Hey everyone,

I recently looked at a lower mileage 993 and had the chance to do a paint meter reading throughout the whole car. The hood/roof/trunk had all around 4-5mm of paint but the fenders/doors had around 15mm. So I was wondering if the 993 metal on the doors and fenders are different then the hood and roof. I could have easily messed up the paint meter and hit a wrong setting for the metal but I just want to make sure before purchasing. Thanks in advance

 

Four to five mils on every body panel is what I’ve always seen discussed here in RL. If you’re accurately reading fifteen mils then you have a repaint issue.

 

agree with Mike. unless the door and fender has ppf, it should be relatively consistent throughout the whole car

Edwin

 

Mine reads 4-5 mil on all side panels(doors, fenders, vertical Quarter panel areas). I can find 6 mil in some top surfaces if I recall. Certain parts of the hood, engine lid and roof may rear slightly higher.

Agree that 15 mil with no paint protection film indicates refinish material has been added.

 

When I metered my car at purchase the lowest readings were ~3.7 and the highest ~6.6. I agree with the above comments that 15 suggests PPF or paint work.

What is the current owner saying about the history/condition of the car? Does the story match the meter results?

 

previous owner has had PPF on the car since he bought it. I believe he didn’t even know it was repainted. All the paint matches and I couldn’t find any blend lines or bad matching in the car. 15mil seems like a lot even for a repaint.

 

So is the PPF still on the car?

 

Could filler under a repaint be a cause of such a high reading ?

 

Same question: is there PPF /Paint Protection Film on the car? That will change the reading of the factory paint thickness measurement. Some good films are 8.0 mils and that would account for the thickness of on top of factory paint or a repaint would account for the measurement but, not both. Then you’d be higher.

 

As a general rule 993's with original paint should read the following:

Hood-4-5.5 mils
Fenders 4.5-6mils
Doors- 4-5.5
Roof 4.5-6.5
Sunroof-4-5.5
Rear quarters- 5-7mils
Rear lid 4-5.5 mils
Door jams, engine bay jams- 2-3mils

With that said these cars were painted by hand so they have more variability than modern (996+) which were painted in an automated fashion so what do we assume happened when Quality Control (QC) at the factory noted a dry spot, color mismatch, dirt, etc?? They didn't throw the cars away, nor did they strip them back down to bare metal! They scuffed that area down and applied more paint so there are outliers. There was also paint repairs done at the port (not to mention dealers, etc). So ultimately a paint meter is an AMAZING tool, but think of this analogy. Your Dr. can order every lab test in the book, you can look on the internet for "ideal" lab values and declare yourself healthy and you likely will be right BUT.... a smart person would still want a trained physician to compare the data along with a physical exam and their years of clinical experience. So to be definitive I would say you want someone who knows these cars inside and out to examine them where they would be looking for things like: color match, texture/orange peel, back masking lines, overspray, evidence of panel removal/replacement etc.

So an initial consistent paint meter readings very likely indicates original paint, but it is possible to have had a repair that falls in that range (for example if you replace the hood with a new OE replacement and the painter is skilled he likely will end up with a result in the 4-5mils range, so someone might proclaim it "original paint" when in fact it wouldn't be. In the same vein a high reading very likely means a repaint but not always, generally if I see a 15 I am 99.9% confident it is a repaint but I have also inspected plenty of cars that meter 7-9mils that in my professional opinion have all the hallmarks of original paint and zero evidence of repair, in those cases I would judge it original paint. Everyone wishes this was 100% objective and it just isn't.

A few reference notes:

-Paint Protection Film is generally 7-8mils (each manufacturer publishes this so you can get an exact from the manufacturer of your film). This is actually why is is so effective as it is nearly TWICE as thick as factory paint (which is actually the e-coat, primer, color coat and clear (where applicable)). So just subtract the paint meter reading when metering on PPF to get the real value, so if it reads 11 mils, then the paint is 3-4 mils.

-MILS- 5mils is the thickness of a dollar bill! So even a "high" reading of 10 is hardly crazy thick, I have had people say "oh my god that car must be inches thick in bondo when it reads 10 mils... that is 1/4 of a millimeter..... They just don't understand what the readings mean.

Hope that helps!

 

Paint meter readings on 993 cars are a lot different than 997.x. I have an all original 14k mi car 993 4s. Readings of 6.5-8.5 on average. Paint processes were not as consistent back then. Rarely will you see meter readings of 3-5 or even 5 or 6 on these cars. Where as my 997 cars 3.5-5.5 or 6 is about right/average. less paint and smaller range the newer the car Is generally speaking

 

Obviously you don't want a car that has been in a wreck. If you can be certain that is not the case though carfax and inspection, you have to ask yourself what you are buying the car for. If it is going to be a museum piece, parked and waiting for a pebble beach show, zero paint work is probably important. If you are going to drive and enjoy the car, a little paint work isn't the end of the world if it is done properly. If you want to have fun, the entire 'keep it original' thing goes out the window very fast. Keeping it original WILL save you lots of $$, lol. There are so many simple tried and true mods that will absolutely transform your 25 year old car, and once you start it is very hard to stop.

Back to paint. Just my opinion, but if the car looks good, runs really well and it's going to be your driver, don't let a repainted bumper of fender be the end of the world, because it's not. Many cars owned by guys here have been touched up here and there.

Am I alone in this thinking, or are there others that agree with me?

 

I agree with most/all of that. FWIW - My car was close to stock and all original paint. I have done numerous mods and just elected to do paint work as well. I suppose these things probably decreased the value of the car but they increase my enjoyment substantially.

 

In another 20 years, just like the beloved 356s, you will expect a perfectly restored and repainted car, maybe even a color change enhancement. So dont sweat it. Just drive them.

 

A documented enhancement won’t be as much of an issue as a mystery repaint that may include mystery repairs. I think what you’ve done is take good care of your car.