fd3s paint depth
 

Hi, I want to chcek whether my paint is original. Do you know what should be original colour depth ?Its a 94fd
Thanks

Dont know the answer to your question, but an easy method of checking if it is at least the original color would be to cross reference your vin #. A mazda deal would be able to tell you the original color code based off your vin.

Forget the vin# just lift off the rear carpet and look inside. No person would repaint the car inside and out...

guiiiiltyyyyyy!

Check the front fenders, there are two stickers under the hood on each one, they should be there and unpainted. Look for a chip in the paint and take a macro shot of it. I believe the original primer on all of them was white or possibly very pale grey. Not a 100% on that, it's based on the handful of cars I've seen. The paint is rather thick when compared to many modern cars today and you tell that with just your eyes in chips.

The spoilers can't be trusted as they came pre-painted and could be dealer installed which could require painting.

He's not wondering if his car was painted a different color, he's wondering if it was resprayed.
Mazda did a lot of warranty paint jobs, especially on early VR cars that were turning salmon pink.

I don't know the answer though, ask on a detailing forum, like www.autopia.org/

I wouldn't be surprised if you measure it and it's not very thick, less than 4mil. Mazda paint has never been known for being great.

+1 I'd be surprised if it's more than 4-5 mm, this ain't a BMW

mil. , as in thousandth of an inch....

4-5mm would be a massive amount of paint...

maybe micrometers?

I think I measured mine and it was like .60 all around except one spot where there was a fender bender. the number is very fuzzy to me so don't take it too seriously...vintage red

Average paint depth on factory paint in good condition normally isn't more than 6 mils from top of clear down to metal. If the paint has clear coat, the clear coat itself should be around 1.5-2 mils thick. Primer and base coat should be around 3-4 mils.

If you are assuming what thickness your factory paint is on an FD, factor in the years of wear and tear. Of course it varies on each vehicle.

A mil means one-thousandth of an inch, therefore a mil is equal to .001 inches or .0254 millimeter. 1 μm (micrometer) = 0.001 mm (millimeter), etc etc... If you are wondering why the measurement mils is used, I cannot give you an answer for that. Its just a common way to measure coating thickness.

Corrected for proper application :lol:

hahahaha you win

The only way to truly tell is to buy a paint gauge... some are fairly affordable. My 93 fd still has the VR paint in mint condition. If i had access to a paint thickness gauge i could tell you where the original mazda paint thickness should be around but they dont sell those devices locally

The year of your car would matter to though wouldn't it? Didn't Mazda change the paint around with the later cars? They even had a recall done no?

Yup, there were quite a few "factory repaints" done on '93 cars IIRC.

will a call to mazda be helpful to find out?

mil - my bad - have metric units on the brain lately because we're doing alot more international work