ALLOSUN-EM2271 Digital Painting Thickness Meter Mini LCD Car Coating Thickness Gauge, Blue

This small and inexpensive paint meter is good for evaluating used cars. It may not be precise enough for an auto paint and collision shop, but it works well for the detection of body filler. It is easy to operate and gives you readings in mm and ml (each ml is about the thickness of a sheet of paper). It is durable and I use it 2-3 times a week.

According to the manual, this meter is good to within +/- .004" or +/- 0.1mm -- good enough to spot major body repairs but not good enough to discern a car that has been resprayed from one that hasn't. My experience with it confirms this: I've got surfaces that are plainly painted yet show zero paint thickness because, well, the paint thickness is within the margin of error. There's no calibration, nothing to ensure accuracy, it's just a toy that tells you roughly how much paint there is, give or take a full coat of paint or two.If you're buying used cars and trying to spot major body damage, this is good enough. If you're doing detailing or paint work and trying to find out exactly how much paint you're working with, you'll need to open your wallet a little wider 'cause this little thing just isn't good enough for that kind of work.

Just got this guy today, very happy after the first day of use, I'll list the pros and cons.Pros: very simple to use. LCD digital figures displayed. It's of great value, accurate.Cons: might be inconsistent sometimes. You need to find the rules and judge it by your experience.Summary: I'm very pleased that I purchased this for checking the mil thickness of car paint coat both and this has saved me over a grand with all the function of much higher priced units. This unit was recommended to me by my supplier who pointed me to this unit on amazon, he has two and uses them daily without issue... At this point I would buy again and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend, if anything happens I'll update my posting.

Great to check your paint/clearcoat thickness prior to wet sanding or compounding.

Im not quite sure of the tolerance one should expect, the instructions straight out say "for coatings on steel, measurement accuracy is not guaranteed". Here is where my skepticism comes from; I tested a 2013 BMW that has only been waxed two or three times and it only measured 1-2 mils. There is no way a car with an intact clearcoat and basecoat only has 1 mil. Then I tested a baggie and the meter showed 2 mil. I put two sheets together and it says 3 mil. I have some stock at work that is precise and I will do some more testing, but any device that says measurements on a steel substrate are not accurate is not good enough to measure paint on a car other than a Tesla! I guess the upside is that it might detect significant variances from one panel to another. I will be looking for something more accurate.3/17/17 follow up: I am reducing my rating one more star after checking this meter in a controlled situation. 3 mil plastic, one sheet of aluminum, one strip of steel.As you can see in the attached pictures the meter measured the 3 mil plastic as 3 mil with an aluminum substrate. It measured the same piece of plastic as 1 mil with a steel substrate. I am not sure how anyone says they got "accurate" readings". As I said earlier, this seems to work on an aluminum base but is not accurate on a steel....at all. This is great for all you Tesla owners, not much use to me. I am completely open to any suggestions from other users or the manufacturer. I cannot see any calibration options nor do the instructions give any guidance. The description sure made me expect better than this.

Save your money. I tested this on several cars with all different paint finishes. I even tested it on a car with no clear coat and had oxidation on the paint. All came back with the same reading. I didn’t have a high expectation for the price point. It was more of a curiosity purchase. The cost alone wasn’t worth the effort to return.

I do damage appraisal and value inspections and this unit lets me know where prior repairs have been done on a vehicle.I suggest it for anyone purchasing a new or used car since I have inspected many cars that there was no visible sign of prior repairs but this gauge showed me there were.Now if you are looking to figure out mil thickness of just the paint this gauge will only tell you how material is on top of the substructure but not how much filler, paint, or clear there is separatelyWill not work on urethane bumpers, fiberglass or plastic parts

Just check your own car if not lease or brand new. Sometime even possible to find out brand new car has second layer of paint.Just added image of Budweiser beer shows 0.1mmI buy and sell occasionally used cars it is lifesaver tool.I dont know how someone says not accurate mine was always accurate.The only bad is need lcd light and bigger lcd. And no user manula how calibration made.And why always battery shows half i tried many batteries level doesn't change on screen.