Automotive Paint Inspection

If you plan to buy a car at a used car lot, a car auction, or through an individual, it is unlikely that you will be able to detect previous paintwork with a visual inspection. So, what can you do?

Get an Auto Paint Meter

With one of these auto paint meters, you can detect paintwork or factory original tape. It will also show bondo-body puddy or replaced metal.

Why Do We Suggest That You Get An Auto Paint Thickness Meter?

Because repainting a car is a very prolific practice in the auto business. Paint thickness measurement is a powerful tool for finding evidence of accidents, patching of rust spots, and past paint repairs to delaminated surfaces. Unlike visual inspections, a paint meter provides a reliable and quantifiable measurement result.

DeFelsko manufactures the PosiTest DFT, which is a hand-held, non-destructive paint meter that is ideal for measuring the thickness of automotive paint on aluminum or steel automotive panels. The PosiTest DFT Ferrous is capable of measuring up to 40 mils of paint on steel panels, where as the PosiTest DFT Combo is available for measuring on both steel and aluminum panels. With 3% accuracy and a 0.1 mil resolution, either PosiTest DFT meter is capable of meeting the requirements of most paint measurement applications.

Auction Inspections

Every week, there are thousands of cars lined up at the "paint shop" to be repainted. This "paint shop" is located on the auction grounds and is otherwise known as the recon-facility. Inspectors at automobile auctions have a very limited amount of time to determine the true value of a vehicle. In addition to numerous other inspection points, they need to assess the quality of the paint finish and to verify that the condition of the vehicle matches its reported history, that is, determine if the vehicle has been in an accident or experienced other types of paint damage.

The PosiTest DFT Combo is a sophisticated yet simple to use automotive paint thickness gage that can enable the user to quickly determine what previous repairs may have been carried out to vehicle body work (the gauge works on both steel and aluminum switching from either mode automatically), often these repairs are not easily or quickly identified relying on just eyesight or just fingers.

If you have an auto paint gauge, then you will know the truth. The point of the auto paint thickness meters is to give you more inside information than what a vehicle history report discloses. Just because it does not show up on a vehicle history report does not mean that the car is free of any negative history. With a little practice a PosiTest DFT meter gauge user will become an expert in uncovering the history of any vehicles bodywork therefore helping him or her to carry out accurate and fully informed inspections.

With such a quick, simple to use, highly accurate and inexpensive tool as the PosiTest DFT Combo now available why risk making a potentially expensive appraisal mistake ever again?