I recently purchased a second hand MK3 2.0 sport which, with a little work I am sure will be a good replacement for the 987 Boxster I had before but…
Having had the car home for a few days and tinkering, I have noticed quite a large discrepancy between the exterior colour of the car (true red) and the door shuts/under the bonnet etc. It is much deeper red and obviously doesn’t have the ouster of the exterior paint. Are all cars like this? Just a base coat on door shuts etc or do you think mine has been resprayed?
Best idea rather than posting here is to look for a secondhand car the same age and colour if near you and use your eyeballs to do the QC. This is all opinion type stuff and you need to prove the fact yourself.
Difficult to say without actually seeing the car, Steve. Red is notoriously the colour most prone to fading - it’s possible that the exterior has faded, whereas the ‘covered’ areas - ie your door shuts and under-bonnet areas will retain the original hue. I’d expect it on a Mk1 - not so sure with a ten-year old Mk3.
The surface of the paint should ‘flow’ seamlessly from the exterior into these covered areas - have a very close inspection where the shade changes, to see if you can discern a ‘ridge’ in the paint where a resprayed area was masked. Bodyshops often finish a resprayed area along a natural crease or edge of bodywork, so it may be difficult to spot.
Also look very closely (through a magnifier if necessary) at the fixtures, fittings, seals etc that are often not removed, but masked up during a paint job. Unless the masking was done meticulously, it’s usually possible to spot a thin line of paint overspray where the fitting, seal etc meets the bodywork. Also check floorpan, wheel arches and arch liners etc for signs of overspray - not necessarily just red, but grey primer as well.
You can often also spot areas/panels of red respray at night - by parking under an orange streetlamp. The differences in shade really stand out.
My car is a Mk1 and is CLASSIC RED, the body colour when I bought the car had not been resprayed but the paint inside where the door closes, under the bonnet, and under the boot lid were all a lighter shade than the body paint due to fading ( I think see last para.). The exception being the plastic bumpers that although not what I would call faded were definitely a different red colour. After I bought it I resprayed it eight years or so ago with a 2K pack paint, this is the solvent paint that you add hardeners to and after a few years the bumpers again started to change colour, I don’t know why but they did.
I am now in the process of respraying the car again with the Two pack paint as above to smarten it up for the last time before I pop my clogs, then the Grandchildren can have it.
I have wondered if the boot lid and bonnet lid looked faded because of it only having a light coat of paint on them. There are parts of the engine bay and inside boot area that look as though they have never been painted or with just what I would call a slight over-spray. They, MAZDA, didn’t seam to be too bothered about making sure all the metal parts of the car were sprayed when the Mk1 was built.
When I have finished the paint job I may, if I can figure out how to put a photo on here, post a picture of it on here.
Thank you all for your input. Based on it and my own findings I ca only conclude that it has indeed had a full resPray. I’m disappointed in myself for not having challenged the seller harder but I was desperate to get a car by that stage and fell into that trap.
the hpi check showed nothing in the cars history but I find it hard to believe that the car would have been resprayed in its life for any reason other than accident damage. I’m therefore now concerned about the provenance of the car and all of the impeccable, low mileage support paperwork etc.
not just the paintwork that this has taken the shine off
Mine appears the same as yours, true red Mk3 Sport.
Yes under the bonnet, door shuts and boot lid do appear to be a slightly darker shade of red. Most noticeable when using a touch in paint in those areas. I’m going for normal as in they didn’t apply so much laquer in those areas as the rest of the car… I can only see where my front bumper may have had paint in the past, to blow over some chips maybe? All the rest looks original to me, no tell tale signs anywhere else.
Hmm, my Icy Blue NC has a very slightly different colouring in vs out, but that is because the outer paint has a lacquer coat giving it a lot of depth, and the paint inside the boot and bonnet areas does not and merely looks flat. The door shuts do have the lacquer. The base coat is the same colour throughout.
On my Soul Red Mazda 3 the lacquer coat is tinted, so the outer paintwork is distinctly darker than the un-lacquered base coat areas. Maybe yours has tinted lacquer?
Again, every red car I’ve ever owned of various makes has faded rapidly within just a few years (I still like red though), and I’ve seen a lot of near-pink NA and NB MX5s which were originally red. Maybe it is a good thing that you have fresh un-faded paint?
But I would also use a nice soft piece of fridge magnet to check all the areas that should be steel. Bear in mind the NC has a lot of plastic and aluminium on the outside.
Possibly the exception rather than the norm but some people will get a car resprayed just to bring it all back to full lustre. Might also have been done if there were lots of stone chips etc so not necessarily the case that it’s been in an accident.
Another poster mentioned the bumper being a slightly different hue. I believe this is due to some body panels being plastic and others metal. On my racing bronze NB it was noticeable that the colour seemed very slightly different on the plastic panels. I didn’t notice at first but once pointed out I always saw it! The car had never been resprayed.
Same as above, mines a 2007 true red and all the “concealed” bits, as in what you can’t see when doors, bonnet, boot are closed are indeed different. Just as Mazda intended I think? Think I’m right in saying, mk2/2.5’s in silver have what looks like primer in the engine bay? Oh well, don’t fret over it, looks like we’re all in the same boat
Although photobucket have helped in destroying the pics the description is good. VIN stickers (or lack of them) might indicate a paint job? Worth checking around the car?
