Red car turning pink
Discussion
Its the UV attacking the clear coat, its very common on red cars.
The long term solution is they need respraying with a new coat of clear which will then last for the next 10-15yrs, but on average you're talking about £300 ish per panel thats affected.
You can machine polish and it will sort the problem as a temp fix, but it will return, most likely in a couple of months, maybe a bit longer until the sun comes back next spring.
If you machine polish you are looking at removing the top comprised clear coat lacquer, but remember the lacquer is a finite amount of microns thick so you don't want to be removing too much thats undamaged as it will soon burn through.
If you want to attack it, clean it well first, then wipe it well with a IPA alcohol wipe, often called panel wipe. Then use a DA polisher as a DIY option, get a firm foam pad, use a heavy cutting compound. Do a section 2ft by 2ft, you only want a couple of pea drop sized blobs. Low speed, heavy pressure, keep it moving across vertically then horizontally, check with your hand that you are not generating too much heat. Once you've done a few passes use a clean cloth to wipe the residue and dust off and you should be left with a dull finish but smooth without the chalky oxidisation.
Next move to a medium cutting compound, increase the speed and use less pressure and repeat.
Finally use a soft foam pad and a fine polish, increase the speed again and don't use any pressure.
Each step is removing the scratches you made with the previous step. You should be left with a deep red shine again BUT it will return!
There are a million different compounds, polishes, and opinions that people will have, but the principle is the same, the heavy abrasive compound is removing the compromised, oxidised clear coat, but it leaves its own scratch marks as a result, the next step then removes the previous scratch marks with finer marks until you are left with the polished finish.
Most paint is less than 100 microns in total, thats primer, base and clear, the oxidisation has already destroyed a lot of that so ultimately you can make it look better but once that clear coat lacquer is compromised and rubbed through to the base coat its gone, and is never coming back unless you respray it. The good news is modern lacquers have a lot more UV protection nowadays, so it's a one off respray job.
Just of note - I'm getting a lot of these through at the moment as a result of Covid when cars where parked on a drive in the same direction all the time with the sun attacking the same panels relentlessly. For future prevention, change the direction its parked on the drive or street, and park under shade if you have a red car!
The long term solution is they need respraying with a new coat of clear which will then last for the next 10-15yrs, but on average you're talking about £300 ish per panel thats affected.
You can machine polish and it will sort the problem as a temp fix, but it will return, most likely in a couple of months, maybe a bit longer until the sun comes back next spring.
If you machine polish you are looking at removing the top comprised clear coat lacquer, but remember the lacquer is a finite amount of microns thick so you don't want to be removing too much thats undamaged as it will soon burn through.
If you want to attack it, clean it well first, then wipe it well with a IPA alcohol wipe, often called panel wipe. Then use a DA polisher as a DIY option, get a firm foam pad, use a heavy cutting compound. Do a section 2ft by 2ft, you only want a couple of pea drop sized blobs. Low speed, heavy pressure, keep it moving across vertically then horizontally, check with your hand that you are not generating too much heat. Once you've done a few passes use a clean cloth to wipe the residue and dust off and you should be left with a dull finish but smooth without the chalky oxidisation.
Next move to a medium cutting compound, increase the speed and use less pressure and repeat.
Finally use a soft foam pad and a fine polish, increase the speed again and don't use any pressure.
Each step is removing the scratches you made with the previous step. You should be left with a deep red shine again BUT it will return!
There are a million different compounds, polishes, and opinions that people will have, but the principle is the same, the heavy abrasive compound is removing the compromised, oxidised clear coat, but it leaves its own scratch marks as a result, the next step then removes the previous scratch marks with finer marks until you are left with the polished finish.
Most paint is less than 100 microns in total, thats primer, base and clear, the oxidisation has already destroyed a lot of that so ultimately you can make it look better but once that clear coat lacquer is compromised and rubbed through to the base coat its gone, and is never coming back unless you respray it. The good news is modern lacquers have a lot more UV protection nowadays, so it's a one off respray job.
Just of note - I'm getting a lot of these through at the moment as a result of Covid when cars where parked on a drive in the same direction all the time with the sun attacking the same panels relentlessly. For future prevention, change the direction its parked on the drive or street, and park under shade if you have a red car!
Edited by DaveF-SkinnysAutos on Saturday 7th November 17:05
Paulprior said:
Great response Dave, thank you ?
On the DA sanders I see 6 to 20mm throw, is there a preference for large areas ?, also, just to do this one job do I need one of the expensive models or something basic ?
Ok, we are going to get into a messy world now with no right answers! Everyone has their own opinions on what's best in the detailing world, and its full of 'magic bean' salesmen, but.....On the DA sanders I see 6 to 20mm throw, is there a preference for large areas ?, also, just to do this one job do I need one of the expensive models or something basic ?
The gold standard DIY machine is the DAS 6 readily available if you google it, and no doubt there will be some Black Friday offers in the coming weeks, its sort of the default DIY machine, middle of the road throw, not the cheapest, but not stupid money either. It's been around a long time and isn't a cheap TEMU special. There are two models, the cheaper one you will see is 9mm throw I think, its badged as the introductory machine, then they do a slightly more expensive one which I think they call the PRO, its a 15mm throw. The 15mm is the sweet spot really, but you will achieve good results with 9mm, its just a bit more work on your part, but equally more forgiving on the edges.
To be clear, you don't want a DA sander, thats a different beast, you want a DA machine polisher.
Just remember, the UV properties of the clear coat are compromised, it's on its last legs, it will eventually start to peel in sections. Polishing will bring back a really nice red again, but it has no ability to resist future UV so the newly polished section will oxidise again, you can put a ceramic coat on the top and that will fingers crossed give you 12-24 months, if you just polish its 3-4 months.
I do this for a living, I want to be clear, the only long term solution is new lacquer, but you will improve it if you want to have a play with cutting and polishing.
My 90's Saab 900 suffered with this - I did discover one wing had been resprayed with no clearcoat & the polishing cloth went pink very quickly!
I did it all by hand with Farecla G3 & it did clean up, but as you say it's always coming back.
It wasn't as bad as this Renault I photographed a few years back in France - the surface had gone completely & was rough to the touch.
Good luck with it!
I did it all by hand with Farecla G3 & it did clean up, but as you say it's always coming back.
It wasn't as bad as this Renault I photographed a few years back in France - the surface had gone completely & was rough to the touch.
Good luck with it!
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