Just wanted to get your guys' input on a 2003 996tt that I purchased from a Porsche dealer as a CPO vehicle.

I'll try to make this long story short as possible:

I located the car online, submitted a lead to see if the car was still for sale. The General Manager calls me the very next day and told me that it was. I asked him about the overall condition and he assured me that car was in great condition. I then asked about the paint condition and if there was any repaint. He said he is quite sure that there was no repainted panels, but would go out to the car with a paint meter to check and call me back.

I receive a call 1/2 hour later stating he went over the car with his meter and can guarantee that there are no repainted panels. GREAT....or so I think.

I go up later that week to see the car, which was covered in dust, but the car look clean. Only thing I noticed was a little dent on the front bumper which wasn't made known to me until I saw it myself. No big deal, I can live or deal with that. Take the car out for a drive and it drives great. Service manager runs the DME report for me and everything checks out. I asked again about the paint to confirm in person, and the GM again tells me he already went over the car and found no repainted panels. I go over the feeling the edges for roughness and could not notice anything. I purchase the car and drive home.

Fast forward to last night, I finally get some time to wash to buff the car as there were quite a bit of swirls in the paint. Most of the swirls and light scratches were removed. After looking over the car for any missed residue, something looked strange with the driver door. Upon further inspection, there was a little dust/imperfection in the paint!!! After looking even closer I noticed the door has quite a bit of waviness to it. Evidence to me of a poor repaint job.

The paint looks fine head on, but from certain angles, I can see it was a very bad paint job.

So what would you guys do...?

I haven't brought this up to the dealership yet because of the holidays.

CLIFF:
Found Car
Talked to GM and GM measures paint and "Guarantee" there is no evidence of repaint
Detail car myself and after buffing paint, notice there is evidence of a poor repaint job on the driver door.

PS: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

 

get your money back, how many days has it been, tell them to look for another one. But then again you are dealing with liars, i dont know how this is going to work out for you

 

That's the first thing the car to mind. I've had the car for a week. Should have done my detail sooner .

I think I would be satisfied if they would take care of the bill of getting the paint redone properly at a reputable shop.

But then again....I was specifically looking for a 996tt with original paint which I thought this one was.

 

I don't know about dust in paint but I have inspected a few Porsche during my search and sometime they have very minor imperfection in paint. Not dust but like a 1.5mm size darker spot under the clear coat. Paint meter reads ok and no sign of repaint that I can see. I assume it is from factory but I am not an expert in paint. Usually only able to see at an angle but once you find it, that spots get bigger and bigger!LOL

 

Yeah...tell me about it. But it is not the small imperfection I am worried about, it is the fact that when I look at the door directly from the rear of the car towards the front or vice versa, the paint has a lot of waviness to it.

 

Is the other door perfect or less waviness? I remember seeing waviness on doors in reflection while looking for dents. Does it appear like the door has multiple linear door edge dents but is not actually there if you look straight at it?. If so it might be normal (again not paint expert). I remember seeing them on lots of Porsche but they might all have been repainted including mine.

 

yeah there are paint shop who are reputable, and do a excellent job. that is probably the only option, post some off the pic please when u get a chance....

 

[quote=TekNiC3;2665930]
After looking over the car for any missed residue, something looked strange with the driver door. Upon further inspection, there was a little dust/imperfection in the paint!!! After looking even closer I noticed the door has quite a bit of waviness to it. Evidence to me of a poor repaint job.

The paint looks fine head on, but from certain angles, I can see it was a very bad paint job.

quote]
I can tell you that i purchased my car new and saw it the day it rolled off the truck and it has one or 2 spots of dust in the paint and even has a run in the paint under the fenderwell(you would need to put the car on a lift to see it).Also my doors appear to be wavy if looked at from certain angles and in certain lights and so are all the other 996's and 997's i have seen .The way to tell for sure if it was a repaint is if there are fisheyes in the paint or to pull back the weatherstripping and check in the door jambs for overspray or paint lines.

 

Get a paint meter. Repainted sections will vary (usually thicker) from sections w/ stock paint.

People get freaked out about paintwork because it means there was an accident and that means you don't really know if there was any underlying damage that will create a problem in the future.


My GT2 had paint work however I have never had a problem related to the cause of the paintwork. That is the case most (say 4 out of 5 times) but people obsess about the potential 1 out of 5 times and that is why you should get a significant discount on a car w/ paintwork.

 

+1, without looking at the picture it is hard to tell, but every 996 I looked at had the same thing!

If the paint meter checks out, you should not have anything to worry about!

 

Does the car have metallic paint? Sometimes there is an appearance of waviness due to the way the metallic flakes settle and align upon drying.

 

I understand your concern with being mislead but I think there is too big a deal made of paintwork in most cases. Everyone acts like if a car had paint work its no good anymore and thats just rediculous! I mean you can get a door ding, a stone thrown up if big enough could dent and scratch a fender or hood, your kids bike, etc, etc. What are you going to do, sell your car? I have seen many paint repairs that are absolutely invisible and there are plenty of good shops that can make perfect repairs, you just have to find them.

 

The passenger door looks much less wavy.

The driver door does have those linear dents when you look at an angle, but can't see them when you look head on. The passenger door does not look anything like that.

I can understand and live with a repainted door, but I just want it to be a quality job.

I'll get some pics to post up later today.

Interesting. I would imagine a $100k+ Porsche's paint job would be better than that. Guess I was looking for perfection hahaha....

When I head back to work, I'll run a paint meter on each panel to make sure.

I'm sure there are many explanation of why the door was paint. Chances of the cause being a big accident I would imagine to be pretty slim. (Or so I'd hope)
Got a few confirmations of this.... maybe this is how all 996/997's are?

Nope, car is Black with no metallic flakes at all.

 

You're exactly right. I'm perfectly fine with a repaint panel or two, but on my car, it just looks like a mediocre paint work from certain angles.

 

If you didnt have anything in writing stating there was no paintwork it will be tough to return the car.