Restoring Faded Red Paint

[ecohouse1]

Hi Folks, I am scratching my head as to how to bring a youthful deep red gloss back to my faded red paint!

Tried Farcela G3 (manually applied_ T-cut, Autoglym cutting and resin polish. All seem to just gloss up the reddishy pink colour.

I had this problem with my old BX and now having it with my Merc 190.

Anyone had a good experience with a particular product. I do have a standard electic polisher with the boots for application and polishing. Nothing fancy.

Cheers

Alan

[bxzx16v]

If it's a proper rotary polisher you've got and not one of the two handled hobbies I'd give meguiars #205 finishing polish a try followed by meguiars #7 glaze which is quite oily and should help feed the paint. Both available for about £10 a bottle, if the #205 isn't quite cutting it try megs #105 then the #205 and it should finish down nicely.

Mark

[citronut]

after all those different abrasive compounds its probably not actually faded red paint but the primmer showing through the remaining red paint

[myglaren]

I don't know what he used but there was a guy turned up at work a couple of years ago to machine polish a Corsa that belonged to the wife of one of the managers.

It was a dreadful dull faded pink when he started and a brilliant shiny red when he finished. Took him all day but the car looked new and was sold very quickly.

[Timmo]

Once a red'un has got to that stage no matter what you do to it, the glossy shine wont last long! Some of the 'detailers' will tell you its best to try and Feed the paint with a glaze a few times, but the reality is with doing that, you'll still remove the same amount of dead paint with a Proper machine polish!
Red is one of The worst colours for it, and Vauxhals are Notoriously Bad for it, even the newer Clear coated Reds, is something to do with the pigments in red paint and the uv light, I can't remember the inns and outs of it as was a fair few years ago I looked into it,
But, with a full machine polish, wipe downs, polish, sealant and Waxing on a badly faded red one you'll be looking at a few months before the fade comes back, in comparison,the same with a white one would give you 6-8 months shine! - this based on car being done and left with only washing, obviously if you wash, polish, seal and wax it every 3 weeks it'll last longer, but its a pita to have to do that everytime!

[Lenny]

My VW Corrado suffers the same. If I leave the rear spoiler long enough it goes virtually white.

Don't laugh, but I polish it with Johnsons baby oil and it comes straight back to a lovely glossy red.
Unfortunately it only last a week or two even if I put a coat of polish over it.

[citronut]

Don't laugh, but I polish it with Johnsons baby oil and it comes straight back to a lovely glossy red.

so were do you use the Qtips and bum cream

[handyman]

All red pigments are unstable and bleach in UV light, so if yer car is painted red there's nowt you can do about it. You'll find that any colour coats are usually protected by a number of clear glazes to protect the paint.

By cutting the top coats/glazes with abrasives, all you're doing is making the glaze thinner so the UV rays get to the paint faster to do their evil deeds.

H

[citronut]

All red pigments are unstable and bleach in UV light, so if yer car is painted red there's nowt you can do about it.

well if you keep the car waxed on a regular bases this will stop/slow down the paint fading/bleaching,

You'll find that any colour coats are usually protected by a number of clear glazes to protect the paint.

for some years now the colour coat has a lacquer coat rather that a glaze coat over the top, this has been the case since before modern water based colour coats,

any glaze/guard coats are usually added by the car sales valeter on the customer paying an extortionate fee, quite often in the region of £200 quid and higher,

By cutting the top coats/glazes with abrasives, all you're doing is making the glaze thinner so the UV rays get to the paint faster to do their evil deeds.

H

i agree it is best not to use abrasives very often, as you do thin what every type of top coat/protection your car has

[handyman]

Malcolm, I'm so glad you agree with me. Stops me looking stupid over a topic I know very little about.

Glaze = lacquer = varnish?

H,

BTW, you still got that cambelt pulley, listed on fleabay?

[citronut]

Malcolm, I'm so glad you agree with me. Stops me looking stupid over a topic I know very little about.

Glaze = lacquer = varnish?

BTW, you still got that cambelt pulley, listed on fleabay?

tensioner or idler whats the item No.??????

[handyman]

You have both?

H