How to know if its original paint

[blinkey]

   So I bought my car about 2 months ago and the owner says it was original paint.  Code A-4 silver which looks sage in color. Some say it looks too good to be original and some say it looks original. Whats the best way to tell for sure?

[c00nhunterjoe]

Look for evidence of tape marks and flaws, door jambs and trunk, weatherstripping. Etc. Even the best garage kept cars will have flaws after all these years.

[blinkey]

    Its a hood signal delete car and has the original tape marks over the signals, and has slight dent in hood center cause the guy said he installed a 6 pack and the carb screw was too long and he closed the hood in 1973 and bang,,,,,,if the car was painted,,,,would you repair this

[Ghoste]

Real A4 does have a slight greenish tint to it, especially after time and if it were me, I would repair a dent before a repaint.  Neither of those is a guarantee of original paint though, asmentioned you will have to look in the places people wouldn't repaint and look for signs.

[Baldwinvette77]

well, you already own the car, i'd take off a door panel and look for a different tint behind the upholstery 

[Lord Warlock]

The underside of the trunk, rear wheelwells inside trunk, door jambs under rubber pieces. Underneath the door sills.  Usually means taking something off that isn't easy to get off to see under it. Not every owner who repaints or has a repaint done is going to paint the trunk completely, I intentionally left the underside of the trunk original paint just to prove it to anyone questioning the color. I really only painted the trunk floor after welding in a new one. 

[bakerhillpins]

You can also have the thickness of the paint looked at with some special machine that I can't remember the name of.

[Ghoste]

I'm probably wrong but I think they just call it a paint thickness gauge. 

[maxwellwedge]

Yes - An original paint car will typically read  between 3-5.....sometimes a bit higher. sometimes a bit lower.

We were using one last week at the MCACN show while judging the cars for Vintage Certification.