rhkwon

I want to see a red S4 the other day. I noticed there was red paint on the undercarriage. So I’f you look underneath the driver and passenger doors there was red pain all along the underside of the frame. Was this normal for the factory to do this or an indication of a respray? Also I could not find vin tags on the hood or the inside of the front fenders where there are several bolts running along the engine bay. Nor could I find a vin tag on the passenger door jam. I heard that 1990 and up did not have vin stickers? I’m confused. The guy said it’s never been wrecked or repainted before. Where are the vin stickers located for all the S4 cars and is the paint on the undercarriage normal?

Rob Edwards

At what year S4 were you looking?

rhkwon

1991

rhkwon

Here’s a pic

Rob Edwards

Yes, VIN stickers on the body panels (all of them except maybe the sunroof panel) were used 87-89.

If that's overspray from a repaint, it means someone didn't bother to disassemble the car, there should be telltale signs of lazy everywhere in that paint job. It could also mean that there was just some spot-touchup on the rear bumper cover. Or it's factory overspray, but without seeing the car in person this is all just internet speculation.

EDIT: The black bumper cover reinforcement strip is still black. So I'm changing my vote to factory overspray, the whole rear end of the car gets body color and with the bumper cover off the battery box would get it if Yusuf was sloppy that day.

Jerry Feather

I vote for respray, and probably a very good one. The reason the black bumper cover reinforcement is still black is that the bumper cover was likely removed to be painted. The overspray on the under sides is not likely to have happened at the factory and if it did it would not look so nice and bright now 27 years later.

Keep looking and you will likely find some tape lines and other indications of respray. The missing stickers is a dead giveaway for me also.

Also, just for clarification, the over spray you are seeing under the sides of the car are not on the frame but rather on the hat sections that merely stiffen the floor. The frame is actually inside the door sills, the door sills, and the rocker panels themselves.

The biggest issue, aside from the credibility of the seller, is whether or not the color of the car was changed in the repaint job.

P.S. Also I think the undercoating is put on after the car is painted, and in this case the overspray looks like it is on the undercoating rather than under it.

rhkwon

So the 90-91 did not have vins? I couldn’t find a single sticker except the diver side door jam and the plate on the inside is the drivers side windshield.

Also paint spray all along the driver and passenger side frame rails. Would that be normal? I would think that Porsche would have painted the car body first and then place it into the frame?

Rob Edwards

No, no body panel VIN stickers in 90-95. 87-89 only.

rhkwon

What’s confusing is on the side hat sections there is undercoating over parts of the red “overspray “

Jerry Feather

[QUOTE=I would think that Porsche would have painted the car body first and then place it into the frame?[/QUOTE]

The 928 has a frame but it is a unibody construction which means that the frame and body are built together into one unit. They paint it as one unit.

Jerry Feather

If you will post several more pictures of various areas of the car such as the door jams (front and rear), the firewall, behind the tool panel around the hatch, in front of the engine, and several of the overspray under the car, then perhaps someone can tell you with more certainty if it has been repainted or not.