Unusual paint jobsWhen a car first leaves the factory, it's got a nice, even coat of paint across all of its external panels. Obviously, though, even a minor accident is going to mess up that nice paint job something fierce. After a car is repaired following an accident, at least a token effort may be made to touch up the paint and cover up any visible damage. This can both downplay existing issues and just generally make the car look kind of lousy.Take a good look at the circumference of the car's body. Even if it's got a few years under its belt, its paint should still be consistent and glossy. If you spot any discoloration, dullness, or weird physical textures, that's a sign that a half-baked paint touch-up has been applied. Even if this paint is meant to cover up a single scratch, that's a scratch that someone was trying to hide from you.Misaligned panelsEvery panel on a car's body is designed to fit together perfectly like a puzzle. A brand-new car looks as sleek as it does because there's no wear or widening on the gaps between the panels. However, if a car is subjected to an intense burst of physical force, such as in a crash, those panels can be knocked out of alignment. Even the slightest nudge to one side of a body panel can expose a small, yet distinctive gap, kind of like a jigsaw puzzle piece with one of the ends cut off.As you inspect a potential used car purchase, try and find any distinctive gaps in the panels that you can. Run your finger along the spaces between the doors, the sides of the hood, and around the lights, and also give the doors a few experimental opens and closes. If the panels are out of alignment, the spaces will be much larger and distinctive, and on the doors specifically, they may even bump against each other when opening. If those panels are out of alignment, that means the body is compromised, which means more problems are borderline inevitable.Inconsistent weldingSimilarly to the panels, any signs of welding performed on the car by its original manufacturer should be nearly invisible, or at least very subtle. Welding with a precision assembly line is much different from one guy waving around an acetylene torch, after all. If, during your initial inspection of a used car, you spot any signs of uneven or slapdash welding on the body or on the internal components, that's a bad sign.As opposed to subtle welding from the factory, after-market welding is usually performed to forcefully attach parts onto the car's body, usually in the event that the original parts were lost or damaged in an accident. Panels and parts that have been haphazardly welded to the body are neither safe nor resilient; since they weren't a part of the car's original construction, it may only take one good jostle in the wrong place to send everything flying. Being in a regular accident would be bad enough, but if your entire car fell apart with you in it, that's a recipe for chaos and medical bills.