Do new red cars fade as badly as old one?

[DKL]

My 944 is red, or rather it was. With a fair amount of elbow grease and wax you can return it to a decent colour but I just wondered if it was red paint per se or just older style paint and stuff from the last 10 years or so doesn't fade so badly?

[BubblesNW]

Pre-1980s cars used heavy metal (cadmium) based paints which lastest really well but were banned due to toxicity. However, Japan kept using them for a few years after everyone else stopped.

In the 1980s and 1990s European car manufacturers used fugitive organic reds which were basically rubbish.

In the late 1990s Ciba developed a new lightfast red which everyone has been using ever since. It's almost as good as the old cadmium reds and a lot less toxic. So new red cars should be OK unless left in equatorial sun for years.

[DKL]

BubblesNW said:

Useful stuff

[ClarkPB]

All cars are clear coated now a days and have been for the last 9 or 10 years now so they won't fade unless the clear coat fails.

[jaedba2604]

was red paint made from beetles or something? I had a cavalier which went a bit pink and someone said it was the beetle dye breaking down, perhaps having me on...

[DKL]

jaedba2604 said:

was red paint made from beetles or something? I had a cavalier which went a bit pink and someone said it was the beetle dye breaking down, perhaps having me on...

cochineal/carmine is what you are thinking of. Crushed beetles - no idea if they used it for paint

[kitchens2]

They only used that paint on VW's

[BubblesNW]

DKL said:

jaedba2604 said:

was red paint made from beetles or something? I had a cavalier which went a bit pink and someone said it was the beetle dye breaking down, perhaps having me on...

cochineal/carmine is what you are thinking of. Crushed beetles - no idea if they used it for paint

It is still used as a food colouring and was used as a red artists' paint in the dim and distant past (it's why old painting have people with white faces, the red has faded away from the pink) but has not been used in car paint.