Characteristics of Porsche factory paint
Discussion
What are the characteristics of factory Porsche paint? Thick? Hard? Thin? Soft? Orange peel and/or swirl marks accepted?
It seems all modern cars suffer from orange peel and other defects from the factory, is it the same with Porsche? BMW are known for suffering from this quite severely it seems, whereas Bentley appear to have a good reputation for their factory finish (and maybe for the price you'd expect nothing less).
There must be a reason buyers seek cars with 'original paint', particularly for older cars, other than the fact it proves no major accident.
Is there a distinct difference, in terms of paint quality and finish, from the aircooled days of the 964 and 993 to the watercooled days of 996 and 997? That will be particularly interesting to see.
It seems all modern cars suffer from orange peel and other defects from the factory, is it the same with Porsche? BMW are known for suffering from this quite severely it seems, whereas Bentley appear to have a good reputation for their factory finish (and maybe for the price you'd expect nothing less).
There must be a reason buyers seek cars with 'original paint', particularly for older cars, other than the fact it proves no major accident.
Is there a distinct difference, in terms of paint quality and finish, from the aircooled days of the 964 and 993 to the watercooled days of 996 and 997? That will be particularly interesting to see.
I was so paranoid about the paint finish prior to collecting my GT3 that I had provisionally arranged to have it detailed. On collection day My OPC had the car parked directly under a host of spot lights. It had already been explained that no detailer would be required. They were so right ; no swirls, blemishes or marks. The paint is as perfect as I could see. Maybe it was all down to the Valeters at D.Lovett Tewksbury. I was and still am delighted
Water based paint isn't as good from an appearance perspective, so older BMW's had a better finish than later ones. The same is true for most manufacturers but BMW used to be particularly good, so perhaps had farther to fall when switching to newer methods.
Porsche did further fully upgrade their factory paint facility recently (under 5 years) according to the owner of an award-winning Porsche approved bodyshop. However, he was also confident of being able to replicate the finish, but that'd be using the more labour intensive method of a skilled man with paint gun rather than the factory robots. However, robots consistently produce work to the same standard (whatever that may be), painters, like any human beings, vary in their ability and to some degree the quality of the individual's work varies too.
Porsche did further fully upgrade their factory paint facility recently (under 5 years) according to the owner of an award-winning Porsche approved bodyshop. However, he was also confident of being able to replicate the finish, but that'd be using the more labour intensive method of a skilled man with paint gun rather than the factory robots. However, robots consistently produce work to the same standard (whatever that may be), painters, like any human beings, vary in their ability and to some degree the quality of the individual's work varies too.
drmark said:
Good but thin - unless it has had the OPC front blast over by a blind man. Then bad and thick 
My last two porsches... a Boxster S and my current (that i have only just acquired) car, a 997.1 C2 Have both been Basalt black. You only have to walk past these cars with a box of Cornflakes in a carrier bag and you have a big F8*k off scratch on the car, that appears to be down to white primer!! Does this just happen to me? 
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