Okay. Here's one for the gang. My new 718 CGTS 4.0 has some sort of paint history. For context, I did Euro Delivery in October/November and just picked up the car end of last month and drove home from Atlanta. In Europe, we took windshield hits and those were to be replaced by me and then insurance claim submitted to Germany. Last week, the windshield was replaced and they did kind of a so-so job, got some minor scratches and scuffs on the paint despite telling me it would be masked. No big deal, paint correction and ceramic guy can get that out. This has me looking at the car and I get out the paint meter. Well, the whole car is basically between 9-13 mils! I've also noticed what almost looks like it could be part of a keying job in the front passenger light that was there at redelivery photos but not at Stuttgart drop-off. So, was the car damaged and vandalized and repaired at the port? It moved all around the JAX port yard and in and out of this steel building per the satellite imagery and AirTag.

Some more context. The inside of the door jambs are much lower like 5.5-7. The underside of the hood is around 7. The same fender as the headlight scrape has what feels like non-color/wet-sanded inside edge. But that's about the only one of those. This is all more intriguing, because I don't believe the front bumper was repainted or blended at all, as the euro front plate velcro was still on the car at delivery and I removed that. It was rather easy to remove...would they have pulled it off and put it back on as part of the effort to hide it all? If there were shipping damage, one would think only the damaged area would be repainted, rather than the whole car. Unless of course it were keyed and, in this case, the whole car were keyed.

According to the internet, yellows have to be sprayed the thickest because they hide undercoats the least. So, perhaps trip one through the paint booth wasn't enough and it went back in? Then there are all the past paint issues with the Osnabrück factory...(on here and 718 boards) and the possibility they can't really do PTS there. But this car isn't PTS? Well no, but Racing Yellow was out of production on all but the 718 as of late 2024/early 2025. It's also not in the PTS catalog. There were also almost no yellow new cars floating around on the Porsche inventory site until mine came along and then there was a smattering of others. Could it have been "****, we have to make one and thus let's make a batch a la PTS plus hand painting?" The paint basically looks darn good and it has almost no orange peel...except the thinner part on the underside of the hood. I doubt this to be the case, but I'm convinced anything is possible.

Going to reach out to PCNA with all of this and try to get some more information. I'd think if it were damaged in transit they'd have to disclose to me. I asked if there was a reason it sat at the port as long as it did and was told "no particular reason." Salesman is going to check another new/newish 718 he has, but he can't see anything in his system record re port work orders/damage. At this point, I'm more intrigued than anything and not that upset. I say this with the caveat that paint/body issues are usually the one thing that drive me insane. I can live with rock chips, but scratches, repainted panels, dings...all drive me insane. In this case, it came that way and it's so strange to have the whole car reading so high and also in a relatively large band (9-13). Do I wish I took my paint meter with me to Europe? Yes, of course. But I had faith I wouldn't need to worry about that!

Yes, I recalibrated the paint meter and my BMW 230i reads normal as it did on purchase day.

I know this may be a let the dogs loose Rennlist thread starter, so here we go...

 

Update, got a personal call today from PCNA after I reach out to them. They can't see anything out of normal for the progression from drop off in Europe to US port and then on to them. Mentioned he'd dig a little more to see. I'm pretty hopeful that's the case, and if so, it means it came off the line at 9-13 mils. Was it painted by hand because it was end of run and the robots couldn't do yellow? Who knows. I can tell myself that story.

 

Post some pics of the particular areas that appear the worst. Have you used multiple paint meters? Very strange to say the least.

 

Haven't used multiple meters, but have calibrated meter with both aluminum and steel blanks and confirmed same readings as before (when I purchased) my BMW 230i (2025 car). They're mostly between 11-13 range. Some rare spots above 13 or around 9-10.

 

I think it’s your meter. Any change using the Au setting vs Fe? I would assume a repaint of an entire vehicle would have to be disclosed. Maybe another yellow owner can meter their car or look at old BaT auction pics…..keep us posted. This stuff drives me crazy.

 

It automatically accounts for Fe (steel) or NF (non-ferrous). I recalibrated it and checked it again on my BMW 230i. I highly doubt it's the meter. If it's off by double and my Porsche is normal, that means my 2025 BMW is sitting at 2-2.5 mils? I doubt that. I am starting to think it was double sprayed or sprayed by hand at the factory. There's not any evidence from PCNA it was stateside and it's relatively uniform in its absurdly high readings.

 

Further update...I've received multiple calls and emails from PCNA and I am confident/comfortable the car was untouched during/after transit. Something must have necessitated painting the car super thick in the production process. Could it be that there was contamination and they did it again or could it be that they sprayed it by hand? Only Dieter will ever know. All I know is it's very strange.