Full disclosure, I am familiar with both owners, the original owner as well as the current owner and both are solid, honest, true Porsche faithful. I have also personally inspected this car. The original owner is adamant it was never painted in his care (1993-2017) and I know it hasn’t been while in the current owners care. With that said, I have no horse in this race, just figured I would share my knowledge and expertise on this.

I knew the paint meter readings on this car would cause a lot of consternation. Folks are generally correct that in an ideal world a 964 with original paint should meter in the range of ~3.5-7mils. Generally the lowest readings will be bottoms of doors, sunroof, fuel door, jams which might read as low as 3-4 mils. Upper doors, front fenders, hood, roof, rear deck will usually be 4.5-6 mils and rear quarters are usually the highest and the most likely spot you might see 6 to the occasional 7.5-8 mils. In these instances most people will accept that the readings verify original paint BUT there are exceptions…. (I know people hate exceptions as they think a tool should provide 100% evidence, it just doesn’t, its a great tool but has its limits). These would be:

-These cars were painted by hand (meaning a real human being painted these cars) so they WILL have more variation than a modern robotically painted car)

-Quality Control (QC) - Since these were painted by hand and Porsche has a very stringent QC process, what do people think Porsche did when they found a dry spot, run, dirt, contamination, poor metallic distribution, etc in the paint? Do people think they threw the car away?? Of course not, they noted the issue, scuffed the area down and sent the car back thru paint to have that area remedied. Logic would tell you this was the case. In this case a car might meter high but would have none of the tell tales of aftermarket paint as it was painted prior to full assembly (such as overspray, back masking lines, hard edges, texture mismatch, etc)

-Port/Shipping Damage- Like above the cars oftentimes would suffer a scratch, damage, etc during transport, Porsche maintained a repair facility at the port that would remedy these items prior to shipping to the dealer. This also happened at the dealer level. Whether someone considers a repair prior to original delivery as “original” is up to debate, I could see a view either way. In this scenario the work was usually done to a very high standard but a few of the classic “tells” are often evident.

-Replaced Panels- Now paint meters can cut both ways. I know several cars that “meter” as original that I know for a fact aren’t. For example if you replace a hood and your painter is fairly skilled and doesn’t lay on a lot of paint, they can also get a number in the 4-5mils range, someone who doesn’t know that the paint meter is just ONE of a couple tools in an experts arsenal could be fooled. What are the other tools? EXPERIENCE; those of us in the business prior to the widespread use of paint meters know this. They are: evidence of panel removal/replacement, paint texture/color match, panel fitment, back masking/hard edges/rough edges, body tags, etc. The best analogy I use is that you can get a slew of medical tests but a smart person also wants to have their Dr perform a full physical exam. That expert/Dr. can then combine the lab tests along with their years of clinical experience to diagnose.

-My experience having worked at a Porsche dealer when 964’s were new, having been a Porsche nut for 30 years, having bought/sold/inspected/owned literally 100’s of 964’s, as well as having done a full 2-year auto body/paint training program (just because I was interested) is that for whatever reason Porsche’s of this era 1990-1994 have the widest range of paint meter values even on cars that IMO I would judge as original paint.

Everyone can form their own opinion, for some this will just cause too much debate and it will rule them out. For some they can accept that one of the above scenarios is likely, the key is the buyer just has to decide where they sit on that issue. I hope that helps!