Hello,

I’m currently looking for a Chevelle to purchase. I have seen some ads I’m interested in that have new paint. What do I look for to know it was a quality paint job? What does a cheap paint job look like versus one that was done well?

Thank you,
Kevin C

You can feel the insides of the rear wheel wells to see if they have been filled or welded if there was bad rust. You can also purchase a magnetic gauge from a paint store that can tell you the amount of body filler in specific areas. Rocker panels, door bottoms, wheel wells, hood and trunk lids etc. Also the floor pans, toe kicks, trunk floors can all be checked to see if their is rust. Bubbling (like something is pushing through from behind the paint) is evidence that the rust was not taken care of and it is coming back. Look around the windows and chrome to see if you can tell if the chrome was removed or taped over. Taped over chrome will create a "lip" of paint where as removed chrome will look as if the paint goes directly under it. Check the bottoms of the windshield and rear window to look for rust, and moisture aound the same spots on the inside, is evidence of the seals leaking most likely due to rust.

Here is a post I made to someone else before.. I have a 71 vert I'm working on rust repair still, almost a year later. Anyway here is the post.

Here are the places I found rust on my car, that I could have found if I had looked but I didn't, after I had already inspected and purchased it. Some of this I didn't find until I had the car stipped down.

1. Lower cowl. Behind the front fenders just back from where they meet the door. This areas is only seen with the front fender off. But front the underside you may be able to feel some of it. and I found this area to be about 2x as bad as area #2 below.
2. Behind the front of the doors (same general area just split by a pinch weld from the area listed above).
3. At the bottom of the doors (not the skin bottom the actual door bottom)
4. Behind the rear bumper. This can't be seen with the bumper on, maybe the trunk gives a clue to its condition?
5. On the inside of the front A pillar at the bottom
6. Behind the areas of #1 and #2, I didn't see this until I cut out #1 and #2 to patch it. It could be seen if you where on your back looking at the area and reached your hand up and over the frame to feel for it. Shows how bad #1 and #2 had gotten, but it was eaten from the inside so on the outside it only looked like a few pin holes.
7. In the pinch weld under the trim around the rear (convertibles only)
8. Below headlights on the grill support
9. The back of the quarters, the bottom rear section that runs next to the trunk. Its hard to describe.
10. floor braces
11. Just over the pinch weld that connects the rear seat floors to the seat back.
12. dash support just behind the A pillar
13. Outer wheel houses
14. Trunk drop offs

Now here are the places I had rust I did know about
1. Top of the wheel arch on the front fenders
2. Bottom of the quarters and around the wheel well
3. bottom of the door skins
4. trunk
5. floors front and rear
6. On the rockers

As you can see my list of unknown is much bigger and harder stuff to fix than my list of know. This is because I didn't get my butt dirty and run my hands over every inch of the car before I bought it. I would buy it again, so thats ok, but I would have known better what I was in for. Get IN the trunk and feel where you can't see. Take a flash light. Get under the car and scoot around and feel up and under what you can't see. Get up under the dash and look around. I wish I had, not that it would have stopped me from getting my rust bucket, but at least I would have know 2 years for a frame off was probably unreasonable for a time frame from the beginning.

As far as quality of the paint work goes, look in the door jambs for rough paint, overspray on parts that should have been removed, the door hinge area is it painted well? is the engine compartment repainted? Under the decklid, are there masking lines in the jambs? is there orange peel or any texture problems in the finsh? do you see any sandscratches? do the panels all match in color? are the panels aligned well? do the doors, decklid and hood open and close well? is the paint on the bottoms of the rocker panels rough and thin from poor paint coverage? Look the car over very well, use a flashlight on the underside and or put it up on a hoist.

I brought a jack and four stands to look at cars. Brought a change of clothes, and climbed over and under entire cars. Use a light for dark areas, magnet for finding bondo,etc,etc. I looked the one I bought over for hours. Thought I found all issues. only to find MANY more once I got her home.

Thank you very much for your input. I didn't even think about looking at a lot of the areas mentioned. I feel much better going into this.

Thanks again,

Kevin C