Paint detector – Is this a scam?

[APanda]

Just had 2 Eastern European type guys come to look at my car to buy and they bought a 'paint detector'. They scanned this all over the car and then told me that the whole left side had been badly damaged and repaired and resprayed. They then said because of this we can only offer you £1000. The price I want is at least £1400. May be genuine but this just didn't sound right to me.

Anyone heard of this one before?

[Mr Gearchange]

Well, has the left side been damaged and resprayed?

[Krikkit]

If they've got a paint thickness gauge with them they could well be right, or they could be ripping you off telling you a pile of BS to get it £400 cheaper.

Can you tell any difference on the car at all? Have you had a rummage round to check for overspray?

[Cupramax]

You can get a digital paint depth meter (all the rage on the detailing forums) but they were no doubt just trying to knock you down.

[stowey1984]

Mr Gearchange said:

Well, has the left side been damaged and resprayed?

^^ what he said.

You can get paint depth machines that will measure the paint and it will tell you if it differs over the car.

[Dave Hedgehog]

on a 1400 car does it matter? its bound to have history as long as it looks OK who cares

[mnkiboy]

I think devices exist that measure the paint depth. If this changes on different panels then you presume the panel has had paint.

On a £1400 car, i'd almost prefer a respray, as the 'repaired' panels might actually be in a better condition than the rest of the car! The bonnet on my 100k mile Focus is a case in point. Very few stone chips and no rust. Must have had paint at some point, but looks perfect to me.

[98elise]

I believe car detailers use something similar to gauge how much paint they can remove when refinishing a car.

Also when my brother was accused of bring in an accident that didn't happen, he was told by a specialist that they could measure the paint depth to prove (well near as possible) that the car had never been repaired/repainted.

[E30M3SE]

They may well have had a paint depth measuring device, but that will not tell them that the car was badly damaged, just that the paint is not uniform in depth.

Chancers.

[APanda]

Mr Gearchange said:

Well, has the left side been damaged and resprayed?

Was HPI clear etc when I bought it 3 years ago so nothing recorded. I've never had an accident in it. From what he said the damage was "really bad".

[E30M3SE]

APanda said:

Mr Gearchange said:

Well, has the left side been damaged and resprayed?

Was HPI clear etc when I bought it 3 years ago so nothing recorded. I've never had an accident in it. From what he said the damage was "really bad".

As already said above, tell them to fk right off.

[Deisel Weisel]

A paint thickness gauge can only tell if the paint thickness is significantly thicker than the original paint, which would signify some kind of spray paint repair, but no way can it tell you how severe the damage was, so that part at least was BS.

[mnkiboy]

APanda said:

Was HPI clear etc when I bought it 3 years ago so nothing recorded. I've never had an accident in it. From what he said the damage was "really bad".

The only thing a paint depth gauge will tell you is that the panel has had paint. You can make no assumption on how bad the damage was.

Therefore, I feel they're talking out of their behinds to try and get you to agree to a £400 discount. I wouldn't listen to a word they've said.

[Condi]

Jog on, as long as you've priced the car reasonably then there will be others.

[LuS1fer]

Spray a rattle can of touch-up paint in their faces and see what it detects. It will probably be the rich smell of BS.

[APanda]

So, with the PH consensus in, they got a polite fk off

[Digger]

Did they not show you the readings?

[APanda]

Digger said:

Did they not show you the readings?

Nope there was a flashing orange light...

[mnkiboy]

APanda said:

Nope there was a flashing orange light...

st! Scrap the car, NOW!

[Corsair7]

If they needed a detector to tell the difference then the quality was fine.