Hey can you guys help me out here. I had the guy run a paint meter over the C32 and on every panel the meter fell between 3.5-4.0 some places a 4.5 or 5.00.

I am just trying to make sure the car was not re painted. What is the stock thickness of the paint?

Thanks

why's it matter if it was repainted... you also have to remember that some people use a rubbing compound or a polishing compound and then on top of that a wax of some sort for get a show finish... (maybe not so much a rubbing compound)


if you're concerned about the car being in an accident and repainted... check out a carfax... but i really dont see why it matters if the car was repainted... other than the accident issue but i'm about to have my car repainted b/c i had some HS punk key my passenger side that went down to bare metal...

yep.

This is very important issue. I bought my BMW that showed no accident report on carfax. I even ran carfax two years after I bought it and it was still clean. Come to find out when I was selling the car Car Fax just reported an accident on the report that hppened back in 2003 (4 Years Later). So as far as Carfax goes they suck for the most part. So a Year down the road the clear coat started peeling off two doors. The whole side of the car had to be re painted to have everything match. If this is not done at a top not place you can be stuck with $1,000's in paint repair down the road. It happened to me. This time I do not want a car that has been re painted because you do not know who did it and what job they did. I would rather not be stuck a year or two down the road on this one fixing a bad paint job. Now if something happens and I get it painted I only would bring it to a top notch place that does only high end cars which I have used with good luck.

To be honest, as much as I love this car, the paint sucks on the W203. When we first got it, the paint was "soft" and I had way more rock chips during the first month than I have since then. The newer Mercedes (post 2005 E's, S's, CL's) have a nanoparticle clearcoat that helps cut down on swirl marks. I have to Zaino the hell out of mine to keep them from appearing, but the 07 E we have doesn't have as bad of a problem (the new S supposedly has 2x more coating now and looks great).

As for the paint thickness, it sounds like it is around 3.5-5mm according to this thread: https://mbworld.org/forums/mercedes-tech-talk/136834-what-standard-paint-thickness-mb-body-tech.html

All those cars were from before the nanoparticle introduction so sounds like the car is ok. If the car wasnt garaged, I could see how the paint on the horizontal surfaces would be thinner than the vertical surfaces.

Thanks for that link. That is excately the paint thickness on the car. I did notice the swirl marks in some areas which is come on.

Thats about right. It would be much thicker if it had any bondo in it anywhere. You cant look at the car and tell if its had paintwork. Check the jambs etc... I can usually tell in an instant if its had paint work. Check the orange peel in the paint. If it matches all around then most likely its factory.