Well my car needs a full on compound, polish wax deal as once I put the halogens on it I saw some frightening things. I am very worried though because I think it is getting really thin being 21 years old and wasnt taken care of for 18 of those. My dad is going to bring home a quality paint thickness guage from work for me to use one weekend. I was planning on marking some areas with a grease pen with the thickness and see where I stand. Just wondering though, with the real soft Honda paint, at what thickness do you just give up and use a very mild polish? I would like to do one very extensive detail, and then just try my best to stay on top of things after that and not let much damage occur to the best of my control.

Any help is appreciated!

 

All cars aren't painted evenly even from the factory...

Here is an example of Paint Thickness:

I think you guys are confusing mils and microns? 1 mil - ~25 microns. So 160 microns = 6.4 mil of paint.
So yes, ~3 mil of removal would cause cc failure (in fact, the clear is likely only 2 mils thick).
I removed 2 *microns*, which is 0.07 *mil*, so assuming I can remove even just half a mil of clear safely,
I still had .43 mil (or 11 microns) left to play with after ALL that polishing.

When you do polish start with the mildness polish/pad combo and use what works with the less amount of removal... No need to remove more clear when it's not needed.

I usually polish my own car after winter for spring and after fall to get it ready for Winter. You could those two times a year a lot even on soft clear for quite awhile.


A little confusing, let me know if you need any specific help.

 

I don't know from first-hand experience, but after reading several things online, I found that after a good compound and polish for paint restoration, people are removing anywhere from 2-7 microns. Just play it safe and go slow. Thicker areas you can work more, thinner areas, less.