I just got my new Elcometer Coating Thickness Gauge, and I've spent the afternoon measuring away on my cars to determine which cars are honest, and which I've been snookered on.
FYI, this Elcometer is basically a probe that measures the distance between the top layer of paint and the underlying metal. In a few seconds it tells you which parts of a car have been repainted, repaired, or replaced - it's the "if cars could talk" tool that I've been dreaming about!
The tool appears to be less handy with respect to older Ferraris, because they usually contain some filler in the bodywork. I'm getting a wide range of readings of 25-45 mils on the panels, with 50-60+ mils on some extremeties, such as joints. I would expect to see smaller numbers, say 15-25 mils.
Question: those of you who have stripped the paint off of your cars - was there:
1) filler in lots of random places
2) thin layers of filler everywhere
3) filler concentrated on the extremeties, such as lower wheel arches
Any comments will help here - I'm trying to gauge whether I should respray my 365 GT, or sell it.
Corrrect paint thickness - vintage?
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David Booth
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- Location: Vista, California
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As you may have read in my earlier post, I found both lead and plastic filler used in my 250 Series II cabriolet (1960 manufacture). The lead was used in transition areas where one radius changed to another, and in difficult areas like where the cowl and the tops of the fenders meet.
There was plastic filler in a lot of other areas: some of it obvious dent repair, but some others on the lower portions of the rear fenders. Maybe someone who's restored many Ferraris from this period could tell which of this plastic filler was originally applied at Grugliasco, but I sure couldn't. The thing that sort of calls all bets off on my particular car was that the body was sanded prior to its most recent (third) painting. As a note, it's amazing to me that so much time and effort was spent in prepping this car for its most recent paint job (look in the Owner's Gallery), but that a lousy job still resulted. I'll tell anyone who's really interested what all was done, but believe me when I say it was a lot of work.
Anyhow. Can't talk to what they did on the 365s, but it's well documented that the earlier cars had filler applied, followed by block sanding, followed by paint. Labor was cheap then, and the artisan spirit has been alive and well in that part of Italy for a thousand years or better. They'd be surprised that we were surprised they did it this way. [/img]
There was plastic filler in a lot of other areas: some of it obvious dent repair, but some others on the lower portions of the rear fenders. Maybe someone who's restored many Ferraris from this period could tell which of this plastic filler was originally applied at Grugliasco, but I sure couldn't. The thing that sort of calls all bets off on my particular car was that the body was sanded prior to its most recent (third) painting. As a note, it's amazing to me that so much time and effort was spent in prepping this car for its most recent paint job (look in the Owner's Gallery), but that a lousy job still resulted. I'll tell anyone who's really interested what all was done, but believe me when I say it was a lot of work.
Anyhow. Can't talk to what they did on the 365s, but it's well documented that the earlier cars had filler applied, followed by block sanding, followed by paint. Labor was cheap then, and the artisan spirit has been alive and well in that part of Italy for a thousand years or better. They'd be surprised that we were surprised they did it this way. [/img]