Repaint job?

Hi,

I have attached a close up of a photograph from a car I saw recently. The owner says he purchased the car in 1989 and the car has never been repainted.

From the photograph, it seems it has. Look at the orange-peel look, the paint cracking, and the wavy pain border that looks to come from masking. What do you think?

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Thanks,

Sly

 

Maybe it was repainted but orange peel certainly isn't definitive. In fact, I would say orange peel is more representative of an original paint job than a perfect, glass like finish.

-F

 

That's usually the case. "Factory" paint can be poorer quality, as was paintwork done at the port or at dealerships when the cars came in with some sort of damage. A paint meter would give you the best indication of what's original. Although even with that, there's nothing saying the factory didn't re-paint a panel here and there, or lay paint on thicker in some instances than others.

 

Repainted or not, if the rest of the paint is like that it SHOULD be repainted. What model is it? Is the car for sale, and if so are you interested?

Cheers,
Rich

 

Brian has said in the past that cars that were delivered fresh from the factory, look liked they were painted with a roller brush.

-F

 

i f a car is repainted you will find spots where tape was used to protect rubber and/or you find small areas where paint has hit the rubber. If a paint work is done nice you must look real good for these spots like under rubber strips. If you find none of this it has not been repainted or the repainting is done excellent and likely better than original. To me a great repaint work is always acceptable and as written above the original paint was on especially the earlier 308's rather poor.

 

Seems to me it is the case:

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Also, is the section where the pain is cracking supposed to be painted? I saw other 308s where this was not painted.

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Example with this yellow 1980 GTBi (same year model)

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You are correct. The area where the roof section meets the rear fender is a black rubber seal from the factory, and is one good place to look to see if it has been repainted.

 

Yes, the original rubber sealant is applied after the car is painted at the factory. There should be no visible paint line, paint on the rubber sealant, or cracking/lifting in that area.

 

The top picture seems to show where tape has been. If the tape is removed after a paint job a line of paint that has been creeping against the tape always remains and needs to be removed with proper paste or extreme fine sand paper. If nothing has been done to remove it you will see small remains of the tape/tape-cement.
If the paint job has been real poor the seams (one each side of the 308/328) between the louvres and the bonnet is disappeared. These seams should be filled-up with a black kit without any paint on it. Attached a pic of my car showing where these seams are.
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Sly it will be difficult to find an all original paint job on an early 308....
My 77 was said to have original paint but I highly doubt it.....my doors have some orange peel as well as the panel between the headlight buckets......not sure if those parts are original or the repainted parts. I would assume they are the repaints......doors and front clips take the most abuse over the years.

 

Agreed Chas! At this point I am mostly assessing the honesty of the seller, which to my mind is as important as the condition of the car.

 

True that brother

 

Thta is very much true!!

 

I've recently taken my 328 down to metal for the repaint. In addition to the hand painting laying down different thicknesses of paint, these cars came with a good bit of body filler from the factory. So, even with a paint meter, the readings are going to look very different than todays cars. You really have to look at the overall picture to make a determination.

 

exactly right Skipp.....
different panels, different thicknesses, different mixes etc etc etc
consistency is not gonna happen

 

Yep, the factory was lazy, even with aluminum, guys in the TR section report entire panels covered with filler.

 

So true

My trackcar is currently at the paintshop And under the original paint they found a lot of bodyfiller..... On the roof of the car!!! Funny Italians

 

that car has been repainted, no doubt about it. That's not a problem at all for an almost 40 years old black car. But it looks badly repainted: that's a problem

ciao