Do red cars still fade badly?

[thinfourth2]

For a while we had 2 red estate cars

A 98 vintage VW golf which was red

A 03 vintage diastra that was pink

[the-photographer]

My 2006 Golf has been fine.

[justyr]

As someone said earlier 'it's the UV which fades the paint'.

Basically the paint is reacting to high energy photons in a similar way to your skin getting a tan. Consider the visible spectrum being made up of red, green and blue photons. If something is seen red by the human eye, it means that the paint is reflecting red photons back to you - meaning that it is absorbing blue and green.

The energy of a photon is wavelength (colour) dependent, with blue (UV being at the short end of blue) having the most energy:
Energy(photon) = Planck's constant * speed of light/wavelength

Planck's constant and speed of light are constants. Since wavelength is on the denominator, UV/blue light has higher energy than red, and so providing more energy into a chemical reaction is what helps to fade red paint.

Bit of a Brian Cox moment, hope it helps. J

[Johnnytheboy]

My old Puma (now in my father's keep) is red apart from the mirrors and door handles.

Does waxing help protect the colour?

[Alfa GTV]

Red paint still fades, however vauxhall red seems to be the worst I've come across.

Here is my other halfs corsa after a bit of correction work I did on it.







Any red can be corrected and protected, however it will fade back again.

[christofmccracke]

I bought this neglected Lupo to fix and sell over the summer last yea car is over 10 years old and all I did was give it a proper clean, clay,polish and wax it

The last owner hadnt washed it in a year

[Dave Brand]

My 1990 Peugeot 405 didn't fade at all in the eleven years I owned it.

[steelej]

It all depends on the type of paint, single stage red paint without a top clearcoat will fade but modern reds with a clearcoat won't, As far as I know. When you polish a single stage red that's oxidised your polishing pad will turn red meaning that paint is being removed this doesn't happen on clearcoat paints, well it can but you're through the clearcoat at that point

John.

[MarJay]

I always thought that 'red car fade' came in around the late 80's when lead based paints were banned in industry. I always thought that car manufacturers didn't have much time to get their acts together and invent a non-fade lead free substitute. I was under the impression that by the beginning of the last decade they'd got their acts together and now cars don't fade in the same way.

My Sister in law's 90's corsa is now Salmon pink from 'red car fade'.

[Weso]

T0M said:

kiethton said:

most red cars produced in the last year should be ok for the future. When buying my astra i mentioned the fading red paint on some vauxhalls and the salesman said that a completely new colour and type of paint is being used on new red vauxhalls from approx 2007 onwards

To be fair the sales chap was telling the truth, as it was 2007ish when the legislation concerning waterbased basecoats came in, i.e. you had to start using them.

[kiethton]

Weso said:

T0M said:

kiethton said:

most red cars produced in the last year should be ok for the future. When buying my astra i mentioned the fading red paint on some vauxhalls and the salesman said that a completely new colour and type of paint is being used on new red vauxhalls from approx 2007 onwards

To be fair the sales chap was telling the truth, as it was 2007ish when the legislation concerning waterbased basecoats came in, i.e. you had to start using them.

Fair point, i only asked as there was my a brand new version of what would be my car in the show room at the time. i wasn't stupid enough to choose red anyway (it never suited an astra sporthatch sri anyway) so decided to choose the common as muck black

[anonymous-user]

1990 MR2, in super red. Was super pink in reality.

[minimatt1967]

Opulent said:

1990 MR2, in super red. Was super pink in reality.

Even with regular polishing?

[anonymous-user]

minimatt1967 said:

Opulent said:

1990 MR2, in super red. Was super pink in reality.

Even with regular polishing?

Yep. Due to a couple of 4x4's not seeing me, I'd had various parts resprayed, and it REALLY showed up the older paint. The car looked like it had been shotblasted in places. I even asked the guys to give the parts that weren't freshly painted a good mop, but it barely did anything to "redden" it up.

I'll not be having another red car again. (I know the 2 was old, but so is any car I'll be likely to afford. If it were a company car then I may go red, but otherwise it's silver, black or white all the way.)

[Greg_D]

Chicane-UK said:

Does seem to be an 80's / 90's thing! There is 1997 Polo near my friends place which is virtually white from fading. I keep debating coming over with a bottle of Super Resin Polish and just polishing one panel on it

i've got a polo near my favourite curry house that is monumentally badly faded and abused. i have been soooooo close on several occasions to doing just that, but my plan involved swear words polished into various panels, it's not vandalism........

Yes, i am that puerile.

Greg

[kambites]

G0ldfysh said:

03 vauxhall on fibreglass and not faded.

Given that Lotus painted your car, you're quite lucky that the paint hasn't simply fallen off.

[epom]

hahaha