Putting the life back into red.

[MrB.]

I recently purchased an Alfa Romeo GT in Alfa Red (solid colour) and whilst it passes the 50 yard test, you can see that it needs a little rejuvenating. The car is 10 years old and has 90k miles under its wheels, so I’m not looking to do a full paint correction and spend £100’s on it, but I’d like it to look bright again. I have a garage full of Autoglym and have normally followed this procedure;

Snow foam
Power wash rinse
Wash & towel dry
Clay bar
Autoglym Super Resin polish
Autoglym HD wax

I know have a reasonably good DA polisher and think it will be best for applying the polish, but should I move away from the Super Resin? Would there be a better option using the DA Polisher? I’ve read that this is just a “filler” and won’t really take out the minor scratches and rejuvenate. Don’t want to spend a fortune and ideally available from local Halfords or auto factors.

Advice greatly appreciated.

[Mr-B]

If it's a product that you want to get from Halfords, Meguiars Ultimate Compound? Haven't used it myself but it would seem that is the most likely Halfords offering that fits the bill. Search youtube for some review vids before buying, there was one of an old VW Golf they used it on to good effect.

[Rotaree]

I've just used the Meguirs stuff on my badly faded Stag, here's the result after just a couple of minutes by hand. It seems to be very effective and I plan to use it with my machine polisher when I get the time.

[MrB.]

I’ve seen a couple of people use the Megiuars, so will give it a try. Thanks for the help guys.

[227bhp]

I'm finding it hard to believe a 10yr old Alfa hasn't got clear-over-base, are you sure it's solid red?

[Turbotechnic]

If the paint is original it will be clear over base and if it’s faded there’s nothing you can do to bring it back to life apart from respray it. Alfa Romeo used PPG paint of this era and it wasn’t great. I resprayed my 147 because it was fading on the bonnet and roof and that was metallic grey!

[MrB.]

When I say solid red, I mean non-metallic. Also, it's not faded, or oxidized, it's just been through a few too many car washers and just needs some life brought back to it. Its lost its "pop" that red cars can have.

[InitialDave]

Yes, Meguiar's Ultimate Compound is bloody good, I'd say it's about the best thing you'll find in terms of something you can just get immediately off the shelf in Halfords.

I agree that it seems most likely that the car is painted with a clearcoat, you'll easily be able to tell if you compound it as if it's solid colour, you'll get transfer of colour onto the pad. Technically you still do with clear, but, well, it's clear, you can't see it as readily!

Only gotcha with that is if it's your first time touching the paint on a car which us new to you, if someone's used that stupid "coloured" wax previously, you can get what looks like colour transfer from that.

And yes, compounding dulled clear does rejuvenate the finish, though if it's got to the point the clear is actually failing and separating from the base/flaking off, no, it's just done at that point.

Edited by InitialDave on Tuesday 27th August 07:55

[227bhp]

It will be faded, you just don't realise it.