I recently purchased a 1983 black TransAm with 43,000 miles from the original female owner. I'm not questioning the mileage - I believe it is accurate, I am questioning the originality of the paint. The car appears to have been repainted in some areas.

My neighbor owns a 1982 Corvette with 16,000 miles. He bought it from the original owner that swears the paint is original, but same exact issues - sanding scratches and over spray visible. We posted pictures of some of the areas on the Corvette forum and we were told that it was a common issue with cars that were painted at that factory location.

Is the same true with the TransAm?
I did try searching this answer.

Thanks in advance.

 

You could look up your paint code #'s and know for sure. Is your SPID sheet in the center console?

 

the car is painted the correct color(s)...I'm just questioning the overspray and the slight sanding marks visible in a couple areas.

 

It could be factory over spray

did you score and aluminum hood with that 83?

 

can you post some pictures on here? there are several people with low mile original cars that could probably tell you if the overspray area matches what they have.

 

no RPO sticker for 83 cars, started this in 84. they still went with the check pate and build sheet at this time. luckily for me i found my build sheet for my 83 T/A.

 

Let me simplify this post....has anyone else with a car like mine found paint that looked like a bad factory job (as in the Corvette example in my original post).

 

Its hard to tell without pics. But on one hand, it easily could have been a bad factory job. Especially the Van Nuys plant cranked out some terrible paint jobs.

On the other hand, it also wasn't uncommon for some of these cars to get repainted/partially repainted at the dealership due to factory defects or paint work shortly after the sale under warranty.

So, its entirely possible, based on your description that it is a factory paint job. Its also possible that the car had paintwork done to it, without the 1st owner even knowing.

 

Thanks.....that's kinda what I was thinking, based on the Corvette information I found.

I'd post pictures, but the issues/flaws are really subtle and unless you are as **** as I am - probably would not even see anything. I'm used to modern day paint jobs that are nearly perfect.