Paint thickness normal


Dwhite

Member
Was speaking with a seller today who said the cars can have varying paint thickness from 4-9 when checked, with a gun, in different areas and it's factory finish. Says he sells a fair number of FGTs. Is there any reality to this? I'm guessing no.
 

BIGFOOT

GT Owner
Jan 18, 2012
739
Northeast
Variation does exist on automotive paint.
I don't think it's usually that large.
No idea on an FGT.
I think the measuring devices are often magnets....which normally don't work with aluminum.
Some of the paint gauges do work on aluminum.
 

bonehead

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Aug 18, 2012
2,814
Houston, TX
Yes. Touch-ups and repaints of portions of the car were done at the factory. Stripes will likely read all over the place as well seeing as these were laid down after the base color.
 

Beez

GT Owner
Mark II Lifetime
Oct 28, 2016
195
South Denver
This topic is addressed in this video of a FGT inspection. FF to watch about 7:45 - 10:00. He remarks on routine variability as 3 - 9

[video=youtube;0jAWGPeoFOA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jAWGPeoFOA[/video]
 
Last edited:

shelbyelite

PERMANENTLY BANNED
May 10, 2007
1
What car are you looking at?
 

STORMCAT

GT
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
May 25, 2006
7,551
Ft. Lauderdale
The Gt's were hand sprayed paint thickness will have more variations.. High volume production cars are sprayed buy robots and precisely controlled paint dispersion so build thickness is more consistent
 

Dwhite

Member
What car are you looking at?
Thanks for the responses. I know they were hand painted and figured they would have some varing thickness, but just wanted to hear from some owners.

I'm not looking to potentially throw any dealer or individual under the bus and the car is in CA. I will answer you in a PM.
 

nota4re

GT Owner
Mark IV Lifetime
Le Mans 2010 Supporter
Feb 15, 2006
4,198
We routinely will measure paint thickness and although there is some variability we typically see consistency on similar panels. On a GT, I wouldn't be particularly alarmed but if there are other "tells", then it becomes more suspect. For example, on one car we inspected a few years ago, Ryan noticed that the fasteners used in the driver side wheel well - while nice fasteners, they were not OEM. That front left wheel was also the only wheel on the car that did not have OEM wheel weights. Finally, the paint thickness on that fender was substantially different (thicker) than the other front fender. While we could never be 100% certain, we would say that the probability of paint/body work on that front corner was higher than what we would like to see.