Has my car been accident repaired? - Page 1 - 911/Carrera GT - PistonHeads UK

Hi all, Spotted a few posts on here about accident repairs and the new owners not being informed (if they are legally obliged too anyway) I was just wondering, is there any specific way of finding out if my car has had any kind of body panel repair? I appreciate if done to Porsche standards then there's no issue. The car is under OPC warranty but when I have given the car a thorough clean the near side door paintwork is not good, it's not even and is extremely thin in places, kind of like cloudy if you know what I mean! I can only liken it too a respray of uneven proportion across the door skin? It it were any other colour than Article Silver it may be more easily to recognise but I didn't until I washed it properly for the first time and now every time I do I notice it and it's a little annoying given the paintwork over the rest of the car is good. Any thought? Cheers

You might get some clues from measuring paint depth. Some repairs show greatly increased thickness.

Good thinking, cheers

If its had paint or panels in the dealer network I believe they record it against the chassis number on their internal system

Paint depth will tell you if it's been sprayed but not why it's been sprayed. You should bear in mind that if the car has been sold used through an OPC it will more often than not have had it's front end sprayed to erase any stone chips. Sometimes this can lead to the whole car getting a going over if they don't get the match quite right or they do the rear sills / arches at the same time. Paint does not always equal accident.

Cloudy does not equate to thin paint. The cloudiness is usually caused by dampness getting between the layers of paint or lacquer. Look and feel the door edges. There is usually a little ridge/rough edge where a panel is masked up for painting.

Take it to a decent bodyshop. They will be able to tell you in a couple of minutes. pp

Thanks all, advice much appreciated

Anybody any idea what a general paint thickness should be for a 997

All Porsche plastic parts, like most other modern vehicles, have a date stamp. It's done on a grid with dots. Dates should match the manufacturing period of the car. There will always be a few differences where owners have added or replaced items, but it's often a good starting point for some detective work and I would look at the lights first. When you have them out look inside the housings for integrity along the metal seams.

Porkerjag said: Anybody any idea what a general paint thickness should be for a 997 Anything above 150 microns on my meter means it's probably been painted. A good way to check is to compare the roof (not often painted) to the other panels. It should be low one hundreds in my experience.

Alpinestars said: Porkerjag said: Anybody any idea what a general paint thickness should be for a 997 Anything above 150 microns on my meter means it's probably been painted. A good way to check is to compare the roof (not often painted) to the other panels. It should be low one hundreds in my experience. Thanks for that....its just my 997 Turbo is a colour to sample (Fountain Blue Metallic) and the paint is around 250 microns everywhere, including the roof....was wondering whether is was painted at the factory one colour and then re-painted the colour to sample . On the log book the colour is down as Multi Coloured Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 8th July 11:15