thickness of paint before you remove swirls

[SwedishCanadian]

Just a really quick question. How thick does paint need to be for you to be able to work on it safely?
My mazda is 75-80 microns. The detailer said that its so thin, that I can only remove swirls once and then that's it. Is this really true? It hasn't been touched since it it came from factory. I just can't believe that the paint on a $35,000 car is so thin, that you can only remove swirls once? Sounds fishy. I know it's thin, for sure, but thaaaaat thin? Just as long as they're careful, I must be able to remove a thin, thin layer of clear coat every now and then to get rid of swirls like everyone else, right?

[Top Gear]

Re: thickness of paint before you remove swirls

The problem is the assumptions built in. Yes, the robot-applied paint on all factory baked cars is very thin, indeed, but the amount of damage/shaving you will actually do with a DA machine is very, very little - yet that assumes the level of aggression matches the hardness of the paint. Thus, factory paint can be machine compounded and polished many, many, many times, assuming you are not overworking each time. If I took M101 and an MF pad with full aggression to a very soft paint, I'm sure I would see primer without much work, whereas on a very hard paint as mine is, that's the only way to polish it out. Likewise, Ultimate Polish/M205 on a foam pad does nothing but spread oil on hard paint, while it might be the best way to correct a soft paint, and repeat it many times over the life of the car. The combinations are endless, and the detailer you're hiring might only have one way of doing things. If your paint is too soft for their way of working, then yes, you might be paying dearly for the only correction you'll ever get.