Repainted car: what to look for

C

clueless1

New member
Hi, I've been reading and learning a lot about paint and detailing. What a great site. I am looking at a car I may purchase tomorrow. It turns out that there was damage to the hood (requiring a repaint) and the owner had the entire car repainted. He told me that he had a lot of issues getting it "right" and even had to have 3M come down to the paint shop.



Obviously I will be looking for prior accident damage when I look at the car.



My question is about the paint job itself. The car has never been polished. What should I be looking for to evaluate the paint? Note all I really care about is whether it will be correctable by a good detailer/PC. Thanks!
 
clueless1- Welcome to Autopia!



My first thought is "don't buy that car". It just sounds like trouble.



Rather than worry about polishing it (it shouldn't need much polishing anyhow, it's new paint), I'd be concerned about the quality of the repaint. Look around edges, windows, trim and see if you can see a "line" where the new paint's edge is. If so, that's really, really bad. Look for overspray in wheelwells, between panels (like the front fender-front door gap) and so on...again, if you see that, it's bad news.



There shouldn't be any way to tell it's been repainted. If you *can* tell, I wouldn't buy it because a bad paintjob will be an never-ending headache.



Sorry to sound so pessimistic, but this just shouts "stay away!" to me.



But to your real Q about the polishing, light "swirl marks" aren't any big deal. But I'd be worried about scratches that are under the new paint, some such stuff doesn't show up for a while....and then months later the paint "shrinks" a little and you see flaws that can't be fixed (without repainting again).
 
honestly, if the owner told you he had trouble getting it right, I would stay away.



I work with my dad at a body shop, and to tell you the truth, it's either done right or not imo.
 
Here's what I would do:

Ask the owner to see digital pictures of the car's damage. Hey, this is the 21st century! Everyone has a digital camera, even on their cell phone.

The insurance company probably took digital pictures. The body shop took pictures. Chances are, the owner took pictures. If it was a car accident, the police may have taken pictures. Someone has pictures of the car damage!! You need to see them for yourself to judge how bad the damage was. You're making a sizable investment in a vehicle and you might as well get as much information about it as you can BEFORE you put down your money. Otherwise, you could be buying one big headache. Here's another tip: look for chalk/grease pencil markings/numbers or different paint colors on the inside of fenders or sheet metal parts. This represents used sheet metal (IE, junk yard) parts that have been used rather that OEM replacement parts. Also, look at the title. Many states require to state if a car has been salvaged (IE, a totaled-out car that was bought from the insurance company and then fixed up and re-titled and now being sold). If it says salvaged, I'd stay away from it. There is a reason it was deemed TOTALED!
 
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