[TW]Fox;17133908 said:
Not sure I can agree that a ptg is largely pointless?
Because they're not.
Irregardless of not giving you individual levels of the layers, what it does is give you a fighting chance of doing the job properly and safely.
1. It highlights thinspots on panels. Paint is measured in microns, so say a bonnet gives you an average of 200um overall, bar the right hand leading edge where you have 70um readings. Straight away you know that if you had compounded that area, as you were planning to do to the rest of the bonnet, you would have struck through (removed the clearcoat, respray required). You would have never known this without a simple PTG.
2. It can help tell you if a panel has been resprayed. Not always, but more often than not, that panel will have higher readings than the factory levels. This is handy when working with german paint because by the time you have worked out the best pad/polish for initial removal, it's pretty aggressive. The resprayed panel info allows you to not assume the material will take kindly to a wool pad and heavy compound.
3. It tells you how much material you have removed. Again, forget the clearcoat for a moment. The panel has an average of 200um. You run a pad/polish combo that doesn't correct. You take a reading...you've knocked 5um off. This tells you straight away you are dealing with something soft. Handy to know. Better, if you are a good detailer, you will want to leave some life in the paint, not correct it to the nth degree and leave the clearcoat ridiculously thin. If you have to remove 40% of the overall thickness to correct the car, you are doing something wrong, the material is too thin already, the imperfections are too deep etc. Without a PTG, how much have you removed? You don't actually know. The customer has no idea what you have left him with. The gauge, if nothing else, allows an educated guess.
Got that Aston looking great, customer over the moon, you with money in your pocket. An honest, professional detailer will tell you what he's taken off and what he believes is left. The new guy can't do that, he doesn't know himself exactly what's left. He didn't know what he had to start with.
The arguement that a PTG does not give you simply the most important measure, the clearcoat thickness is valid. But an educated guess can be made and experience and common sense with the gauge and plenty of cars starts to make things a lot clearer.
The guys that are £2k and up for a full correction use a PTG. Not multi-level, but single reads. £400 gauge is great, a £150 gauge...if nothing else, it will help you avoid point 1.
You can tell me I'm talking out of my arse, but one of the most cited guides to rotary use was written by DaveKG. Dave knows all about strikethrough, he wouldn't dream of working on a clients car without a simple PTG, simply for the fact it has saved his bacon on more than one occasion.
I think it's time to make a distinction in this thread. A professional is somebody who gets paid to do a job, in this case, on clients cars. If you are a pro, you should have a PTG. The majority do (and single reads at that), for obvious reasons they consider it an essential tool. Like insurance.
This is only if its my fault, don't forget. Like I've stated, if the lacquer was thin enough to strike through, it was going to anyway, as I do not use any kind of particularly heavy cut - if this happens, I will offer to finish the job and there will be no charge - as a goodwill jesture.
That bit in bold, that's not good.
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