The characteristic of the paint of metal and plastic parts of cars are several cross-section layers which differ according to their colour and chemical composition. The distribution, colour and chemical composition of the car paint layers differ depending not only on the car manufacturer, but also depending on the make, model and year of production of the car of the same manufacturer. This paper presents how the make, model and year of production can be identified by comparing the IR spectra of each layer of an unknown paint sample to the currently available data of different car manufacturers. An unknown paint sample was found on clothes of a pedestrian who suffered an injury in a traffic accident including an unknown car which left the crime scene. The physical characteristics of the unknown paint sample were examined under microscope to identify the distribution, number and colour of the cross-section layers. The qualitative chemical composition of each paint layer was examined by the IR- spectroscopy method and the identified IR spectra were compared to the IR spectra of the car paint from the available ENFSI EUCAP/FRCAP bases using the KnowItAll software.

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