How do you restore a red citroen

wilkobob · Post by **wilkobob** » 14 Mar 2005, 16:01

Hi there, I was wondering if anyone has any good methods of restoring the bright red colour of a "pink" citroen? I have tried (on a different car) t-cut and polish, which works for a few days then we are back at pink again...
Just wondering as im interested in buying this BX TZD but its turned pink, and it just downgrades the whole finish of the car.
Cheers
Simon

DLM · Post by **DLM** » 14 Mar 2005, 16:09

Ah - the "faded red BX" look.
How about some of that coloured polish? Most of the faded red cits/pugs do have a tendency to stay pink once left neglected - but will stay red if properly looked after with regular elbow grease. The BX plastic bonnets and spoilers seem more prone to lose colour than other parts, for some reason.

simonelsey · Post by **simonelsey** » 14 Mar 2005, 16:28

I had a carina ,in red . roof went pink and bonnet , Its the type of paint , the pigment gets bleached by the sun , so The only possible fix , is dont buy a red card , as all red cars will end up like this , I used to polish , wax my carina every month with the red wax colouring , made no difference .

rashmore · Post by **rashmore** » 14 Mar 2005, 16:29

My previous red zx used to be a pain until started to use autoglym polish. give good t cut, then apply a few good layers of super resin polish(red label), then apply a coat of the high gloss (gold label) polish - not supposed to need to polish car as often.
This would work quite well. Would still get swirls in the polish/paint after a while just after polishing, but these would fade away on their own -tried for ages to polish out but no joy - left to the sun/weather. Polished no more than once a month after that, if that, and no more pink (well took longer to come back....

due to paint being human/environment friendly - water based, chemical (lead) free paint...

dan.2cv · Post by **dan.2cv** » 14 Mar 2005, 16:56

Modern solid red cars will not fade due to the base (or colour) coat being coated in clear lacquer. You can tell if you have this by using T cut on an area and the cloth will not come away red.
If your cloth comes away red (generally a much darker shade than the car) then a cutting polish will do the trick. Hard work and about 4 hours by hand will give you a good finish, make sure you seal it by using the wax/polish method rashmore describes. As good as the super resin polish is, it unfortunately does leave smears and I think the only solution is to have the car professionally machine polished ('mopped') which removes the oxidised paint, then applies a layer of a microscopic scratch filler before final sealing with a wax polish. Can be expensive but will pretty much guarantee the paintwork to look brand new unless it has gone too far which is when the only solution is to re-paint.
I worked in a paint shop for a few years and still have all my mopping equipment if you live anywhere near Romford.

ActivaV6uk · Post by **ActivaV6uk** » 14 Mar 2005, 17:05

Dan is there a good method to repairing scratches (ala key) or stone chips, i dont like using touch up paints and they are very difitult to get a good match. i have a silver and dark red activas that are in desperate need of this (local scum (kids)).
Andy

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 14 Mar 2005, 17:14

I read somewhere years ago that its to do with what they used as a red pigment reacting with UV, in the days before clear over base and 2K. There's not much you can do about it other than the occasional cut,lots of waxing, and, if its that important to you, keeping it well out of the sun and the UV rays that do the damage!!!!
Its not helped by Citroen only applying the minimum amount of paint they could get away with- my BX has been polished by its previous owner so often that the paint is now transparent on a lot of the panel edges.
BL damask red used to be very prone to this as well, a lovely colour-it was a darker shade and had more pigment.

dan.2cv · Post by **dan.2cv** » 14 Mar 2005, 17:37

Activa V6:
If the scratch is only light and hasn't gone throught the top coat (which is clear on metallics) you can usually successfully polish them out. if they have gone right through (such as stone chips and key scratches) you have to physically apply paint to get rid of them.
Touch up is one answer, but as someone who's done it hundreds of times the finish is never acceptable to a perfectionist. Short of taking it to the body shop (no, not Anita Roddick's)you should someone like 'chips away' who come round and do all kinds of invisible repairs. Most of the used car places use such guys and the results are usually brilliant and they cost somewhere between £80 and £120 to go round the whole car. It's a lot cheaper then having it done at a body shop.
generally surface scratches temporarily disappear when the car is wet and these are the ones which will polish out. Lightly use 2000 grade wet and dry on ultra clean paintwork until the scratch is gone and then polish out with T cut, or better 3M finesse-it (from paint factors).
Dont flatten out too far, because if you go through the lacquer you'll end up with a dull dark cloud!!

wilkobob · Post by **wilkobob** » 14 Mar 2005, 19:33

I was affraid of that, loads of polishing to keep it red, knowing the problems ive had before (a zx and a bx both in red/pink) and the lengths I went to trying to get them to look ok (aint going through that again). I might steer clear of the pink bx then, and maybe look for something a different colour.
Cheers Simon

bxbodger · Post by **bxbodger** » 14 Mar 2005, 20:17

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">a good method to repairing scratches (ala key) or stone chips<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
This works for straight colours (i.e. non metallics) if you are lucky enough to get a colour match, and is VERY cheap!! Buy a set of kids wax colouring crayons, or steal them from your nearest small child, who, if they are anything like mine, will have a biscuit tin full of hundreds of the things, find the nearest colour match, and rub it into the scratch, building up the thickness and polishing it down repeatedly.
It won't win any concours awards, but is more or less invisible to someone who doesn't know its there.

ActivaV6uk · Post by **ActivaV6uk** » 14 Mar 2005, 21:07

I have a lovely key all the way down the one side of my Diesel project activa and my V6 project has the rear scratched with a key in swerls and zig zags (acros the whole back every part has a scratch!). there all through to the white primer. if i catch them then i may not be posting for a long time as i'll probably kill them...

cornishbx16v · Post by **cornishbx16v** » 14 Mar 2005, 23:57

The only reason for any colour of car to fade is due to poor maintenence, in my time as a a valeter i have seen many many cars left to ruin, decent cars too, all they need is a bit of tlc, if the car is badly faded then it is most likely going to require 'mopping' as mentioned earlier, one way to see is to lightly heat gun the plastic areas of the bodywork as the heat will bring the pigment back to the surface(very handy on badly fadedplastic bumpers!!), which is basically what the mopping is doing to the car, as for anyone who has ever mopped a car will know the paint does get warm!! if nothing happens to the colour of the paint then there is a chance that the paint is too far gone!! however if it comes up lovley then it is important to keep on top of it, i know its not always possible but for colours that have been damaged by the sun etc. they need to be kept clean and tip top, i would say washed weekly and polished twice a month to begin with then down to every 3weeks, and after a while you will find it is a lot easier to keep clean!!! T-cut is good for renovating paint as mention befroe, but i strongly recomend do not use the colour magics as they dont do anygood to the paintwork! a good t-cut / renovater / cutting polish is better and most likely cheaper!!! if you need a really good harsh t-cut then have a look out for Farecla G3 compound, it's excellent at cutting paint back but hard work if done by hand!!! they also do G10 which is super fine finishing polish, also very good for very fine marks!
With the use of autoglym and super resin polish you should'nt be getting 'swirls, if you are then there is a chance that the paint has slightly faded and as the polish has an solvent cut in it then it will bring the shine back, i always suggest 2 coats fo polish on a car as then you are almost garaunteed to cover all the areas of the paint, or that it has been applied to thickly!!! it is also just as important to keep metalic colours clean as the clear coat (laquer) does also fade and loose its shine, most commonly found with the common use of 'whirly gig' car washers found at most petrol stations!
i am in cornwall and more than happy to have a look at any paint issues with anyone down this way if needed!

yangreen · Post by **yangreen** » 15 Mar 2005, 01:05

I had a Pug 205 in red with a pink bonnet. No amount of T cutting could re-red it. I sold it pink.

bikeboyz · Post by **bikeboyz** » 15 Mar 2005, 02:01

The paint on the 504 is 26 years old, and needs a good seeing too. Have tried the Turtlewax top of the range stuff, load of rubbish! Going to T cut with with the metalic type and bought a bottle of Mer. Lets see if the product is as good as the demos they do on the Mini bonnets. If not Halfords can have the bottle back!!

Dave Bamber · Post by **Dave Bamber** » 15 Mar 2005, 02:33

The BX was blessed with a pink bonnet. It's come back to life with T-Cut an 2 coats of polish. I cut one area 12 inches by 12 inches at a time, on a BX bonnet thats about 12 sections. The method I use is an up and down motion then left to right over the same area several times until the T-Cut starts to dry, I then buff off the remainder and move on to the next section. This method has served me well for many years, I'd be interested in cornishbx16v comments to see if I've been doing it right!
I still need to do the roof, which has a huge stain caused by the previous owner pouring polish straight onto the paintwork. At least I can lower the suspension to do it.