Any attempt to hide the defect by wet sanding and polishing / compounding will result in further damage by removing the paint build (thickness)