I am looking at a used Porsche, I heard that there is a way to detect if the car has had new paintwork by measuring the thickness of the paint. If this is correct who usually performs these inspections and can you hire somebody to inspect a car at the dealer for you to see if there has been body work? TIA

 

a good body shop has a tool that measures this. Give me a call though, I have other info for you.

 

if you take the car to any body shop they can look at the car and tell if it has been repainted. A good body man can always tell.

 

Performance Products sells a poor man's version of the electronic tester that insurance companies use. It's called Spot Rot and uses a magnet's pull to determine how much paint or filler is between the ferrous metal and the magnet.

 

You can also use a pair of sunglasses... wear your sunglasses on a sunny day while inspecting the car... to the naked eye a good paing job may not be that obvious... but through a pair of sunglasses you will instantly see the difference between two pieces that have been painted at different times... basic electron theory... both surfaces do not give off the same # of electrons... altering the hue.... and this is magnified through sunglasses because they are filtering light that bounces off these surfaces... try it!

good luck
Pete