Has this '94 Been Repainted?!?!

[drhodge]

I am helping a friend decide whether to buy a 1994 Yellow Coupe. It is very clean, very straight, does not appear to have been wrecked, has 75k miles and is $11,000.
All seems ok except that the areas of the floorpan under the driver and passenger have been painted yellow like the the rest of the car. Is this normal?
Thanks!

 

[warren s]

I never saw a late moder C4 with the floor pans the same color as the body.

Been under a few before I bought mine, they all looked white or grey.

 

[mike weyman]

mopar is the only auto builder ( I think) that paints the undercarriage the same as the car.g.m. are usually 75%gloss black.

 

[drhodge]

Thanks for the info. We will be very careful. I will have a dealer inspect to ensure that car is straight and fixed properly.

 

[KANE]

I have a 93 Z28 that was painted - from the factory - purple on the undercarriage and floor boards. Its a plum purple colored car.

If you think the car is a repaint, look under the kick panels. Unless the painter took the car completely apart.... you can hide the original color but for only so long before you see a trend and the "true colors" come out!

 

[KANE]

Oh- if the weatherstripping has paint on it and that matches the body's... ITS LIKELY TO BE A REPAINT!

 

[tnovot]

94 repaint?

Here are a few more suggestions which might help.
Look for overspray in the wheel wells and anywhere on the undercarriage, especially just inside the rocker panels, on the front around the airdam and at the rear on the exhaust and spare tire carrier.
Look for overspray inside the gaps arpound the headlight doors and between the front of the hood and rear of the front bumper cover.
Pull back bits of weatherstripping and look for a different color or a paint edge of the same color. Lift the edge of the outer side window weatherstrip for same.
Lift the rear hatch and check around the hinge area.
Can you track down the previous owner?

 

[compyelc4]

I own a '95. All original. Floor pans are same color as body. Competition Yellow.

Ted

 

[B17Crew]

drhodge,
I have a ’96, Polo Green, it's all original, and I too like compyelc4 have body color floor pans. tnovot gave good suggestions on things to look out for.

Hope it all works out for you, the C4 Corvette is a fun car to own and drive.

B17Crew

 

[warren s]

WOW!

I learned somthing here!

I looked at a few 95s and 94s before i bought my 95.

Red, Black, Whilte, Admiral Blue and a Copper color.
All had a whitesh - grey floor pans.

I wonder if C5s have painted floor pans (for when the time comes )

 

[B17Crew]

WOW!

I learned somthing here!

I looked at a few 95s and 94s before i bought my 95.

Red, Black, Whilte, Admiral Blue and a Copper color.
All had a whitesh - grey floor pans.

I wonder if C5s have painted floor pans (for when the time comes )

warren s,
Sounds like one of those production variables that will have to be considered down the road when these cars are old enough to be judged at Bloomington!

B17Crew

 

[Vettelt193]

I get the feeling people are talking about 2 different things here.... I have not seen a factory C4 with the floor pans painted body color... However, the rocker panels should always be painted to match... the confusion sets in here because the older C4's have the very bottom of the rocker panel painted black, where the newer ones are painted to match the car. I think pictures may be necessary to clear up any confusion.

 

[compyelc4]

I'd love to send you guys a pic right now but I do not have a digital camera with sharp enough resolution. I will find one at work and post a pic soon.

Just to make sure I am not crazy I just ran out to the garage and took a very close look at my pan exteriors with a high-beam lantern. At first I was shocked and dismayed thinking I gave you guys some bad info. I was staring at a black pan. I blinked a couple of times and looked more closely. Here is what I find:

The pan bottoms and sides are oversprayed with satin black. I can see some yellow showing through in some spots near the edges. HOWEVER, the front of the pans (about 2" deep at the front) are clearly competition yellow with black overspray slightly creeping up around the bottom edge! It appears that black has definitely been sprayed over the yellow. I scrateched some black off and found traces of base yellow underneath; AND it is a bright yellow; kind of a "flat compet yellow" though. This MUST be a factory install. Hang on a while..........I'll prove the yellow if you absolutely want proof.

Ted

 

[jedi]

I have a 95 Torch red and my floor pans have been painted to match. Not sure if this is from the factory or after but it does match the paint on top.

 

[B17Crew]

Undercarriage Reference...

I was visiting Roger’s Corvette Center website (as I often do to dream about C4 convertibles!) and found a photo that had the floor pans visible on a ’95 coupe with 6,000 miles (see link at bottom).

If you scroll down to the thumbnail photos at the bottom, go down to the fourth/last row, fourth image to the right, they have an undercarriage shot.

Don’t know if the car has ever been repainted, but at 6,000 miles and Rogers reputation, the car is probably a unhit original.

http://www.rogerscorvette.com/spots/sep03/spot.htm

B17Crew

 

[compyelc4]

Yep. That looks just like mine underneath. I changed the oil and filter on mine yesterday. I took a good hard look at the pans while under there. Black around the outside edges and all yellow on the bottoms and front edges.

Ted

 

[tyrel]

One thing I notice about some repainted C4s is that the painters are usually too lazy to mask off the bottom strip of the rocker panel/molding. If you get down on all fours and look at the very bottom part of the molding, where it says "place jack here" or something like that, and it has the two little arrows, that entire strip, from front wheel well to back wheel well, is supposed to be a naturally black, unpainted ABS. I see many Corvettes on Ebay where that strip is painted the same color of the car, and it isn't supposed to be. It is a dead giveaway that the car has been repainted.

 

[Green LT1]

I also have a Polo Green 1996 coupe, and the floor pans under both passenger and driver's seats are painted body color. The car definitely has not been repainted anywhere.

 

[Vettelt193]

One thing I notice about some repainted C4s is that the painters are usually too lazy to mask off the bottom strip of the rocker panel/molding. If you get down on all fours and look at the very bottom part of the molding, where it says "place jack here" or something like that, and it has the two little arrows, that entire strip, from front wheel well to back wheel well, is supposed to be a naturally black, unpainted ABS. I see many Corvettes on Ebay where that strip is painted the same color of the car, and it isn't supposed to be. It is a dead giveaway that the car has been repainted.

This is only a give-away on earlier C4's. I know 1991 and newer C4's had that strip painted body color from the factory. It may have started earlier, but I know from buying a new 1991 that it is at least 1991 and up. It could have changed with the body update in '91.

 

[compyelc4]

tyrel,

Must be the earlier C4's. My '95 has not been repainted. The bottom area of which you speak is painted body color on mine.

Ted