robingb

I am looking at a midnight blue 1990 cab. Seller says paint is all original. However, my paint thickness gauge reads 8's and some 9's. My 1993 white coupe with original paint reads around 4.5 to 6. Initially I thought the cab's readings were too high to be original paint. However, some of the excess compared to my coupe is attributable to the cab being 2 stage (ie, base coat clear coat). Also, I read a thread here on the forum which said that 1990 cars were painted by hand instead of robots and that hand painted cars got thicker readings. Any input here w/b greatly appreciated. Thanks, Gary

Bearclaw

I'd tend to think that's legit. My meter on my (single-stage) Guards Red shows the same as your white car, 4.5-6, and it is original. I've never metered a dual-stage Porsche of that era, but I would expect it to be heavier than average. If you figure the clear is in the neighborhood of the standard 2.0-2.5 mils, your readings are right in there. Not enough thickness to be more than one coat, IMO. If you're still concerned, take readings all over to see if any variation is symmetrical. They are on my car, i.e. the left flank is heavy, similar to the right flank; the left door is lighter, similar to the right door, etc. I think that is characteristic of the way Porsche painted back then. Also look for the usual suspects: tape lines, paint where it shouldn't be, etc. 'Entire-body, stripped-down' jobs are expensive, it would be unlikely without a reason (big crash), and if you dig, you'll always find some evidence (something reassembled not quite correctly or missing, something "non-factory"). Try to find another 964 dual-stage to test, or talk to a body shop that does a lot of Porsche's.

I'm betting it's original.

R6XTERRA

agreed, my 91 is all original and it was paint metereed as well 4.5-6. anything over i believe is not correct.

Jon Hansen

Guys, the OEM's respray cars on the line all the time for dings, scratches, imperfections, etc, etc.
When I ran my bodyshop, I once counted 3 paint jobs on an Audi 5000s deck lid, and it really was "factory".
Porsche could have easily resquirted panels or the whole car, leading to anomolies in the thickness gauge readings on this particular vehicle, but it would still be "original factory paint".
I'm just saying......Porsche isn't perfect either. lol
How does it look? Do you like it? If yes, buy it and drive it. It ain't going up in value any time soon.

rarebear

AMEN !!