Car Sheet Metal Gauge

The larger the gauge number the thinner the metal.

Car sheet metal gauge.

Many racing organizations will specify the minimum acceptable gauge for sheet metal in critical applications such as firewalls and protective enclosures. As the gauge number increases the material thickness decreases. A sheet metal gauge sometimes spelled gage indicates the standard thickness of sheet metal for a specific material. Sheet metal thickness gauges for steel are based on a weight of 41 82 pounds per square foot per inch of thickness.

In most of the world sheet metal thickness is consistently specified in millimeters. In the u s the thickness of sheet metal is commonly specified by a traditional non linear measure known as its gauge. This is known as the manufacturers standard. The equivalent thicknesses differ for each gauge size standard which were developed based on the weight of the sheet for a given material.

A gauge conversion chart can be used to determine the actual thickness of sheet metal in inches or millimeters. 20 gauge became common in more recent times and this meant 0 0359 inch thick metal still a lot to work with in bumping and metal finishing. Remember that you re always trading off weight against strength when choosing a gauge of sheetmetal to use. For example 18 gauge steel according to a gauge conversion chart is 0 0478 inch or 1 214 millimeter.

Automotive sheet metal once ran in the range of 18 gauge which was 48 thousandths of an inch thick actually 0 0478 inch. For a weight bearing floor use 14 or 12 gauge steel. Commonly used steel sheet metal ranges from 30 gauge to about 7 gauge.