How to Evaluate the Paint Job of a Classic Car When Appraising a Classic Car

Part of the Video Series How to Check and Appraise a Classic Car

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Video Transcript

How to Evaluate the Paint Job of a Classic Car When Appraising a Classic Car
So I walk around the car, look at various areas all around doing the same thing looking for repaired damage, looking for of course any structural current structural damage on the car, any impact damage, dents, creases, whatever anything that will reflect on the value of the car. I do a complete circle of the car, looking in all the areas in the wheel wells, here underneath in the stone guard in the front, just everywhere you can think of looking for those potential problems. You also want to take a look in the engine compartment because you can see collision damage sometimes down inside the panels in the engine compartment, you may see a wrinkle in here or a dent or something that’s been riveted on welded on that just doesn’t belong there or you can see where the frame or the a frame or whatever has been straighten out from past damage. After you’ve made a complete circle of the car looking for body damage, then I start all over again just like just from the beginning only this time I’m looking at something different, I’m looking at the paint I have seen paint jobs that have cost people thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars, I’ve seen paint jobs that cost people a few hundred dollars surprisingly enough I’ve seen thousand multi thousand dollar paint job that weren’t very good and I’ve seen multi hundred dollar paint jobs that were pretty good, so but you generally get what you paid for. But on the paint surface you’re looking for orange peel you probably know what that is, where there’s just a bumpy surface that looks like on the surface of an orange, you look for swirl marks, sand marks, perpetration on the body prior to the painting and it wasn’t done sufficiently so they’ve painted over it but you can still see the sand marks, you’re looking at how well they painted here, sometimes it’s flaking off in big flakes but you’ll look in these areas in here when they painted the car did they paint into the door jams, how well has that paint been applied? The more you pay for a paint job the more you’re going to see a good job has been done in these areas such as this, so I do a complete circle of the car looking at the various paint application areas cause some people are sometimes fooled, they’ll look at a paint job and they’ll see a little bubble here and there and they’ll think it’s just a bubble in the paint when in fact it’s rust coming through the surface so you want to be sure and watch that.

About the Expert

Expert: Lance owns and operates Lambert Appraisal Service and hosts "Vintage Vehicle Show", appraising hundreds of cars and producing over 300 TV episodes. Read More


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