bimmerchop

Hey everyone. I'm currently looking at a pearl S4, but I found an area on the car by the driver's side door molding where the clear coat is starting to peel. Here's a picture...

<img src="http://img146.imageshack.us/img146/4448/25726509bd7.jpg">

Sorry for the crappy picture, but that's the best I could manage with my camera phone when I went to inspect the car.

Anyways, this is the only paint defect I found on the car. Otherwise, the car seems to be very well maintained, both inside and out. The seller says the car was never in an accident, and the door was never repainted. The carfax report on the vehicle confirms this... however, I'm still doubtful. Is there anyway I can find out whether the car was hit on that drivers side door, and the clear is peeling as a result of a repair. I ran my hands over every panel of the car, even in the gaps between panels, looking for anything that might show it was repainted, overspray, paint drips, uneven reflections, etc... Found nothing.

I'm having the car inspected at the local audi dealership this week, would they be able to tell me whether the door was repaired/replaced? Any helpful tips you guys can suggest for me to figure it out myself would be greatly appreciated as well. I don't have a coating thickness gauge to properly measure it

S4_Got_Grip

You need a "Pro Gauge 2, Paint Thickness Gauge". Pretty cheap tool $40-$50. It uses a magnet to tell you how much material is on the cars metal. This includes factory e-coat, primer, color, and clearcoat. Most vehicles have 6-8 mills of material. If the door has been painted, most bodyshops do not strip a dammaged panel all the way down to bare metal. They usually just sand off the shine, do the repair, rebase coat the color and reclear it. So a repaint will have almost twice the material on it than a factory unpainted panel. So what you do is measure a few panels on the car to see what it reads the thickness is. All the #'s should read very close to the same. Then if you go read the thickness on the door you think might have been painted and it reads higher... it's been painted for sure. If you don't have one and don't want to buy one, I'll loan you mine if you like. Link below shows the tool.<ul><li><a href="http://www.promotorcarproducts.com/progauge2.htm">http://www.promotorcarproducts.com/progauge2.htm</a</li></ul>

HIS4

It did wonders for my old wheels.

beans912

Audi 10 Year Corrosion Warranty FTW

bimmerchop

More info on the Audi 10 Year Corrosion Warranty. I wasn't aware of this warranty. Can anyone supply me with a link to information on it?

Thanks S4_Got_Grip, are these available at any local stores? If I could I'd like to go in and buy one ASAP so I have it before the inspection at the dealership.

bingS4

I believe that's a corrosion *perforation* warranty, so ya gotta have rust holes to be covered.

OCA::DIY Motorsports

Door was hit or repainted for some reason. They made a paint line at the moulding. Water intrusion caused the lifting most likely. I'd ask the owner why the door was re painted/cleared.

bimmerchop

Thanks, those are my thoughts exactly. However, with both the carfax report, and the owner telling me otherwise, I'm having a hard time proving it. Would the Audi dealership have a paint gauge? I'm having the car inspected there on Thursday. I would assume they do, but not sure in this case because they don't have their own in-house body shop.

S4_Got_Grip

your address and I'll put mine in the mail to you on Monday and you'll have it by then.

bimmerchop

I found someone local whose letting me borrow his. Thanks anyways though, I appreciate it